Post Oak Creek North Texas Turtle scute or part of vertebrate?

[aggie1997]

Thanks in advance for your help!

Post Oak Creek, Sherman, Texas.   

 

Turtle scute or part of vertebra?

[ThePhysicist]

Hard to say with this smaller piece, at least it's a "chunkosaur." In turtle shell I usually look for sutures, roughly uniform thickness with flat external surfaces, and a spongey interior, but with a small piece I can't tell if this is a portion of shell or a flat portion of a larger bone.

[hadrosauridae]

Turtle scutes aren't like thick bone, its a thin shell covering.  The outer bony plates of the shell are either part of the plastron (bottom) or carapace (top).  This does look like a bit of turtle shell, but such a small bit cant really be placed.  Lastly, the turtle vertebrae are fused into its carapace.

[ThePhysicist]

9 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

Turtle scutes aren't like thick bone, its a thin shell covering.  The outer bony plates of the shell are either part of the plastron (bottom) or carapace (top).  This does look like a bit of turtle shell, but such a small bit cant really be placed.  Lastly, the turtle vertebrae are fused into its carapace.

Actually...

The turtles from the time can get quite large with thick shells, I haven't personally found definite turtle from POC, but in the WIS there were some big guys. From the nearby and slightly younger NSR:

^ @JarrodB

 

Also, not all vertebrae are fused, namely the cervicals and caudals.

[hadrosauridae]

Well, yes, obvious the neck and tail vertebrae are not fused to the carapace.  

[ThePhysicist]

15 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

Lastly, the turtle vertebrae are fused into its carapace.

 

4 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

Well, yes, obvious the neck and tail vertebrae are not fused to the carapace.  

My apologies, I hastily responded after interpreting your prior comment as an absolute statement.