Can you identify this bone? We found it underneath what used to be a 30 foot high sand dune by the Rio Grande.

Question

http://michael19652.tripod.com/funny_bone => Link to photos

We went out four wheeling the afternoon a Hurricane was leaving town in 2005 and ended up about 1/2 a mile from the mouth of the Rio Grande River on Boca Chica Beach where the river dumps into the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the storm surge many of the larger sand dunes had been washed away exposing quite a few items. This bone was at the center of the base of one of these washed away dunes.
The sand color was very dark helping to confirm that it was under a large dune as most of the sand there is generally white. Also since we are regular visitors out there we knew of this particular sand dune because it was one of our sons favorites to jump off of while we surf fish. Thats also why we know it was approx 30 feet high. Thanks for your future responses.

Answer 1

It is part of a sea turtle skeleton, close to the breast plate.
What helped was the close up photo showing the texture of the "bone" surface.

It has what I call "seasalt buildup". Sorry it was not something more exotic or alien.

To see more, I suggest that you go to the following and examine the skeleton for yourself. you must look close and in-between the top half and the side. Look on the upper right hand section of the turtle between the "backbone" of the shell and the right side of the turtle.

Location: Web Search words = Sea Turtle Skeletons
Scroll down to the site = Prehistoric Sea Turtle Display Photo - Chris Photos at pbase.com

This site has larger skeletons which help in searching for certain bones or clusters easier.

Hope I helped?

Answer 2

hi there,

it looks like a sternum of a moose, deer or some animalof the cattle family, and it doesnt seem any funny!

- AnswerMan

Identifying Bones
These sites are about how to identify different animal bones. View many pictures of animal bones and see how they differ

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000786.shtml

Answer 3

what it came form i cant help you but it is a flat bone so it is from eaither the skull, shoulder plades or the hips. looks liek it coudl be a hip beno from some animal, if you foudn it in a sand duen it may be form a sea creature maby a wale or shark or something

Answer 4

If you let your imagination soar it kind of looks like a bone from the spine of an angel....where the wings attach to the spinal cord. Or maybe not...

Answer 5

Some suggestions on who might help.

Texas Parks & Wildlife http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/
University of Texas Marine Life Institute http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/

Answer 6

What you have appears to be a portion of the underside of a sea turtle I will include a link of a picture that if you look closely you can see a similar type of bone on the underside of this sea turtle skeleton. http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dsea%2Bturtle%2Bskeleton%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3DFP-tab-web-t400%26x%3Dwrt&w=640&h=480&imgurl=mk31.image.pbase.com%2Fu29%2Fviab%2Fupload%2F17653479.09seaturtle.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Fimage%2F17653479&size=58.5kB&name=17653479.09seaturtle.jpg&p=sea+turtle+skeleton&type=jpeg&no=1&tt=31&ei=UTF-8 dude i swear, steal my glory why dont ya I answered the question and some doober comes along and doesn't even see that i answered it already. Damn

Answer 7

The answer of this question depend on carbon dating of this bone.... how older is this bone......... if it is too older then it very difficult to say.........

Answer 8

i would take it to a musem and see what they thought
that is a cool bone though!