Bone identification help please.

[BadAdze]

Northwest Missouri sandbar hunt. The girlfriend is showing me up once again. Any ideas on this one?

 

[old digger]

Cool Find, and Interesting! At first I was thinking pelvic bone, but it looks more like the base of a skull. Not sure right off hand, need to do more research.

 

[BadAdze]

I had the same idea about the pelvic bone, the more i look at i think it might be the bottom jaw, skull base, to something. The million dollar question is (What?) though....

 

[Harry Pristis]

I think it may be a basicranium of a fair-size mammal . . . bison, perhaps. This specimen is so distorted (maybe by bone infection), that you'll have to compare it in-hand with normal specimens. Some collectors really like these pathologies.

 

[BadAdze]

Thanks for the reply, i am waiting on my friend (that specialized in Bison Antiquus, and is an osteologists) to check this thread out, hopefully he will be able to assist us somewhat. Meanwhile, back to research...

Also i would like to add that i am very grateful for all the time and research each one of you here devotes to assisting amateurs like myself!!

 

[Paleopilot]

Hello Daniel, interesting find! Although your speciman appears to have the general shape of a Bison Sacrum the general shape of the foramen, (spinal canal), and the articular processes tell me that it is indeed a skullbase fragment. I have included some photos of samples of both, the sacral verebral on the left.

 

[BadAdze]

Thanks so much for replying to the thread my friend!! I am certain it is like the one on the right (referring to the first photo) but the erosion, or whatever it may be, makes it look slightly different in some areas. I know yours is slightly larger comparably to the one i have, I will take some more photographs holding it, maybe it will aid in some way. Could this specimen be from a different species of mammal, or am i holding photo comparison too much in being able to tell?

 

[Paleopilot]

Here is a ventral view of the fragment, the back molar foundations are very visible.

 

[Paleopilot]

I think it may be a basicranium of a fair-size mammal . . . bison, perhaps. This specimen is so distorted (maybe by bone infection), that you'll have to compare it in-hand with normal specimens. Some collectors really like these pathologies.

I agree harry, Dan's specimen had some kind of "issue". Maybe postmortem?

 

[Harry Pristis]

I agree harry, Dan's specimen had some kind of "issue". Maybe postmortem?

I think this may represent a massive bone infection in life. I would be looking for drains that form in bone abcesses.

This is a diseased basicranium from a 'gator. You can see the honeycomb effect produced by the bone infection. This was a very, very sick 'gator before it died.

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[BadAdze]

Do these help any?