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Friends fossil


Nobodys55

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Well I'd like to I'd this beast but pictures aren't as good as I thought. The fossil is in two pieces. lower Jaw & upper jaw with cranium.imagejpeg_0.jpg.d6d7312cf6713e815a099aea835fb42c.jpg

This is looking down at the top of the head.

image.thumb.jpg.e09820609819c339f7a8ccf62b92ca65.jpgimagejpeg_1.jpg.cc1f2ed2a81dc35f7f21536ba069d9b1.jpg

I will take a couple more after work today & post this evening. Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks guys,

Tracy

 

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I agree with Harry.

 

Very amazing find!

If you're a fossil nut from Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Redondo Beach, or Torrance, feel free to shoot me a PM!

 

 

Mosasaurus_hoffmannii_skull_schematic.png

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As previously stated Oreodont skull and U/K (to me) mandible. They appear to have been varnished, are they from an old collection?   

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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As I look at this mandible with fresh eyes, I am much less certain of my suggestion of Mesohippus.  These fossils are not directly related, but I'm uncertain about the origin of the putative mandible. 

 

Oreodonts have deep jaws - does this?  Oreodonts have triangular canines - check (but that's not an exclusive feature).  Oreodonts have selenodont teeth - no check!  Oreodont mandibles have normal, nearer-vertical (~45 degrees) symphysial joints, not extended nearer-horizontal joints.

 

We need better images of the putative mandible.  Is that extended mandibular symphysis really a frontal bone/palate from a skull?

 

All this speculation, remember, is based on 2-dimensional images, and not enough of them.  

 

 

 

oreodont_florida.JPG

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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The oreodont and associated animals of that age is something I have no knowledge of but .

With the angle of the photos not helping, could there be two different skulls and no mandible shown.

When taking photos of fossils think of it as a dice.

 

Mike

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3 hours ago, Harry Pristis said:

Is that extended mandibular symphysis really a frontal bone/palate from a skull?

 

1 hour ago, Mike from North Queensland said:

 could there be two different skulls and no mandible shown.[?]

 

That is the question.  More images may answer it.

 

 

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here's more pics. Sorry it took so long. Keep in mind that the bottom mandible appears to have been flattened. The teeth on it line up on the one side but not on the other.

IMG_20190108_201426.jpg

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IMG_20190108_201154.jpg

IMG_20190108_201252.jpg

IMG_20190108_201226.jpg

IMG_20190108_201136.jpg

IMG_20190108_201115.jpg

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Pretty incredible how these pieces mate up yet are possibly not from same creature as @Harry Pristis says.  The one part obviously has the brain case.  :popcorn:More popcorn!

"Journey through a universe ablaze with changes" Phil Ochs

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The newer images make the pieces look more like an oreodont.  It appears to be a mandible.  The skull still looks strange.  Maybe the skull is embedded in a rounded chunk of matrix, with the whole thing shellacked.  

  • I found this Informative 1

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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This is certainly an Oreodont skull. Mesohippus lower jaws would feature a diastema gap where teeth are missing behind the incisors. Mesohippus teeth also have a ridge on the crowns running along the outside of their molars. This looks to be a fairly large adult oreodont and will either be a Merycoidodon culbertsoni or potentially an Eporeodon major. The defining factor on Eporeodon is the larger and thicker zygomatic arches which are missing as well as slightly different canines. Hope this helps. 

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