Dr. Vector's Science Challenge
Identify this object. First one to get it right gets a nifty prize.* Sarah and Ashley are inelligible, and they know why.
*To be determined later.
Labels: Not Quite Science
posted by Dr. Vector at 2:52 PM
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Identify this object. First one to get it right gets a nifty prize.* Sarah and Ashley are inelligible, and they know why.
*To be determined later.
About Me
- Name: Dr. Vector
- Location: Somewhere in California
Young married male seeks giant undescribed dinosaur for long-term relationship. Incompleteness not a problem, pneumaticity a must. Send quarry photos or hand samples.
Previous Posts
- Science: the poster
- A day at the Oakland Zoo
- My afternoon with Apteryx
- Well, it's about damn time
- In defense of speculative zoology
- Further rounds of the God game
- Playing Darwin's God
- My best friend's nuke
- Myrmecophilia
- What matters now, Part 1: coursework
14 Comments:
I was going to try it, but I realized I don't really have a chance.
My initial impression was that it was a vertebra, with some reconstruction with hot glue, it appears.
Then, I thought it looked more like a mushroom, but I wouldn't even know where to look for a mushroom that weird.
So, a vertebra or a mushroom, that's all I got.
I would also say it is a vertebra, probably those of a fish, perhaps a shark. I remember a similar question at tonmo.com, where a very strange organic object was shown. There was nearly nothing which fitted its shape,untill it was identified as the still not completely ossified sternum of a young seal.
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You're all correct that it's a vertebra, but that was the gimme part. To win the Science Challenge you have to tell me what it belonged to.
One of you will be slapping your forehead soon...
Cetacean distal caudal.
Olmec death mask.
Something to do with sauropods.
Is it coccygeal vert IV or V from a human? I doubt it actually, but worth a try...
Disappearing reappearing comment: spooky!
I would have to guess - a seed.
its an osteomyelitic croc vert, probably bitten and infected by a blogger with too much time on their hands
Huh.
Darren got it with 'cetacean distal caudal'. But did you know you got it? At first I thought the post-correct-answer comments were just riffing, but now I'm not so sure. The disappearing-reappearing comment casts doubt on my "he knew he had it on his second try" hypothesis. Anything you can tell us?
I figured the two clues in the image would give it away (see next post).
Good show by j-rod and sordes. Rodster, you are right on about the glue, the growth plates on either end of the centrum (body of the vert) are glued on. Those things fall off in a heartbeat even in big old whales. I have some photos of loose ones; ought to blog about that someday.
Well, getting that it was a vertebra and that hot glue was involved was well above par for me in the Bio-Realm, so I'm pretty happy with that result.
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Ha ha, fooled ya'gain!
Oh, I knew what it was from the start. I was just mucking around...
Actually, I did at first think that my proposed coccygeal ID might be correct. When you said no I started thinking about those odd subcentral foramina, and that's what led me to whales.
Incidentally, the real reason some of my comments disappear and reappear it that, on re-reading, I notice a dumbass spelling or other mistake and hence delete, rewrite and repost!
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