I_gotta_rock Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 I'm trying to ID this for a friend. She found it at the FIsher-Sullivan site in Virginia, from the Virginia Eocene. It's all marine, but there have been snake found there. It's ridiculously small at 4 mm! I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 Snake verts do have the ball and socket articulation. I suspect this could be an amphibian or reptile though. It's not an eel because they are fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patelinho7 Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 @MarcoSr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_gotta_rock Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 42 minutes ago, Rockwood said: Snake verts do have the ball and socket articulation. I suspect this could be an amphibian or reptile though. It's not an eel because they are fish. I know eels are fish. but this site is mostly shark teeth. Eels at least have the same flexible spines. Looks like they have really long process, though. I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fin Lover Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 1 Fin Lover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_gotta_rock Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 @Fin Lover, That's handy! So looks like either snake or turtle, although there aren't any amphibians here to compare. How do you tell which end is front and which end is back? I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcoSr Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 The vertebra is a reptile vertebra with a ball and socket. It is pretty beat up (processes missing) and still partially filled with formation sand, which makes a positive ID from the pictures not possible for me. Sea snake vertebrae, from Palaeophis sea snakes, are very common at the Fisher/Sullivan site. Thousands of Palaeophis vertebrae have been collected there. I know of only two land snake vertebrae collected from the site, which are much larger than this vertebra, and they still haven't been positively identified/named yet, as far as I know. I know of only a couple of lizard vertebrae found at the site. Only a small number of crocodile vertebrae have been found at the site, and they are much larger. Lots of turtle shell fragments and turtle bones have been collected at the site, but I haven't seen a turtle vertebra collected from the site. At least, I've never found one. So heavy odds point to a Palaeophis sea snake vertebra. Marco Sr. 6 "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...
I_gotta_rock Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 Thanks, @MarcoSr! Don't know how I forgot to ask you! I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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