Whitby area finds

[dhiggi]

Here are three pieces that I have found in the Whitby area (North Yorkshire, UK), all found on the same area of beach but at different times. 
I have posted the top one on here before but was unable to get any firm ID, but the other two are more recent finds. The larger one in the middle I feel bears at least a slight resemblance to fragments of ichthyosaur jaw that I have seen on sale in various places, which I suppose is what has made me hang on to these.

 

Thank you for looking

[dhiggi]

Here’s one such example that I have seen for sale online as a piece of jaw of Ichthyosaurus communis from Lyme Regis

[dhiggi]

Any thoughts anyone? @TqB @LiamL ?

[FranzBernhard]

Any chance of fossil wood?

 

23 hours ago, dhiggi said:

Here’s one such example that I have seen for sale online as a piece of jaw of Ichthyosaurus communis from Lyme Regis

Now I am really curious! How did they come to that conclusion? Is it the shape of the cross section?

Another question: If these are really jaw fragments, why turn they up so often? Are they more stable than all the rest of the bones? Sorry, I know nothing about this animals, I am just curious. Thanks! 

Franz Bernhard

[dhiggi]

19 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Any chance of fossil wood?

 

Now I am really curious! How did they come to that conclusion? Is it the shape of the cross section?

Another question: If these are really jaw fragments, why turn they up so often? Are they more stable than all the rest of the bones? Sorry, I know nothing about this animals, I am just curious. Thanks! 

Franz Bernhard

I know of no reason to disagree with wood.

 

 I have seen a few pieces in different places like this described as Ichthyosaur jaw without seeing good reason for it. 
Vertebrae are probably the most common find of ichthyosaurs, I have a couple from a different beach in the area. From smaller ichthyosaurs I suppose the ribs, paddle bones, teeth etc would be very small and tough to find among the shale 

[FranzBernhard]

6 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

I know of no reason to disagree with wood.

That´s quite diplomatic .

 

7 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

like this described as Ichthyosaur jaw without seeing good reason for it.

That´s a . Hopefully, other members will chime in to enlighten us.

 

10 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

Vertebrae are probably the most common find of ichthyosaurs, I have a couple from a different beach in the area. From smaller ichthyosaurs I suppose the ribs, paddle bones, teeth etc would be very small and tough to find among the shale 

Thanks for the info! Makes sense!
Franz Bernhard

[LiamL]

They look like wood to me. The top ones a nice example

[dhiggi]

4 minutes ago, LiamL said:

They look like wood to me. The top ones a nice example

Thanks for having a look, yeah the top one really stood out among the shale. Really heavy too

[TqB]

I agree the two larger ones are wood, with obvious growth rings.

I'm not sure about the smaller brown piece. The end section does look possibly like bone - can you do a clearer shot of it? (The camera is tending to focus on your fingers - maybe you could mount the piece on blu tac, and use daylight (if there is any!).)

 

Here's a definite ichthyosaur jaw element, from a near complete skull I found in the Grey Shales many years ago.

 

[dhiggi]

Thank you @TqB

I’m incredibly jealous of that skull.

I placed a bid on a partial skull this week in an online auction of around double the estimate; it made around 8 times the estimate in the end. At least I didn’t miss it be pennies I suppose.

 

Sundays are my only day off work and as the tides only permit a short, early walk tomorrow I should be home in daylight for once; I’ll get some better pictures up then

[dhiggi]

@TqB

Here are some better views of that one in daylight 

 

 

[dhiggi]

And the ends of the other two

[TqB]

Thanks, @dhiggi, I'll go with stem of some sort for the first one. The ends don't show much detail so it may be a sediment pith cast.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

On 11/28/2020 at 10:50 AM, TqB said:

I agree the two larger ones are wood, with obvious growth rings.

I'm not sure about the smaller brown piece. The end section does look possibly like bone - can you do a clearer shot of it? (The camera is tending to focus on your fingers - maybe you could mount the piece on blu tac, and use daylight (if there is any!).)

 

Here's a definite ichthyosaur jaw element, from a near complete skull I found in the Grey Shales many years ago.

I agree the brown coloured one was the most promising. But as ichthyosaur jaws are smooth with parallel "gains" on both surfaces and should show vascularized bone texture in their cross-section - which that piece is lacking - I'd say wood is a good option for all three pieces.

[TqB]

1 hour ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

I agree the brown coloured one was the most promising. But as ichthyosaur jaws are smooth with parallel "gains" on both surfaces and should show vascularized bone texture in their cross-section - which that piece is lacking - I'd say wood is a good option for all three pieces.

Agreed.