PeaceRiver 05/01/2024

[Shellseeker]

Itching to go hunting today. For various reasons, normal hunting companions were not available. Decided to go to a place on the Peace River that is easy access,  have not been there in a while , and mostly produces small colorful shark teeth from the Miocene and little else.

 

I did find the colorful teeth,  not as many or as pristine  as previously. Note the silicified shell, urchin spines, and ray teeth. Add in silicified bone and a couple of times in the past , that is 100% of what I found. 

Very little mixing with Pleistocene fauna in this spot. A couple of years back I found a 2 inch blue Meg here hunting with my son and grandson.. The location carries good memories. 

A couple of gator teeth,  a colorful Thresher, a mangled horse tooth... colorful, interesting fossils..

 

 

In my 2nd last sieve,  I found what seems to be a Whale Vert.  Maybe dugong.  Will look at both..

 

But this is a Fossil ID thread... for a toe bone... Excited to find it.. Maybe a Pleistocene mammal fossil did float in here.. 

This toe bone  "seems" familiar , I hope some one can match it to a mammal..    

 

 

[Mikrogeophagus]

Nice thresher!

[Shellseeker]

My initial finds similar Distal toe bones (Unguals) for Deer,  Bison and Modern Cow..

Here is Deer .. 

One of @Harry Pristis great charts to differentiate Bison ungual from Modern cow ungual. I think mine is closer to Bison front ungual plus broken 32 mm would be whole near 40 mm.  My seems too long to be deer. I do not "think" it is Bison... still searching.

[Shellseeker]

In my 2nd last sieve,  I found what seems to be a Whale Vert.  Maybe dugong.  Will look at both..

 

When he saw the photos,  partner Steve was pretty unequivocal for Dugong. I am thinking he might be right.  Very tough to differentiate a centrum to either Whale or Dugong...

 

 

Note: NO "heart" shape,  and those conspicuous bumps on upper edge.

[Shellseeker]

Here is an interest TFF thread...

The one on the left seems very similar to my "ungual" ,  but I think Troodon got it right "these are pre and post zygapohyses processes of vertebrae."   It makes more sense for a site dominated by Miocene marine fossils.  

[ClearLake]

Jack, great finds as always, love the large collection of teeth you get most every trip. 

 

On you "toe" bone, I'm thinking it is not that.  The surface that should be articulating with the metacarpals looks like a broken surface to me on your bone (the high, triangular end).   I'm going to suggest it is one of the dorsal articular processes on a cervical vertebra of something large like a horse  (or maybe bigger) as shown in the top picture where the black arrows are pointing..  Attached are two closeup pictures I took of what I am thinking.  These are from the cervical vertebrae of a horse and I'm sorry they are not more clear, but it is articulated and I couldn't find a loose one right away.  But hopefully you'll get the idea.  The process in this case is about 2" long, maybe a bit more.  The picture on the right is meant to show the flat, articulating surface which I think is similar to the flat surface on your specimen.  Yours is higher and more triangular so it is probably not a horse, but that was the biggest I have handy.  Food for thought for you.

 

Edit: I did not initially go to that last post, but I see I am saying pretty much the same thing as Trodon.  Excuse the repetition.

 

MIke

 

 

Edited May 2 by ClearLake

[Shellseeker]

4 hours ago, ClearLake said:

Yours is higher and more triangular so it is probably not a horse, but that was the biggest I have handy.  Food for thought for you.

 

Edit: I did not initially go to that last post, but I see I am saying pretty much the same thing as Trodon.  Excuse the repetition.  MIke

 

Mike,  

Thanks for the discussion...  It is like when when you are tossing out ideas on how to approach a problem with a couple of friends...  I throw out a theory and it gets knocked down .. (and that is good because I move on to the next theory more quickly

 

The best description of the location is that it contains crumbly limestone rock, that breaks up using my shovel,  and exposes the colored skark teeth, urchin spines, ray teeth, and bone fragments in my sieve.. 

I have this Tridactyl horse vert on the table next to me...  You would think I could have recognized the flat surface of the process... 

 

Because of the limited fauna I  find here, I am thinking Miocene marine mammal vert and being small (30+ mm), choices might be limited to river dolphin..  I'll waste some energy, trying to ID Dolphin vert process as similar... before I give up....   Thanks for keeping the topic going in my mind... Jack