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Good morning, Can you help me to identify this fossil please? It was found in Iceland. In the Snaefellsnes region (west), next to the Eldborg crater. Thank you

Hi! I found this bone on a remote, virgin beach in northern Iceland just the other day. I’m completely green when it gets to those topics and have thus no idea what it can have come from. Possibly a piece of a large fish or seal vertebra? Any ideas? Can anybody help me identify the bone?

I have been thinking about going to Iceland for quite a time, but Covid has made travelling a bit complicated, so when everyone was finally fully vaccinated, we decided to hit the road. We were told that June is actually one of the best months to visit Iceland – with the summer (which over there starts in April) in full swing, with crazy 15 to 20 degrees C. Well… we feel super special, as THIS June was actually the coldest in 45 years, so … But, you’ll see what it looked like on pictures. We landed in Keflavik, and after a short stop to get the Covid test result, we started the trip around Iceland. The first thing we saw was the lava flowing from the newest volcano on Iceland – Geldingadalir. Basically, Iceland’s landscape is quite uniform, as the whole island is covered with lava, with very little vegetation. It has a lot of geothermal fields, sulphur springs, hot springs and lakes of course – waterfalls (app. 4500). There are several different types of waterfalls – some are famous because of the volume of water others, because you can actually walk behind them Yet another type is the so-called lava waterfall – as the water comes from hundreds of cracks in the lava field: Lava is (naturally) one of the main attractions in Iceland – I do recommend going to one of the lava tunnels, which have truly fantastic colours: You have to be careful, as there are lots of icicles everywhere The walls show how subsequent layers were accumulated Lava plays also the main part in the Vestmannaeyjar Island, as during the eruption in 1973, it destroyed ¼ of the town – you can still see the remains of houses: But the island is also home to one of Iceland’s symbol – the puffin birds

See amazing live video of volcano eruption in Iceland. As the flow goes over wet meadows, steam happens. I would imagine that underground creature will be trapped and become fossils in the future. You can rewind it a few hours and see the flow progression, helicopters and scientists probably collecting fresh lava samples. Note at least 5 people next to flow at bottom of detail photo. https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/20/beint-vefstreymi-fra-eldstodvunum On 14:23, March 21st the right wall of the crater collapses send a flow down the side.

Being a native or born in Iceland and being a fossil nut who loves fossil whales and other Marine Mammals I am specially proud of a recent discovery and a Publication Of Iceland's first and only known fossil Whale from the Tjörnes Formation. in the early Pliocene. One of our own forum member Boesse was one of the co-author's that worked on the scientific paper about this whale. Well I will let you read a copy of the paper. .....I hope you all enjoy it and if Boesse is reading this I would like to thank you for telling me a few years back about you working on this specimen which made it easy to find because I follow you on Twitter. Field_et_al-2017-Palaeontology.pdf

With Iceland at the top of world interest in volcanic activity recently, I thought it would be interesting to present a geological snapshot of plant preservation from the Icelandic volcanic ash layers of the Miocene of Surtarbrandsgil, Western Fjords. There are four volcanic zones in Iceland and you can view the modern correlation here. For reference, the Western Fjords are located at the top left of the map quite a distance from currently active zones. Here's another great link with a comprehensive catalog of the Miocene flora of Iceland. These fossils represent a preview of Icelandic fossil flora currently fossilizing beneath massive ash depositions for the next geologic age. Cool!