Isolated fossil recovered on the surface of an outcrop of the Wealden facies from Spain. Maybe a neural arch of a cervical vertebra (of an undetermined archosaur), or a skull fragment??.. Other ideas? Thanks in advance!
I am a physician. So I am not really a specialist for this. I don`t think that it is a cervical neural arch because otherwise this individual would have been very big. Cervical neural archs of smaller individuals are not that large in diameter. I believe that it is part of a joint. It looks a little bit similar as a human hip joint, but only similiar. Part of a skull with the eye hole is also possible, but also means that this individual was very big, as the bone of human skulls is not that strong.
Dear Stefanie, the size is not a problem in the case of a neural arch of a crocodilomorph as is similiar to other fossil or extant individuals.
In any case, this bone show a clear axial simmetry so undoubtelly it should be part of the axial skeleton or part of the skull
The Wealden Group has yielded many fossils, including dinosaurs. I believe that it should be something like the corpus of a cervical vertebra. I saw similar bones belonging to Iguanodon hollingtonensis , found in Sussex/GB.
It is difficult have a precise idea with photos of bones, and this photos are not very clear, but to me it looks a part of a cervical vertebra of an archosaur.
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