The Tiny Bones Project

[Balance]

 “Tiny Bones Project” 

 

So these little perissodactal and artiodactal carpals and tarsals are a tricky bunch to navigate. I'm only dealing with 5-6 species so far and it’s already bonkers. As such making a thread dedicated to the  ID’s of some more common fossil finds seemed worth making. Especially since this project involves making a “touch Catalog” and photo library of them for me to use in future ID’s. Why not share the information?

Lord knows I’m getting plenty from y’all!
 

When the results of a group are completed, and have been reviewed by the forum, I’ll post the  final revised report and photos here. My idea for this thread is to compile the various existing photo examples of these bones from TFF and the new photos of these bones from my collection. Once my stash is exhausted I’ll hunt for others to study and if TFF members have examples I don’t they can post what they want to add and share too. 
 

Finding “exploded” joint images to study these bones individually online proved unsuccessful. Most studies are interested in the articulated version of these groups. So searching for individual bone examples leads you right back to our own Harry and his incredible image galleries. Hopefully I can merge new stock photos with Harry’s confirmed gallery images and also include the bone images often presented for ID that Harry’s galleries are used to authenticate. 
 

Harry's post show up in Google because his galleries are used to ID so many things. We search specific things so we just end up back at Harry after a few clicks. If TFF is the end location for identification of carpals and tarsals let’s collaborate the efforts into one powerhouse of an ID catalog. 
 

This project got its start because I have been looking for random carpal and tarsal fossils for an Equus sp lower limb articulation project. I quickly learned getting positive ID’s when trying to purchase these types of fossil are not common. Most are listed generically or even incorrectly. So I figured I’d document the hunt to look back on later.
 

The Equus project needed a single bone from a large auction lot of mixed fossils. After a good bit of rationalization I realized buying 50 bones to get 1 was a little silly. However, I had roughly ID’d several “shapes” of scaphoid bones which got me interested. Then I realized I had multiple versions of the same bones in various stages of erosion and that’s when the idea light came on. “Buy them all and learn from it!” 
 

So the main goal is identifying, labeling and photographing. With attention added  to photos  that can show multiple erosion level examples together. 
 

Gonna take a bit but that’s why I have lots of projects. Little here. Little there. And every now and then I’ll upload a new group for review. Im learning so be patient! If I use a word incorrectly or need revision it’s ok! Just tell me and I will happily increase my brain mass and correct the thread. It does need to be cohesive and I will need assistance with. 
 

Keep the faith and try to do good!

 

Jp

 

Disclaimer: Do not watch this video with and kind of beverage in your mouth as my pronunciation of these words is most likely laughable 😊. I also called the camel unciforms, pisiforms and had already cleaned up before I realized it.

Pisi about that blunder to say the least. 😉

 

 

[ClearLake]

Interesting idea.  Since you live in Florida, would it be possible to access the University of Florida vertebrate collections and go there to photograph ones you don't have (if they are not already in their digital archives)?  I don't know what their policy is for access, but @digit might have some knowledge on that.  Just a thought, but maybe I am misunderstanding your intent.

[Balance]

@ClearLake absolutely. I want to eventually take the lot of identified carpals and tarsals to the Florida museum and compare to in hand known examples. Harry has a post where he explains he did that. Seems the only way to be certain would be to verify at least one of each from hand. 
 

I hadn’t thought of future missing fossils yet because I’m still playing “fossil memory “ with these. 😂 

 

Progress is going faster than expected. I just need to learn this language because my veterinary language limits my fossil search effectiveness. 
 

Jp