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Hey y'all - we finally re-named "Squalodon" tiedemani, now known as Ankylorhiza tiedemani - a large macropredatory killer whale like dolphin with some implications for the early feeding ecology of odontocetes (toothed/echolocating whales) and convergent evolution of swimming in baleen whales (mysticetes) and odontocetes after their split some ~35-36 million years ago. I've copied our FB post text below so I don't need to re-type it all. Introducing the species formerly known as Genus Y: Ankylorhiza tiedemani! This large dolphin was originally named from a partial but uninformative skull dredged from the Wando River in South Carolina in the 1880s, erroneously placed in the genus Squalodon, and without any age data. Our new skeleton, CCNHM 103, is nearly complete, and demonstrates 1) that it definitely isn’t Squalodon, needing the new genus name Ankylorhiza, and 2) the species is from the Oligocene epoch. The new skeleton was discovered by Mark Havenstein in the ~24 million year old Chandler Bridge Formation near Summerville SC in the mid 1990s. There are two major aspects to this new study, published today in the prestigious journal Current Biology by one of our paleontologists, Dr. Boessenecker, and colleagues (Dr. Morgan Churchill, Dr. Emily Buchholtz, Dr. Brian Beatty, and Dr. Jonathan Geisler). The first and more simple finding is that Ankylorhiza is large and has several adaptations for feeding on large prey: large, thick-rooted teeth, a robust snout, sharp (and occasionally serrated) cutting edges on its teeth, enormous jaw muscles, and a killer whale-like range of neck motion. This evidence all points toward Ankylorhiza being an apex predator, reinvading the niche formerly occupied by predatory basilosaurid whales which died out only 5 million years before the oldest fossils of Ankylorhiza. The second and more surprising aspect is what the skeleton tells us about the evolution of swimming adaptations. Modern baleen whale and echolocating whale skeletons are remarkably similar, and assumed to have remained static since the split between the two groups some 35 million years ago. Indeed, most “whaleontologists” working on early baleen whales and early dolphins are ‘headhunters’ and focus exclusively on skulls. The flipper and vertebrae of Ankylorhiza indicate that many features in modern baleen (mysticetes) and echolocating whales (odontocetes) actually evolved twice, in parallel – we call this convergent evolution. We know this since modern mysticetes and odontocetes share many features– including a remarkably shortened humerus (upper arm bone; still a bit long in Ankylorhiza), lost muscle attachments of the humerus (still present in Ankylorhiza), short blocky finger bones (long/skinny in Ankylorhiza), a narrow tail stock (wide in Ankylorhiza), and more than 23 or so tail vertebrae (fewer than that in Ankylorhiza). These features therefore must have evolved convergently – likely driven by the locking of the elbow joint, forcing the flipper to be used only for steering and all propulsive force to come from the tail. You can read the paper here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30828-9 (please email us if you would like a pdf of the paper)

I'm posting this for a friend who found this little oddity mixed in with broken shells on North Myrtle Beach. My first thought was vertebrae but it seems to lack an obvious center hole, although the white spot in the first picture looks like it could be a filled-in hole. I haven't seen it in person so I can't describe it any better than that, and sorry for the photo quality...not my pics. I know that's not much to go on, but any thoughts on what it could be would be much appreciated.

Found this on the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Today I found the first complete Mako in a few months and I found my biggest lower Hemipristis. I also found a lot of bone today and 2 fish vertebrae. All of these where found near Beaufort SC.

I’m pretty sure this is a whale vertebrae but would love if someone with more experience could give a positive I’d on what it is I would truly appreciate it !! The fossils dimensions are 5’height 4’wide and 3.5 thick found in Summerville South Carolina sawmill creek

Found in a creek bed in Summerville, South Carolina while hunting for shark teeth. It was on its own. Could not find the chipped piece.

Found Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene material can be found. I posted about one of these on a previous thread a while back but since I found what I believe to be another in my unsorted boxes, and the previous thread was inconclusive I decided to post again and get some more thoughts, hope that’s okay. It was thought to be an osteoderm of some kind but any Ideas welcome and appreciated!

Found this in Summerville, South Carolina in a stream bed alongside a variation of sharks teeth, shark vertebrate, and other assorted bone fragments. found in sandy/rocky soil right below surface of water. Two similar fossils were found close by as well. First thought was crocodile but it doesn't seem to match, any ideas of what this might be?

I don’t expect this tooth fragment can be identified but I’m curious if any one has ever seen enamel like this? It seems to have a thin clear outer layer and the layer below has the dots. Found Myrtle beach where Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene fossils can be found.

Found these worn little teeth in one of my boxes from a past trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cretaceous, Pliocene and Pleistocene aged material can be found here. I doubt a species can be pinned down, but are they fish teeth? Tooth 3 looks maybe croc to me but I’m not sure. Any ideas welcome! Tooth 1 is 7mm long Tooth 2 is 10mm long Tooth 3 is 12mm long

Found Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene aged material can be found there. Is this some sort of soft coral or some other aquatic plant? Not sure if a species can be narrowed down from such a small chunk but I’m open to suggestions. Help appreciated some of these pictures are taken under my cheap microscope hopefully they show enough details.

I’m curious about these nodules along the side of the steinkern, found Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cretaceous, Pliocene, and Pleistocene age strata in the area. Largely Cretaceous from the Pee dee formation. Any ideas welcome! The nodules are 1-2 mm. Are they pebbles that settled in during fossilization?

Found Myrtle beach South Carolina, help appreciated!

Found Myrtle beach South Carolina, thought it was a weird bit of shell, but it’s not. I have little clue about this piece except it looks vaguely reminiscent of inner ear bone examples I’ve seen. Any help appreciated

Found Myrtle beach South Carolina, help appreciated

I originally picked this up thinking a heavily worn bone but a few weeks later after looking at it I see concentric circles, Hard to photograph but I would love confirmation if anyone can see it or if I'm just going crazy from looking at fossils! Found Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

All found Myrtle Beach South Carolina as for these last two I'm curious about the alignment of the robin skull plates, would it be something like this? Any ideas or info appreciated!

Found at Myrtle Beach South Carolina this year, thought oh wonderful another piece of turtle shell but it just doesn't fit the profile I'm familiar with. Any ideas welcome!

Found at Myrtle Beach South Carolina, thinking just an interesting colored chunk of fossil bone but I'm wondering if it could be wood.

Another find from Myrtle Beach South Carolina years ago, doesn't look like any croc tooth I've ever seen. Any clues? I know the one side is pretty worn.

Found this years ago at Myrtle beach South Carolina, could it be a water worn tooth? Any ideas would be great

Found this years ago in Myrtle beach South Carolina, I thought it was a bison molar but I've seen some fossilized camel teeth recently that looked possibly closer to my tooth, any ideas are welcome!

Every time I fossil hunt at Myrtle Beach I find a ton of these, so many that I stop picking them up after a while, but I have no idea what they are. Any ideas would be great!