…… what the HAIL is this nasty looking thing?

pauldingbabe

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
Seeker22 said:
Yeah- remember this guy? He didn't come out too good. Them aliens is mean! Their littles may be worse! :eek:

CJFyTVAWwAE56PN.png
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:hof:
 
Signwatcher

Signwatcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Huh....I'm jealous. All I found today when I was mowing the yard was a huge horse fly. I let it live because it left me alone.

It was SO big..how big was it you ask? It was SO big that I was afraid if I drew my gun to kill it, that it would take my gun away from me!
 
L.A.B.

L.A.B.

Goodness before greatness.
Raggedyman said:
NEGATIVE fellow sleuths . . . I have blown these pix up close to 600% and can find no readily describable letters numbers or mold lines . . . this feels like B O N E. plan is to show it to Tami (DVM) tomorrow and if she can't ID it I will bring it back to the house and try to dissect it - or alternatively - see if it will break apart. a ball peen hammer should do it
Click to expand...

Soak it in Vodka first. We have to determine if there is any Russian cohesion.
 
Raggedyman

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
I'm interested to see what our vet thinks about it tomorrow. I have it in an empty prescription bottle in order to protect it. I haven't shown it to Raggedyann at all - I think she'd freak because its so nasty looking. its very light and very fragile; I've had to handle it very carefully and only very very little. the appearance suggests bone that's been bleached by the sun.
 
Raggedyman

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
the mystery has been
SOLVED
p083pjjg.jpg​

so we get to Tami's office this morning and as the ladies are setting up to see Gracie, I'm telling Tami (DVM) about this "curiosity that I'm having difficulty identifying and would she give me her thoughts on it". I tell her ONLY that I found it on the ground in the herb garden behind a potted plant. I did NOT mention to her AT ALL what my thinking was. I take this thing out of the bottle and place it on a paper towel on the exam table.

her initial thoughts are EXACTLY like mine: strange bony structure – looks like SPINE – but how can it possibly BE SPINE? 33 years practicing small animal vet medicine - Its not like anything she's at all familiar with. We both agree that it looks and feels like bone. Its brittle at the extreme outer edges but yet seems to have a small bit of flexibility along the central axis. as we're handling it it begins to fall apart – the outside (what we'd been calling "transverse processes") begin to crumble – they are very thin and fragile. We set it down on the table and Tami sends her lady out to get a magnifier from another room.

Raggedyann – who has not yet seen this thing and who is completely UNAWARE of its existence until this instant in time - walks in. When I explain what what we're looking at, what we are thinking and where I found it - she bursts out laughing.

Remember this statement from my OP?
Raggedyman said:
What's more puzzling is that it seems to me that I've seen this once before – sometime reasonably long ago - as in 12-18 years ago - and I either knew what it was then – or somebody identified it for me.
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She reminds me that way back when – possibly 08 - someone had given her as a gift an old watering can with a faucet on the side of it and a FAKE flower arrangement in it. That can had sat out on a flat rock in her herb garden. In that fake arrangement were several things – including several stalks of WHEAT.

wheat-head-rt-phillips.jpg
look familiar?
IMG_0244rs.jpg​

She eventually threw the arrangement away but kept the can – which she liked. That can still sits out on the porch near the entrance to her herb garden. one of those wheat heads must have fallen behind that rock and laid there in the sun for YEARS. the result was this "bleached white bony (not) structure Tami and I both initially THOUGHT was some sort of "weird (impossible) spine". it was so brittle from the sun that it began to crumble when we handled it.

@The Mountain was absolutely correct . . . and Raggegdyann confirmed his initial impression. Tami and I were blown away – we'd each reached the same conclusions.

There is a HUGE LESSON in all of this . . . as a young resident I remember being told – "you will look for what you know – and – you will see what you look for. Its important to recognize that can be a double edge sword"

in other words - confirming something that we SHOULD each already know:
WE CAN BE BLINDED BY OUR OWN PREDISPOSITION IN THINKING​
 
pauldingbabe

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
Raggedyman said:
the mystery has been
SOLVED
View attachment 431442​

so we get to Tami's office this morning and as the ladies are setting up to see Gracie, I'm telling Tami (DVM) about this "curiosity that I'm having difficulty identifying and would she give me her thoughts on it". I tell her ONLY that I found it on the ground in the herb garden behind a potted plant. I did NOT mention to her AT ALL what my thinking was. I take this thing out of the bottle and place it on a paper towel on the exam table.

her initial thoughts are EXACTLY like mine: strange bony structure – looks like SPINE – but how can it possibly BE SPINE? 33 years practicing small animal vet medicine - Its not like anything she's at all familiar with. We both agree that it looks and feels like bone. Its brittle at the extreme outer edges but yet seems to have a small bit of flexibility along the central axis. as we're handling it it begins to fall apart – the outside (what we'd been calling "transverse processes") begin to crumble – they are very thin and fragile. We set it down on the table and Tami sends her lady out to get a magnifier from another room.

Raggedyann – who has not yet seen this thing and who is completely UNAWARE of its existence until this instant in time - walks in. When I explain what what we're looking at, what we are thinking and where I found it - she bursts out laughing.

Remember this statement from my OP?


She reminds me that way back when – possibly 08 - someone had given her as a gift an old watering can with a faucet on the side of it and a FAKE flower arrangement in it. That can had sat out on a flat rock in her herb garden. In that fake arrangement were several things – including several stalks of WHEAT.


She eventually threw the arrangement away but kept the can – which she liked. That can still sits out on the porch near the entrance to her herb garden. one of those wheat heads must have fallen behind that rock and laid there in the sun for YEARS. the result was this "bleached white bony (not) structure Tami and I both initially THOUGHT was some sort of "weird (impossible) spine". it was so brittle from the sun that it began to crumble when we handled it.

@The Mountain was absolutely correct . . . and Raggegdyann confirmed his initial impression. Tami and I were blown away – we'd each reached the same conclusions.

There is a HUGE LESSON in all of this . . . as a young resident I remember being told – "you will look for what you know – and – you will see what you look for. Its important to recognize that can be a double edge sword"

in other words - confirming something that we SHOULD each already know:
WE CAN BE BLINDED BY OUR OWN PREDISPOSITION IN THINKING​
Click to expand...


Well!

Points for early turn in! With a lab analysis as well.

Gaining insight of a professional, your wife, is quite the added bonus.

You have been not only a Good Noodle, but timely and informative.

Well done!
 
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