large bone fragment help?

[diggumdave]

is this some kind of leg socket? i found it on the neches river, south of steinhagen. it’s a little soft like it’s not completely petrified? 

i’ve been collecting pet wood and bones for years and just discovered this awesome website so i’m super-stoked to finally, maybe be able to identify some of them. I’m also happy to at last have people to discuss fossils with. my wife is tired of hearing about it and thinks that i need help.

[JIMMFinsman]

If it's soft it's not old. Looks like a cow hip bone or something 

[Mahnmut]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to say I cannot ID this fragment, though I think it has some specific features that could make an ID beyond chunko-there possible, which is not always the case with fragments.

Wait for the people who know your region to chime in.

Best regards,

J

[Mahnmut]

Although I am not sure if your find is fossil, I beg to differ concerning the hardness. One of the few dinosaur bones I possess is an Edmontosaurus heelbone  that would have crumbled away if it had not been preserved chemically. So there are soft fossils.

Try the burn test. Hold a lighter or torch to it for 10 seconds, if it smells like burnt hair, its not fossil (if its not from the permafrost), if it does not smell that does not prove its fossil, but its a hint there is no protein left which points to it being somewhat older.

Cheers,

J

[diggumdave]

alrighty, i did the burn test today and couldn’t get it to burn with propane. when i said soft, i meant it was crumbly like chalk. here is a picture that better captures the socket that i now believe is part of a scapula or pelvis. 

[diggumdave]

I took “chunky” here to the local vet’s office this morning and she says it looks like a glenoid fossa or acetabulum but too big for horse or cow and not quite the same shape. I also found some huge turtle/tortoise parts on the same stretch of river. i’ll post them as soon as i figure out the album thing. I’m good with chunko-there. Thanks!

[fossilus]

My process would be to start looking at animals found in the pleistocene in SE Texas and compare to the scapula and pelvis photos you can find of animals larger than a cow.  You would be looking at camelops, bison (including latifrons), sloth, mammoth and mastodon.  Often you can quickly eliminate, -if it doesn't compare well to a cow, it's unlikely bison. Mammoth and mastodon are generally similar to each other. Sloths tend to look different than anything else.

Just understand, if it's pelvic, it may be hard to find photos online, also  scientific descriptions don't often include descriptions of vertebra or pelvis.