Huge vertebra I found last week

[fossilus]

So last week in the heat of SE Texas I decided to go on a kayak trip (It was 102 F).  I didn't find too much but did find this giant thoracic vertebra. 

It's about 25cm, 9.75 in to the top of the processes,  24 cm  (9.25 in) wide across the processes.  It looks different than most of my proboscidian vertebrae that I've found, it has a very round neural channel, like I've often seen in sloth thoracic vertebra. 

It's also stretched vertically. 

The front articular process extends farther out than what I see in my elephant vertebrae (could it be a xenarthra type process?).

It also has rib attachments that are higher on the vertebra, more like sloth than elephant.  

I really just want imput from anyone who has looked at these large vertebrae.

@PrehistoricFlorida

@Harry Pristis

@Shellseeker

@garyc

@Brandy Cole

@JohnJ

[Shellseeker]

My 1st thought is Eremotherium.  You should search on the internet..Eremotherium Vertebra..  Good luck,  Jack

[fossilus]

36 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

My 1st thought is Eremotherium.  You should search on the internet..Eremotherium Vertebra..  Good luck,  Jack

Thanks Jack!

I had already started down that path.  There are not a lot of good photos on Eremotherium vertebrae, but I did find one, recently sold by prehistoric florida.

This screen shot shows left to right, a mastodon (?) thoracic, my find, and their Eremothium vertebra.  Not exactly the same vertebra but there are several similarities, mine is similar sized, maybe a little larger if you discount my missing process.

[Shellseeker]

5 minutes ago, fossilus said:

Thanks Jack!

I had already started down that path.  There are not a lot of good photos on Eremotherium vertebrae, but I did find one, recently sold by prehistoric florida.

This screen shot shows left to right, a mastodon (?) thoracic, my find, and their Eremothium vertebra.  Not exactly the same vertebra but there are several similarities, mine is similar sized, maybe a little larger if you discount my missing process.

Nate (Prehistoric Florida) always has great fossils to sell, and I love finding his photos usually after they have been sold... I save them on my local disk..

GREAT find... Can you imagine a 23 foot Sloth with 20 inch claws...? 

[garyc]

Nice vert Ron! I really can’t tell whether it’s Proboscidean or sloth. I’d love to see side by side comparisons with detailed descriptions on the differences. I did not know that a more round neural canal is indicative of sloth. I will be looking at my verts!

[sjaak]

 I am not familiar with your site and don’t know anything about sloth, but the vertebra looks a bit similar to the mammoth vertebrae that I find from the Northsea, so it could be Proboscidean.  I would love to find sloth though, very interesting animals… 

Edited July 14, 2022 by sjaak

[Brandy Cole]

That's a fantastic vertebra!!!  

 

I've only found one proboscidean and one sloth so far, so I'm not sure how much value I can be.  But when I had a chance to see examples of xenarthran vertebra at UT, they all seemed to share pretty rounded centrums.  So my two (very amateur) cents might lean toward proboscidean on this one.

[fossilus]

So I sent my photos to Richard Hulbert.  His comment was that this was far more likely to have come from a large sloth than proboscidean.  He mentioned Eremotherium as a likely candidate. 

@garyc I should mention that the round neural canal only applies to thoracic and lumbar, not so much caudal vertebrae.

[garyc]

These pics are from the University of Michigan site. I looked at all the vertebrae of mastodon and there is only one that seems to have a quite rounded neural canal, thoracic 14. It seems to have lower rib attachments than yours which would help rule out proboscidean. 

[fossilus]

These are a couple of sloth the first is thoracic (rib attachments) the second lumbar.  You can see that not only is the neural canal round, but it is also very large.

[garyc]

I finally got around to looking through my large verts from the Brazos River. Here’s one that , I think, is similar to @fossilus vert. I had thought it was proboscidean because of size and condition (this is pretty typical appearance of mammoth/mastodon bones that I’ve found). However, with the info presented in this thread regarding circular neural canals and higher rib attachments, I think I too have as large sloth vert!!

[fossilus]

16 hours ago, garyc said:

I finally got around to looking through my large verts from the Brazos River. Here’s one that , I think, is similar to @fossilus I think I too have as large sloth vert!

 

 

 

 

Wow, looks just like mine only you have most of the top process!

[fossilus]

 

Just wanted to post my Eremotherium collection.  The vertebrae are personal finds- 2 caudals, one thoracic.. The astragalus was spotted by my son. 

If I could just find a jaw, or even better a huge claw!

 

 

[Shellseeker]

6 hours ago, fossilus said:

Just wanted to post my Eremotherium collection.  The vertebrae are personal finds- 2 caudals, one thoracic.. The astragalus was spotted by my son. 

If I could just find a jaw, or even better a huge claw!

My Eremotherium collection was minimal until this season.  I have found a couple of nice fossils recently...  The 2nd bone is a carpal....

 

[fossilus]

10 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

My Eremotherium collection was minimal until this season.  I have found a couple of nice fossils recently...  The 2nd bone is a carpal....

 

 

Really nice!