Stormywx Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 I believe this is also part of a Mosasaur, but unlike the 100 other vertebrae I have, this one is concave on both ends. All of the other are convex on one end and concave on the other. It does not appear to have been broken off on either end. The piece appears agatized all over which would suggest that it was not broken )at least to me) If this is from a mosasaur, is it a vertebrae, or some other part of the animal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 I believe both ends being concave tends to point to mammal bones. I think that Reptiles have the ball and socket type configuration to their vertebrae. Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhysicist Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Looks like one of the uncommon finds from NSR - a plesiosaur vertebra. They are cylindrical and amphicoelous (concave both ends). @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon 1 3 "Argumentation cannot suffice for the discovery of new work, since the subtlety of Nature is greater many times than the subtlety of argument." - Carl Sagan "I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." - Richard Feynman Collections: Hell Creek Microsite | Hell Creek/Lance | Dinosaurs | Sharks | Squamates | Post Oak Creek | North Sulphur River | Lee Creek | Aguja | Permian | Devonian | Triassic | Harding Sandstone Instagram: @thephysicist_tff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 I see the two holes on the bottom edge... plesiosaur. They are generally flat on both ends, but can be sightly concave. Nice find. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 10 hours ago, ThePhysicist said: Looks like one of the uncommon finds from NSR - a plesiosaur vertebra. They are cylindrical and amphicoelous (concave both ends). @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Definitely, as has been said, a plesiosaur vertebra. These can be amphiplatean to platycoelous (see image below; source), whereas mosasaur vertebrae are procoelous. And while the subcentral foramina that are normally such a give-away for plesiosaur vertebrae aren't that visible in this specimen, two foramina can be spotted below where the neural arch would've attached. These aren't present in all species, however, do occur in some (unfortunately, I wouldn't know which in context of NSR). Again, as has been mentioned, this is an uncommon find for NSR, so well done! 2 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormywx Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 So Many thanks to all of you. I'm tickled pink to find this out. I found this 30 years ago, and as I was rearranging my collection to include a good friends pieces, I noticed again that this did not look like all the rest. I had no clue that it was not a mosasaur. It's great to find that out. I do appreciate the help. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormywx Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 Well now that I know what to look for, I think I found a few more plesiosaur vertebrae. Here are three of the five total I found hiding in my collection. From the size of these bones, I feel like this was a pretty big animal. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 1 hour ago, Stormywx said: Well now that I know what to look for, I think I found a few more plesiosaur vertebrae. Here are three of the five total I found hiding in my collection. From the size of these bones, I feel like this was a pretty big animal. These are indeed all plesiosaur fossils! Very cool, and well-recognised! Especially the biggest one is really interesting, as it has part of its neural arch still attached! 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared C Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Really cool find. As far as I've heard, there have only been a couple full blown plesiosaur excavations on the NSR and its tributaries. One of them done through the Texas through time museum, which isn't exactly the most research oriented institution, and one through SMU that only yielded a very partial skeleton. Ozan formation plesiosaurs are definitely rare animals. 1 “Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormywx Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 Thanks! Would never have known without site input. All help is genuinely appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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