BlueFossils Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Is this an astragalus to perhaps an insectivore, squirrel, or other type of rodent? Found in the Nebraska badlands – private ranch – early Oligocene, Brule Formation, Orella Member, about 20 feet above the Upper Purplish White (UPW) ash layer – a Harvester ant mound specimen. The bone (3 to 4 mm in length) has a rounded end which I never seen before on any astragulus. Two specimens photo’ed in this post. Any help in ID’ing this fossil would be greatly appreciated, Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 This bone looks familiar to me, but I just can not place it at the moment. I am pretty certain it is not an astragalus (or any such foot bone). Calcanea often have a projecting, rounded end like that but I don't believe it is that either. In you second photo you can see it has a plane of symmetry that runs the length of it (up to down in the picture). I am thinking this could be a vertebral element, maybe reptilian, but that is not based on any concrete evidence at the moment, just a vague hunch from the back of my brain . I will continue to look for an example if I can find one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 I see the same things as ClearLake sees... symmetry, ball end... but, man , it is weird. I bet vertebra of some sort. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueFossils Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 3 hours ago, ClearLake said: This bone looks familiar to me, but I just can not place it at the moment. I am pretty certain it is not an astragalus (or any such foot bone). Calcanea often have a projecting, rounded end like that but I don't believe it is that either. In you second photo you can see it has a plane of symmetry that runs the length of it (up to down in the picture). I am thinking this could be a vertebral element, maybe reptilian, but that is not based on any concrete evidence at the moment, just a vague hunch from the back of my brain . I will continue to look for an example if I can find one. Thank you, found about 10 of these fossils - went through a lot ant mound matrix - so it's not common find. I went through several of the fossil snake and lizard books by J. Alan Holman, but I have no luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bones Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 @MarcoSr might be able to help here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 3 hours ago, old bones said: @MarcoSr might be able to help here. I've found dozens of specimens (see two in the pictures below), similar to the ones in this thread, on the M&M Ranch in Nebraska in anthills on late Eocene/early Oligocene strata. I sent them to a squamate researcher in Germany along with the thousands of other lizard, legless lizard, and snake specimens that I found in the anthills. I wasn't really sure what they were, but I thought that they were probably lizard/legless lizard vertebrae. Unfortunately all of these specimens are still waiting to be described. Specimen 1 L 4mm W 3.5mm H 1.5mm Specimen 2 L 2.5mm W 1.5mm H 1mm Marco Sr. 3 "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueFossils Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 Thank you for the information, wow, your photo's are excellent of these fossils. I'm just starting to go through the material that I collected about 20 years ago from the old Pettipiece Ranch - just retired so I have plenty of time now. The amount of lizard/snake micro-fossils is amazing and thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 Interesting... I also have stuff from the Pettipiece Ranch, from oh, about 20 years ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 I e-mailed my pictures of my two specimens from this thread to the squamate researcher in Germany and asked if he could ID them. Below is his response. "Indeed, those are squamate axes, and more specifically worm lizard axes." Marco Sr. 4 "Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day." My family fossil website Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros My Extant Shark Jaw Collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 That is awesome to get that ID! What’s even better, I had to go look up to see if I could find a picture of one online. I didn’t find just the axis, but I did find these pictures of worm lizard skeletons, look at that skull!!! I have got to get one of those for my collection!! And I learned, that a few species of worm lizards still retain their legs. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueFossils Posted October 19, 2023 Author Share Posted October 19, 2023 On 10/17/2023 at 2:54 PM, MarcoSr said: I e-mailed my pictures of my two specimens from this thread to the squamate researcher in Germany and asked if he could ID them. Below is his response. "Indeed, those are squamate axes, and more specifically worm lizard axes." Marco Sr. That's great hard to find information - definitely adding this to my fossil notes - Thanks again!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueFossils Posted October 19, 2023 Author Share Posted October 19, 2023 On 10/17/2023 at 4:04 PM, ClearLake said: That is awesome to get that ID! What’s even better, I had to go look up to see if I could find a picture of one online. I didn’t find just the axis, but I did find these pictures of worm lizard skeletons, look at that skull!!! I have got to get one of those for my collection!! And I learned, that a few species of worm lizards still retain their legs. Time to review my micro-fossil collection - wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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