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I was in a Texas museum yesterday and was looking at a case of primarily pleistocene fossils.  This vertebrae was labeled mastodon, but really doesn't look like any mastodon vertebrae that I've seen.  We don't generally find whale vertebrae where i look for fossils, but this hits me and I definitely don't know whale, as possibly whale?  Vertical thickness is approximately 4-5 inches, 10-12cm.  There is no other labeling other than mastodon.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, dark lighting and a hand held camera.

P1040860 (2).JPG

P1040855.JPG

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I was sort of hoping this would be IDed before I lost patience, but I'm inclined to think it is labeled correctly but missing many diagnostic features.

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Thanks Carl!  My problem with mastodon is that when I look at digital mastodon vertebra online (like the Buesching mastodon in the university of Michigan database, which is a mature male) the centrum are always less than 3 inches thick, with the articulation surface measurement much larger making the side view more rectangular. This vertebra almost looks square. Also the neural canal is small, where in probuscans it is large.

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I've attached screen shots of mastodon thoracic, lumbar, and cervical along with their centrum measurements in cm.

mastodon  thoracic 10.jpg

mastodon lumbar 3.jpg

mastodon cervical 4.jpg

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