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Miocene Big Bones Bonanza!


HemiHunter

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Got out last week with my boys for a late afternoon trip to Calvert Cliffs to try a new spot. The beach was not very productive, yielding just a few smallish bull and tiger shark teeth.  It seemed to have been worked over pretty hard before us.  So we quickly turned our attention to a very sizable cliff fall at the tide line.  Just looking over the surface, it didn't take long before boy #1 spotted what turned out to be a complete rib fully exposed. (Not 100% sure exactly what from but, I think, porpoise.)  It was fragile and ended up coming out in three pieces, but we got the whole thing.  On close inspection, it seems it also might have some predation marks.  Then, while we were still working on that, just around the corner boy #2 yells out about something big.  On the next chunk of cliff fall, also down low, he spotted a really nice piece of whale jaw also totally exposed!  We got that out and also recovered the joint, although there is a missing piece in between. Still an awesome find! (The jaw is very solid, so we'll have to learn how to reconstruct the gap and make it one big piece.)  We couldn't find any other part of it, unfortunately--we were all hoping for the skull.  :fingerscrossed:  Just a little while later, on the next big chunk over, another collector pointed out a tiny surface of bone that he generously offered to my boys if they wanted to do the work to get it out.  It turned out to be a really cool atlas vert from a porpoise (I think). It was extremely fragile, too, and in a couple of pieces that we'll have to glue together (any tips?), but another neat find. Then, just for good measure, boy #2 digs out a really nice tuna vert. (We added a 2nd, smaller one later.)  This was all in maybe a 30-foot stretch. How no other collectors saw any of this stuff--and it was clear many had walked right by it all day--is a mystery.  And to top it all off, on the way out with our bone haul, boy #1 spots a sweet croc tooth in the wash.  It's funny that we set out to find some big shark teeth, and found almost none, but still ended up with maybe our best fossil trip ever!  Enjoy the pics.  And if anybody wants to confirm or correct ID's, please feel free.

 

20200710_185105.jpg

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Wow those are some really great finds, congrats! :yay-smiley-1:

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Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Looks like a great trip out with your kids, glad you all got to enjoy it and had something to show for the effort

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Congratulations on such a successful trip!  I, too, love the croc tooth :wub:

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Crazy trip! I had a day like that once at Douglass Point: I felt like I could do no wrong.

On The Hunt For The Trophy Otodus!

 

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Awesome finds!!! I love the rib and croc teeth!!! Congrats!

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Very nice!

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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Looks like an amazing trip, great finds!

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Cool stuff.  A fresh cliff fall is a great place to look... assuming the cliff is stable, but can you ever assume that.

Speaking as someone who rarely sees whale material, what makes the jaw a jaw and not a rib?

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This cliff fall is actually pretty old and relatively far from the cliff, having tumbled a ways from the face.  So, pretty safe, as far as being by the cliffs. I would not risk our safety.  The biggest chunks have just been eroding very slowly from wave action, so stuff gets gradually exposed.  We were just there on the right day.

 

I'm probably the least expert on here about what kinds of bones are what.  But in the case of our whale bones, I think the conclusion they're a jaw comes from a combination of overall size, curvature, cross-section, and having the associated joint.  I think our joint includes the mandibular condyle (a name I just learned!), which would be unique to the lower jaw. What I think we have missing is the "heel" of that mandibular joint. Our pieces compare decently to the example below at fossilguy but less so to example cetacean ribs.  Having said that, I would welcome a second opinion!

baleen-whale-jaw-fossil.jpg

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what I saw was that the 'mandibular condyle' on your bone look more 3d than the one in a whale jaw... more like a rib head.  Where is Bobby?

 

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Yeah--I was thinking about that too, but there is a lot of variety among the mandibles I found, too.  I think I'll put some  different angle pics up onto the ID section and see if someone has other ideas.  It would be nice to nail it down a little better so we can maybe try to reconstruct the missing section and make a complete piece out of the two parts  It would be a cool thing to have all together.

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So I posted in fossil ID and the unanimous opinion is that the big fragments are from a rib.  It's great to have the correct ID.  Thanks @jpc for asking the question to clarify!  Jaw or rib--a cool find either way!

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