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Unknown Fossil From Wisconsin


abenedict86

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Hello everyone, new member, first post. Was wondering if someone could help identify what this is.

Was found in Wisconsin (South Western to be specific). Not entirely sure what it is, thought a vertebrae of some sort but not sure.

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I'm on my cell phone, so I could be totally off, but since nobody else has tried...

It looks like part of the back of a skull. Google image search "occipital condyls" and see if that helps.

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Hi,

Looks like "tympanic bubble" on a part of a skull.

Coco

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Thanks for some suggestions on what it could be!

I have spent a decent amount of time going through google images with the above suggestions and so far, have not found anything that really matches what this looks like.

Any thoughts on what creature it could be from? That might help narrow down a search.

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I am not entirely sure, it was at a fossil dig that we took our daughter to. It was pretty common that you would come across decent bits of cephalopod fossils and pieces of trilobites and brachiopods. But I am not sure if this "dig site" was being brought in from another location and deposited in this general area for people to go through. This was pretty much the only find that could not be identified.

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My first thought was that it is a skull bit, as others have suggested. I'd be thinking Ice Age or younger.

"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!

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Possible ice age skull fragment, awesome :D

I didn't think we would find something like that when our day trip started.

If more pictures are needed to get a better view of different areas to help reach a solid conclusion, just let me know what areas to focus on.

Thanks for all the help :)

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From what I was seeing via google images, those chert nodules all seem to be pretty solid and smooth all the way around (unless they formed over a sponge or other similar stuff). This just doesn't seem to match up with any of the stuff I was seeing. But I am pretty new to all of this so I wouldn't really know if it is or isn't.

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Hmmm...

It's looking less organic to me in the better images. The last one (in the first set) in particular looks a bit like furnace slag.

"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!

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It is pretty clearly a part of the occipital region of a large mammal skull. There is one occipital condyle preserved, and a nice paroccipital process.

Rich

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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When I saw it yesterday I was going to guess bison or mammoth skull fragment. I have a feeling there may not be enough here to give you an accurate i.d. however.

Cole~

Knowledge has three degrees-opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.

Plotinus 204 or 205 C.E., Egyptian Philosopher

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I typed mammoth skull parts into google and I got this image result. Might this be the same object (or from the same are)?

columbian_mammoth_skull_pieces.jpg

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Both bison and mammoth skulls have internal hollows somewhat like what I see there. With a photograph, I don't have a good feel for which it might me.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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Back to being a piece of prehistoric coolness! :)

"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!

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Thank you everyone for all the help! It was definitely something very cool to come across. My 3yr old daughter is absolutely amazed by it and is so curious as to how it came to be and what animal it possibly came from :D

Thanks again!

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If you are finding it in material with cephalopods , brachiopods and trilobite pieces, it would not be likely be mammal remains.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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If you are finding it in material with cephalopods , brachiopods and trilobite pieces, it would not be likely be mammal remains.

Wisconsin has it's share of Ice Age material ;)

"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!

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On 11/8/2013 at 8:52 AM, squalicorax said:

Where at? I have not even considered it.

 

 

Check your science library for these titles:

 

West, R.M., & Dallman, J.E. (1980)

Late Pleistocene and Holocene vertebrate fossil record of Wisconsin.

Geoscience Wisconsin 4:25-45

 

Foley, L. (1984)

Late Pleistocene (Woodfordian) vertebrates from the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin, the Moscow fissure local fauna.

Illinois State Museum, Reports of Investigations 39:1-50

 

 

 

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A few more Wisconsin Pleistocene references.

Attached is this PDF with map and faunal list:

 

Prehistoric Mammals (Wisconsin).

In: Long, C.A. (2008)

The wild mammals of Wisconsin. pp. 55-58

Museum of Natural History - University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 

Wisconsin Prehistoric Mammals.pdf

 

Dallman, J. (1968)

Mastodons in Dane County.

Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 15:9-13

JPG LINK

 

Thieling, S.C. (1973)

The Pleistocene Fauna of Lost River Sink, Iowa County, Wisconsin

(Doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa.)

 

West, R.M. (1978)

Late Pleistocene (Wisconsinan) caribou from southeastern Wisconsin

Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 66:50-53

PDF LINK

 

Speth, J.M. (2004)

Wisconsin's Fossil Birds: Where are they?

The Passenger Pigeon 66(4):363-369

PDF LINK

  • I found this Informative 1

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Thanks for all the info and titles piranha! This fossil has gone up onto a shelf in the living room amongst all our other keepsakes now :)

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