Turtle Puzzle Parts

[Foshunter]

The Sulphur River gives and also takes away. Large pieces of bone is often fractured and pieces wash down stream never to be found or end up in other collections which is good. Back in my early years of collecting I would find bone that was flat and thick, of which I didn't have a clue as what it was. Dallas Paleo asked for Sulphur R. fossils to publish in their Sulphur River Book, that is when I found out what they were. Cretaceous turtles had a bottom bone plate called a plastron, that is what I was finding. The largest pieces shown are 10 inches in length and yes I commited the greatest sin for not including a coin for measurment purposes. Included are photo's of predator bitten pieces, which I like. I think everything in the Cretaceous sea had long sharp teeth, would have been an interesting place to body surf. One of our members, that hasn't hunted the Cretaceous, asked for pictures of a complete specimen so they could get an idea of what they looked like, think this is a good idea. I don't have definitive proof of what turtle they were from, don't know if that is possible from the frags shown --Tom

[tracer]

i would think that those searching that area would need to also consider whether any apparently pieces of shell found are from pleistocene fauna. i found a piece of carapace shell near there once that i believe was from a pleistocene tortoise.

[Foshunter]

i would think that those searching that area would need to also consider whether any apparently pieces of shell found are from pleistocene fauna. i found a piece of carapace shell near there once that i believe was from a pleistocene tortoise.

Thanks Tracer, have several pieces of Pliestocene tortoise shell I need to herd together and photo so maybe others know what they are finding. Tortoise shell pieces are very uncommonly found in the Sulphur, guess because most pieces are pretty small and look like a piece of bone fragment--Tom

[jpc]

Hmmmmm... except for the shark-scarred one, I see no distinctive texture on your bone pieces. Turtle bones are most often quite well textured, fresh-water, land and marine turtles. Is there any reason they are not mosasur bones pieces? Mosasaurs are a lot more common,it seems. I know they are in our late Cret marine deposits out here.