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Hi All, I recently came across what I believe to be quite a large collection of fossils while walking along a sandy coast in Manado, North Sulawesi (Indonesia), which was undergoing development. Judging by some of the fossils and the Cenozoic geology of the region, I was leaning towards them being whale and turtle remains but would very much appreciate any advice anyone may have on individual fossils or the collection as a whole. Once the most likely creatures are established, I plan to focus my research to try to identify and categorise as many of the fossils as I can. Thanks in advance for your input, and I'm happy to send through further shots/angles as required. This appears to be a partial whale caudal vertabrae with marks (teeth/wear?) on one side. Some on the top row resemble sperm whale teeth while the last few on the bottom row could be parts of ribs or other bones. Here are close-ups of some of the teeth-like forms. The fossils in the top row appear to be the femurs of sea turtles and the one on the bottom right the end of a sea turtle rib. The very small fossil is of similar shape to the larger ones, and I'm not yet sure about the whiter fossil at the bottom left. Some larger fossils (including the suspected vertabrae). The rounded one at the top may be from a femur. Could these be from a pelvis or sternum? Some of these (particularly the third from the left on the second row from the top and the ones on the row beneath it) resemble jaw fragments. The second from the left on the bottom row has almost a tripod appearance. Some of these could be from leg bones or ribs, while there appears to be a couple of hand bones to the lower left. Some very femur-like ends. The one third from the left on the bottom row resembles a bone from a dugong's sternum. Some rib fragments and other pieces. And finally some smaller fragments, some with triangular cross-sections, and perhaps some hand and finger bones.

Hi All, I'm very pleased to join the site and look forward to contributing. I'm an Australian currently living in Jakarta with a long-held interest in ancient creatures which I've used as inspiration for many of my short stories and comics (previews can be seen at knbrandt.wordpress.com for those who are interested). But fiction aside, I enjoy looking for fossils when I have the chance and recently came across what I believe to be quite a large collection of sea creature fossils (perhaps turtle and whale) while walking along a coast in Manado, North Sulawesi, which I look forward to posting on this site. I'm quite new to fossil identification but am keen to learn what I can!