Jamie&Jimmy Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Is it the sacral bone from a marsupial? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Deer sacrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Looks like the edges of the thing have gnaw marks from rodents all over it. Nope, no gnaw marks; that is the normal bone texture. A sacrum would have bilateral symmetry, no? This is not a manubrium in the general sense of the word. . . . not a mastax, not a furcula, not a sternum. Where are the dinosaur collectors here? I don't know for sure, but I imagine that dinosaurs had this bone (or at least a homologue). http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Nope, no gnaw marks; that is the normal bone texture.A sacrum would have bilateral symmetry, no? This is not a manubrium in the general sense of the word. . . . not a mastax, not a furcula, not a sternum. Where are the dinosaur collectors here? I don't know for sure, but I imagine that dinosaurs had this bone (or at least a homologue). A sacrum should have bilateral symmetry, but other than that, what is fused in a human? The skull is fused but you said it wasn't that. hmmm. This is fun trying to figure it out. I know this >< much about dinosaurs. Is it part of the pelvic girdle? Ok, partial pelvic girdle of a peccary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Come on, Auspex...is Harry's mystery bone from a flightless Avian? The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Come on, Auspex...is Harry's mystery bone from a flightless Avian? A sternum or breastplate of a bird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrocklds Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 the bone texture sure looks avian or fish but it would be a huge fish. i have been looking around at the terror bird stuff to try to pin it down, but to no avail. brock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Come on, Auspex...is Harry's mystery bone from a flightless Avian? I don't recognize it as avian; the "big, flat" bones in birds are symmetrical. (BTW, this is a great thread!) "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted September 24, 2008 Author Share Posted September 24, 2008 Atropicallondon is thinking deductively -- the mystery bone is part of a pelvic girdle! But, no gold for 'don with the guess of "peccary"! This is a discrete bone from something widely recognized, but not a fish and not a bird. Suids and birds have a fused pelvis. Here is an example: Here is another example that is also fused: Okay, all that's left is to identify the bone and the taxon it represents. I will post the answer if no one has the answers. http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 some kind of reptilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 The ilium of a tetrapod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 The ilium of some member of the crocodylians. It looks similar to THIS. (fig. 17 & 18) ...and yes this is very cool thread! The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted September 25, 2008 Author Share Posted September 25, 2008 The ilium of some member of the crocodylians.It looks similar to THIS. (fig. 17 & 18) ...and yes this is very cool thread! A Golden Kudo to JohnJ! He has correctly identified the mystery bone as a crocodylian ilium, and even provided a link to a line-drawing of a Late Cretaceous crocodile from Patagonia. In this case, the ilium is from a Late Miocene alligator from Florida. The answer I had in mind was "crocodylian ilium." Hybodus thought that the mystery bone resembled crocodylid skull bones. Bmorefossil figured out that it was reptilian. Atropicallondon deduced that it was an ilium (tetrapod is just too broad). I learned a lot from this exercise. I was forced to examine information that was easy to ignore in my past collecting. I have been thinking about what is important to remember from this experience. The impression that I have gained is that reptiles didn't develop a fused pelvis in the way that mammals did. (I cannot speak for all reptiles, especially dinosaurs, but for all those that I examined including a few dinosaurs.) All the mammals I saw (mostly recent) have fused pelvic bones; all the reptiles I saw had unfused (or discrete) bones. Anyone who knows differently should now speak up! Here are the bones with labels. Thanks to all who participated. 1 http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 Harry Thanks for raising the bar and helping us learn something new. The board is great for viewing people's finds at face value, but I for one am always interested in other details beyond the aesthetic qualities of the specimen. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 HarryThanks for raising the bar and helping us learn something new. The board is great for viewing people's finds at face value, but I for one am always interested in other details beyond the aesthetic qualities of the specimen. Exactly. When might we expect the next quiz Harry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metopocetus Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 The ilium of some member of the crocodylians.It looks similar to THIS. (fig. 17 & 18) ...and yes this is very cool thread! Nice job nailing down the crocodylian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Thanks, Harry; and thanks to the members of the For... sorry wrong occasion. Seriously, I echo those who enjoyed the educational process of the quiz. However, I'd have taken much longer to figure this out without the clues by Harry AND the efforts of those who participated. THAT is one of my favorite things about this forum. If you're paying attention, you can "jump start" educating yourself on a new subject. Yeah Harry, thanks for raising the bar. ...and thanks to you pros out there that let the amateurs swing away. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 nice job guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Kudos to you, Harry! This was a fascinating exercise, and you led it deftly. :applause: "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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