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Isle of Wight Bone


Welsh Wizard

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Hi

 

Can anyone help in iding this bone.

 

Its from Brook Bay, Isle of Wight. Lower Cretaceous.

 

thanks

 

Nick

40295B73-4469-4AA6-8300-41BEF66855BE.jpeg

13A8EC47-56BF-4FF2-9CBB-32A80EB06EB0.jpeg

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I brightened two of the images for your that I think are the most relevant. Because I think this looks very much like a braincase. A dinosaur braincase actually. It seems to show some similarities to Ornithopod. Which could mean Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus. I'm gonna do some more digging though.

 

Probably lateral left side. The main reason I think this is a braincase are those rounded holes that are a little in the shadow. These seem to be natural and it fits with Ornithopod braincase. And it doesn't seem to resemble Theropod or Sauropod.

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Probably posterior side. The matrix would be the foramen magnum that enters into the brain.

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Here's a partial Iguanodon braincase from the London Natural History Museum as reference. It's hard to see from the photos, but see if you can't line up those holes on your specimen as those should be the holes for the different nerves. This piece is not very complete though.

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Though I don't have any other Iguanodontian examples. Hadrosaurs should work well enough for as examples as their braincases are fairly similar.

Asian Lambeosaurine Amurosaurus

braincase01.thumb.jpg.6a199a747700320c158e0436e45cd64a.jpg

 

Asian Lambeosaurine Olorotitan

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So yeah, if I'm correct than you have a pretty cool find on your hands, again.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Thanks Olaf for a brilliant response.

 

I thought it could be a partial crocodile skull or partial ankylosaur skull but wasn’t sure. It’s quite symmetrical which had me confused but it seems to contain some skull bones like a quadrate. Interestingly, the three holes go right through to the other side. The first photo I posted is looking down on the bone and the second photo is the opposite side ie the equivalent underside. They are pretty similar apart from one side is orange and the other side is pyritic.

 

I’ll have a look at your pictures and do some searching.

 

Thanks 

 

Nick

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1 hour ago, Welsh Wizard said:

It’s quite symmetrical which had me confused but it seems to contain some skull bones like a quadrate.

If my ID is correct then the quadrate doesn't seem to be included.

 

1 hour ago, Welsh Wizard said:

Interestingly, the three holes go right through to the other side. The first photo I posted is looking down on the bone and the second photo is the opposite side ie the equivalent underside.

They should if it's a braincase. Or rather, there should be mirror holes on both sides.

It might look like they are opposite sides of the same holes, but they'd be mirror holes on either side that enter the brain.

Your first photo would be the left side. The second would be the right side view I think from a slightly lower angle. The third photo I think is the back/posterior side where the neural canal enters the brain. The fourth photo would be the top of the braincase I think. I suspect there's a hole filled with matrix on the front side. Perhaps you can post a photo of that? So that would be the opposite side of the third photo.

 

 

Great find!

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Thanks again.

 

Heres a photo of the other side.

 

Theres a large hole filled with sediment that I’ve been removing slowly.

 

Nick

 

 

770B216F-227A-4120-8E37-0E0EDABC0B29.jpeg

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Another of the other side. Slightly better angle. I’ll do some more later as if I understand correct, what I think are the sides are the top and bottom and visa versa.

 

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Holy carp yeah. That's definitely a braincase.

 

I suggest you get this CT scanned. That will likely give a good picture of what the brain looked like. It looks like you have roughly just over half of the actual brain. The front is missing. But with CT scans you could get lots of detail on where the different nerves enter the brain and this can be very helpful in identifying the species as these things can vary a lot.

If you get it CT scanned I'd be happy to help with converting those segment images to 3D models that you could then 3D print if you wanted.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Okay here's a really good paper that might be useful for you. It has some fantastic drawings of "Iguanodon" atherfieldensis (now Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis) that includes the braincase.

 

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbiblio.naturalsciences.be%2Frbins-publications%2Fbulletin-of-the-royal-belgian-institute-of-natural-sciences-earth-sciences%2F56-1986%2Fbulletin-9&fname=IRScNB_P4084_00C17AP_56_Bulletin 9 -red.pdf&pdf=true

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Thanks. That’s a really useful paper. Interestingly, I contacted David Norman yesterday. Just waiting for a reply. If I hear anything I’ll let you know.

 

Nick

 

 

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Amazing find! :)

Congratulations. 

And great work from Olaf, too! 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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