Creek Cookies

[blizzardstorm06]

Can anyone help me identify this "cookie"?  We think it is a vertebra.  It was found in southern Maryland in the Miocene clay formation.

[Shellseeker]

It is an epiphysis.

" Epiphysis, expanded end of the long bones in animals, which ossifies separately from the bone shaft but becomes fixed to the shaft when full growth is attained. "

The 1st one I discovered was the epiphysis of a whale vertebrae, in common terms , a "cookie"  Please search the fossil forum for the word "cookie".  You will find some.

Then I found an epiphysis, not a cookie and not from a whale..  and realized it was more complex than I had thought.

 

NICE find

[Darktooth]

It is called an epiphysis it is part of the vertabrae that eventually fuses to another vertebrae as the animal gets older. This one looks to be in great condition

[Darktooth]

@Shellseeker beat me to it!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice find! 

[Shellseeker]

On 5/29/2020 at 4:50 PM, blizzardstorm06 said:

Can anyone help me identify this "cookie"?  We think it is a vertebra.  It was found in southern Maryland in the Miocene clay formation.

So,  we have many examples of whale "cookies. 

Here is one of mine. These are very distinctive on both sides... please show us the other side of your cookie.

I found another mammal's epiphysis, and it is not whale because it is different.  I posted it on TFF asking for an ID, but that never happened.  You can see it here.

 

 

I do not think that your cookie is from a whale either.  Maybe @Boesse can help us. He is an expert on marine mammals.

 

[Boesse]

OP's epiphysis is from a juvenile or small baleen whale or possibly a very large odontocete (e.g. Squalodon, Orycterocetus).