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An Earbone.. I think


Shellseeker

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I was fortunate to go hunting with friends ( including a couple of TFF members ) today. Most of my friends know me as a fossil enthusiast, interested in mammal ear-bones.  I am extremely good at identifying horse ear-bones.

My TFF friends brought me this fossil find,  which I did identify as an ear-bone , and they donated it to me, If I would attempt to get a specific ID on TFF.

Because I am thinking marine, let me ask Bobby @Boesse to look at it. It "looks" broken, but I am not sure. The only thing I am sure of i that this find is a fossil.  All comments appreciated.

IMG_5931UnknownText.jpg.7cf74b486fae69f550ad15d3982ee7c5.jpgIMG_5930Unknown.thumb.jpg.dc96075b44277f17a50f81318917fd63.jpgIMG_5932Unknown.jpg.8b741c5c370c1a60358d21e63674ac9d.jpgIMG_5934Unknown.jpg.57147d05496454305f6a63e27575a86e.jpg

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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I think you're right. Porpoise?

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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Thanks for the reply. I am thinking Porpoise also,  due to upper right round mass in 1st photo...

Here is one Bobby identified for me in this thread: This one seems different, maybe broken..

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/76091-owner-of-this-inner-ear-bone/

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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  • 2 months later...

Hey all! Sorry for being gone. @Shellseeker This is actually from a dwarf cetotheriid whale closely related to Herpetocetus, known chiefly from isolated earbones found between North Carolina and Florida. We have one of the only known skulls of this taxon here at CCNHM, CCNHM 304:

image.thumb.png.9f6aa4e836e68a44fdc6a7256d9699c1.png

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1 hour ago, Boesse said:

Hey all! Sorry for being gone. @Shellseeker This is actually from a dwarf cetotheriid whale closely related to Herpetocetus, known chiefly from isolated earbones found between North Carolina and Florida. We have one of the only known skulls of this taxon here at CCNHM, CCNHM 304:

image.thumb.png.9f6aa4e836e68a44fdc6a7256d9699c1.png

God, I really love an ID!!! and thanks very much for the photos. Bobby,  I am willing to donate , if that makes sense.. :raindance::megdance:

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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55 minutes ago, Boesse said:

@Shellseeker Do you know which stratum it was derived from?

I have shared many of my finds with Richard Hulbert. In Florida , the Blancan was (4.75 to 1.6 mya). I have found a number of Blancan fauna at this location, which I have found no where else, but I mostly hunt Pliocene_Pleistocene.

Marine species: 

Note: All vertebrate fossil sites of the Bl1 interval in Florida derive from marine deposits, and no terrestrial mammals are known. Typical fossils of this interval are sharks, rays, bony fish, seals, walrus, dugongs, and whales. Most are species continuing from the late Hemphillian NALMA. The Bl1 does include the earliest known occurrences in Florida of Carcharodon carcharias and the last known occurrences of the sharks Carcharocles megalodon, Carcharodon hastalis, and Hemiprisitis serra, the baleen whale Balaenoptera cortesii (= Balaenoptera floridana), the walrus Ontocetus emmonsi, and the dugong Corystosiren varguezi.  I have also found a number of whale teeth both large and small.

BlancanFauna2.JPG.2e8796548b7a07248b9e6bdb81c6e18b.JPG

 

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Hmmm.  The Blancan NALMA (North American Land Mammal Age) is a biochronological period based on the last and first appearance of LAND MAMMALS.  It seems somehow discordant to see the age applied to fish and marine mammals.  There are other terms used for marine ages.  

I'm not saying that "Blancan fish" or "Blancan whale" is wrong, or not useful in speaking casually; but, it does sound strange to me.

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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@Harry Pristis Certainly seems strange at first, but on the Atlantic coastal plain - especially in Florida where you have these coastal deposits that have a number of faunas with both marine and land mammals - indicating that the fauna as a whole corresponds to a particular NALMA is actually pretty common in the literature (e.g. Morgan 1994, below):

image.png.bf914dac36bba730296b65447a0679ff.png

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2 hours ago, Boesse said:

@Harry Pristis Certainly seems strange at first, but on the Atlantic coastal plain - especially in Florida where you have these coastal deposits that have a number of faunas with both marine and land mammals - indicating that the fauna as a whole corresponds to a particular NALMA is actually pretty common in the literature (e.g. Morgan 1994, below):

 

Thank you, Bobby, I guess I really hadn't paid attention until Jack posted the NOTE above.  But, I also see that the practice you illustrate is not universally used, as with this whale paper:

 

abstract.JPG.d836bdd0ef7f2536d78590b292c33bee.JPG

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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No, far from universal; some researchers tend to use NALMAs more frequently than others. For example, Larry Barnes tended to always indicate the NALMA correlation even for units where no land mammals were known on the west coast (this paper is a rare exception for him). I generally don't, in favor of international marine stages, and in my own papers, only when land mammal tie-ins are known from the same unit. If no land mammals, I might as well also include NZ marine stages, European mammal ages, the price of tea in India, etc.

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