Vertebra?

[Comatose]

Found on a recent trip to the peace river when I put it in my bag I was thinking vertebrae but after I got home I have my doubts.

Foot or wrist bone? I can’t find any match’s and was hoping someone better at identifying fossil than me would have an idea!

Thank you  in advance .

 

[shark57]

Definitely not a vertebra (note the spelling here, vertebrae is plural). Hard for me tell if it's bone or not - let's see what others think.

[C2fossils]

Looks geologic to me.

 

 

-Cal

[rocket]

sorry, no vertebrae or fossil at all 

[Comatose]

Thanks for the replies 

I’ll take some close up pics with a digital microscope when I get home.

 

If it’s just a cool rock I’m good with that if it’s bone I’m good with that too!! 

[jpc]

HI comatose, from here in Casper.  Like the others said, this is not a fossil.  Sorry.  

[Comatose]

Thanks just wasn’t sure I did find a lot of other really cool fossils 

I go down to Florida all the time just to search for fossils mainly shark teeth and other mammal fossils 

[jpc]

cool. I was there a few years ago for a wedding ... at Venice Beach just by luck.  Been on the peace twice over the years.  Good luck down there.  

 

[digit]

On 12/8/2024 at 8:43 PM, Comatose said:

Found on a recent trip to the peace river when I put it in my bag I was thinking vertebrae but after I got home I have my doubts.

These are actually reasonably common in the Peace River. These little concretions often have this pattern of rings on them. They may well be phosphate nodules but I've just been calling them "fossilized mud" for years. Many moons ago I took a friend's family out hunting on the Peace. His son was fascinated with the concentric geometric designs on these and when I told him they were just fossilized mud (geologic and not biologic in origin) he decided he was going to collect these and have the world's best collection of these. I think he may have mad hid goal as he came away with 30-40 of these by the end of the day, I have a few of these hiding somewhere in the house but it would take me time to remember where I stashed them.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Comatose]

Thank you 

we found lots of fossils I fly down as often as I can to hunt shark teeth and beat the cold

 
That makes sense to me just stood out as something I couldn’t identify 

 

I’ve got a few shark teeth I found that I think I know what they are I’ll make a new post and see what people can make of them 

 

i just found this forum so I’m sure everyone will get tired of me posting questions but everyone seams nice about comments 

 

 

[digit]

3 hours ago, Comatose said:

That makes sense to me just stood out as something I couldn’t identify 

My first time in the Peace River was with a river guide (Mark Renz). He had a big group that day as he had appeared on a TV program and achieved overnight stardom (actually, just a huge surge in clients for a short time). He told us all to keep anything that seemed interesting and he'd have a look. He made the rounds answering questions and identifying our finds. He looked at one item I had saved and he asked me why I had kept that instead of throwing it back. I answered that it just looked "biological" with no other understanding beyond that. It turned out to be a really nice cetacean ear bone (tympanic bulla). He said virtually everybody else out that day would likely have tossed it and said I had a good eye for fossils. Nice to get a compliment as a beginner.

 

Often the most interesting finds are the most obscure and odd looking. Mark always said that you can toss back a "leaverite" but you can't (usually) get back a rare fossil that is pitched before understanding what it is. When you are hunting in unfamiliar territory it is usually a good idea to keep mystery items like yours. You can learn something even if what you learn is that it is "just a rock".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Comatose]

2 hours ago, digit said:

My first time in the Peace River was with a river guide (Mark Renz). He had a big group that day as he had appeared on a TV program and achieved overnight stardom (actually, just a huge surge in clients for a short time). He told us all to keep anything that seemed interesting and he'd have a look. He made the rounds answering questions and identifying our finds. He looked at one item I had saved and he asked me why I had kept that instead of throwing it back. I answered that it just looked "biological" with no other understanding beyond that. It turned out to be a really nice cetacean ear bone (tympanic bulla). He said virtually everybody else out that day would likely have tossed it and said I had a good eye for fossils. Nice to get a compliment as a beginner.

 

Often the most interesting finds are the most obscure and odd looking. Mark always said that you can toss back a "leaverite" but you can't (usually) get back a rare fossil that is pitched before understanding what it is. When you are hunting in unfamiliar territory it is usually a good idea to keep mystery items like yours. You can learn something even if what you learn is that it is "just a rock".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I have almost the same story but I was with Fred from paleo discoveries about 5 or six years ago with this

[Plantguy]

1 hour ago, digit said:

My first time in the Peace River was with a river guide (Mark Renz). He had a big group that day as he had appeared on a TV program and achieved overnight stardom (actually, just a huge surge in clients for a short time). He told us all to keep anything that seemed interesting and he'd have a look. He made the rounds answering questions and identifying our finds. He looked at one item I had saved and he asked me why I had kept that instead of throwing it back. I answered that it just looked "biological" with no other understanding beyond that. It turned out to be a really nice cetacean ear bone (tympanic bulla). He said virtually everybody else out that day would likely have tossed it and said I had a good eye for fossils. Nice to get a compliment as a beginner.

 

Often the most interesting finds are the most obscure and odd looking. Mark always said that you can toss back a "leaverite" but you can't (usually) get back a rare fossil that is pitched before understanding what it is. When you are hunting in unfamiliar territory it is usually a good idea to keep mystery items like yours. You can learn something even if what you learn is that it is "just a rock".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Hey Ken, I know I'm going against the consensus on this again but I agree it looks banded rock/concretionary but it sure looks alot like a fragment of dugong bone to me with their not always apparent banding/growth rings....not sure what actual bone type it would be but I wondering what you and others think about that possibility...

 

I'm wondering if you @Comatose was to wet the bone and get a magnifying glass if you would see a more pronounced boney nature to it.. Look at the very edges where the water wear/rounding is the least. 

Here's a corner of the unknown to look at to start...does it look like my sample below???

 

Here's the best piece I've very found...you can see the growth rings and the boney nature thru out...

 

 

 

Regards, Chris 

 

 

 

 

[Comatose]

16 minutes ago, Plantguy said:

Hey Ken, I know I'm going against the consensus on this again but I agree it looks banded rock/concretionary but it sure looks alot like a fragment of dugong bone to me with their not always apparent banding/growth rings....not sure what actual bone type it would be but I wondering what you and others think about that possibility...

 

I'm wondering if you @Comatose was to wet the bone and get a magnifying glass if you would see a more pronounced boney nature to it.. Look at the very edges where the water wear/rounding is the least. 

Here's a corner of the unknown to look at to start...does it look like my sample below???

 

Here's the best piece I've very found...you can see the growth rings and the boney nature thru out...

 

 

 

Regards, Chris 

 

 

 

 

It does

[digit]

9 hours ago, Plantguy said:

Hey Ken, I know I'm going against the consensus on this again but I agree it looks banded rock/concretionary but it sure looks alot like a fragment of dugong bone to me with their not always apparent banding/growth rings....not sure what actual bone type it would be but I wondering what you and others think about that possibility...

Nothing wrong about going against consensus--as long as there is a solid line of reasoning.

 

It is true that some dugong rib bones (which are solid through to the core with no cancellous [spongy] interior) can show growth rings much like a tree. I would have expected those lines to be more evenly spaced around the center. The core of this appears to be well of to one side with more growth in one direction than the other.

 

 

Given the new imagery along the edge showing the striated texture we'd expect in cortical bone, I hereby reverse my opinion and start a new consensus along with Cris.

 

 

This does appear to be a small fragment of dugong rib bone. Dugongs (and modern manatees) have oversized rib bones that are solid to their core making them dense and heavy. This allows the big blubbery sirenians to be able to sink to the bottom where they can graze on seagrasses. Because these bones do not have the spongy cancellous interior of most other bones, they preferentially fossilize quiet well and are a common find in the Peace. Other mammal bones with the spongy interior are more fragile and often split lengthwise into shards which then become unrecognizable. Dugong ribs tend to fracture crosswise leaving them in solid round lengths. This appears to be a smaller fragment of one of those rib bones--a chip off the old dugong one might say (if they had a tendency to be silly). 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[Comatose]

Great discussion!! 
 

it’s not that big of a deal I was just curious as to what it was.

I have learned a couple things from this 

 

1) There are good people on here wanting to help and give options to people that are not as informed 

2) Take better pictures the first time around  

 
I’ve got a couple other shark teeth I’m not 100% on the identification I’ll post later when I’m off work 

 

Thanks everyone, Chad 

[Plantguy]

14 hours ago, Comatose said:

I have almost the same story but I was with Fred from paleo discoveries about 5 or six years ago with this

I missed this last night ...Can we see better pictures of this with a scale?...kind of looks like a irregularly shaped/rounded phosphate pebble which we have plenty of and/or possibly one of my more favorite hyperostosis inflated tilly bones from our area--the ovoid/circular opening almost making it look like a really deformed fish vert..

Regards, Chris 

[Plantguy]

14 hours ago, Comatose said:

It does

Comatose, Thanks for the closeup and additional photos.

 

Regards, Chris 

[digit]

4 hours ago, Plantguy said:

or possibly one of my more favorite hyperostosis inflated tilly bones from our area

Ding! Ding! Ding! A Tilly for sure.

 

You can still see the normal part of the vert in the middle and the rest of the puffy material is the hyperostotic bone making it look like tooth-cracking popcorn.

 

Good discussion on these here:

 

https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/82640-tilly-bone-fossils/

 

As a bit of background, these (hyperostosed) bones are named after Tilly Edinger. She was a brilliant scientist and never got the recognition she deserved. You may enjoy reading a bit here:

 

https://www.museumoftheearth.org/daring-to-dig/bio/edinger

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Comatose]

6 hours ago, Plantguy said:

I missed this last night ...Can we see better pictures of this with a scale?...kind of looks like a irregularly shaped/rounded phosphate pebble which we have plenty of and/or possibly one of my more favorite hyperostosis inflated tilly bones from our area--the ovoid/circular opening almost making it look like a really deformed fish vert..

Regards, Chris 

Yes when I get home 

should I start a new post?

[Comatose]

7 hours ago, Plantguy said:

I missed this last night ...Can we see better pictures of this with a scale?...kind of looks like a irregularly shaped/rounded phosphate pebble which we have plenty of and/or possibly one of my more favorite hyperostosis inflated tilly bones from our area--the ovoid/circular opening almost making it look like a really deformed fish vert..

Regards, Chris 

[Fin Lover]

Yep, a Tilly bone

[Plantguy]

46 minutes ago, Comatose said:

Thanks for the additional photos...yes its pretty beat up but it does look to be whats left of a tilly vert...cool!

Regards, Chris