Femur To A ?

[LanceH]

What is this a femur to? dog? human!? Is it fossilised?

[Gatorman]

it kinda looks human to me, its well worn though.

[Guest Cris]

I keep thinking it's too small to be human....I can't really ID it... I'd lean more to dog than human, though.

[mosasaur]

it surely looks human to me; as for the size, it does not that small to me but perhaps it was from a small person!

Try the match test. Put a match to an edge of the bone and see if there is a scorched smell. If so, that indiactes organic matter is still there and thus the bone is fairly recent. Discoloration can occur very quickly after burial.

Kenneth Quinn

[mosasaur]

I just did a Google image search - definitely not a dog, and I lean toward it belonging to a human.

Try the match test - apply a match to a bone edge and note if there is a scorched smell. If there is, that indicates organic material is present, and the bone then would be pretty recent. Discoloration can be rapid and is not a good indicator of age.

Kenneth Quinn

[Guest Cris]

oh, ok.. I just google searched a dog femur, too... the ball end is way too large on this bone compared to the rest of it..

[ebrocklds]

chalk another one up to human. that would be my best guess???

brock

[Guest michael]

it is human and no it is not a fossil

[Mike Owens]

In my early days, if I found an bone I was unsure of, I would take it to the Dallas Museum of Natural History & have Chuck Finsley check it out for me. I felt pretty stupid on one visit, as it turns out I had a modern cow bone no less. :Bonk: I suggest you to contact a museum or university. I have never met a paleontologist that wasn't more then happy to help you out & answer your questions. It's a plus for both parties, as I have turned over two fish finds to Chuck & he, in turn, invited me, my wife, my friend & his wife on the "Heath Mosasaur" dig that is now on display at the museum. To do your best hunting, good contacts are very important, as you can find out good locations to check out & get to go behind the scenes where the general public can't. That's how I was able to get to tour The University of Texas Balconies(sp?) site, where all the fossils found in the 1930's WPA work program during The Depression, are kept.

It is unbelieveable the amount of fossils that are there & most are still in the original plaster!!! I wandered away from the group & found a small room that had a single bone with paperwork on a table. Being curious, I picked it up looked it over, not very impressive I thought. Turns out it was the arm/wing bone of the "Texas Pterossaur" which was calculated to have a wingspan of more than 50 feet. I thought maybe I should get back with group --- I don't think I should be in here. Well, Lance, this is probably more information than you were looking for, but the memories came flooding back.

Mike

[mosasaur]

University of Texas Balconies(sp?) site, where all the fossils found in the 1930's WPA work program during The

I think you mean the Balcones Research Center? I have been there once, in the mid 70s. I was working at the Arkansas Geological Commission. A staff geologist had visited an active gypsum mine in SW Arkansas and found pieces of bone. He asked me to look at the pieces; in a very short time I determined that I had a large reptile skull and that I was way over my head. I took it to Wann Langston at the U of T. Balcones research center, more or less pieced together. After about 2 seconds, he informed me that it was a Goniopholis, a Cretaceous crocodilian; further, only 3 other specimens had been found in the US and this one was by far the best!!! A few years later, the skull made the cover of GEOTIMES.

saw that big wing bone on that visit - at that time it had only been recovered a few months before.

Most museums have many more fossils in plaster jackets than out of them. Just not enough preparators... often, they get prepared only when someone is interested in that particular taxon, like someone working on a dissertation or thesis!!

Kenneth Quinn