Englewood Florida Beach Fossil IDs

[Cyoder2020]

Hello! This is my first post, so I'll try to get all the details right. I would love to get better at ID'ing the items we pick up on our trips to Englewood Florida.  Here are some of the more interesting ones we have picked up over the past few days.  These were found in Stump Pass and on the private beach section by our condo just adjacent.  They were all either just washed up or rolling around in the waves. Some could totally be just rocks, but they looked cool to me! 

 

Item 1 (pictures 1-3)

Item 2 (pictures 4-6)

Item 3 (pictures 7-9)

Item 4 (pictures 10-12)

Item 5 (pictures 13-15)

Item 6 (pictures 16-17)

[aek]

I think you have some weathered dugong bones.

[Cyoder2020]

Thanks! Would you say they are all dugong? 

[aek]

Most likely , yes.

[FossilNerd]

I think they look like weathered bone as well, but I’m no expert in Floridian fossils.
 

Maybe @digit @Shellseeker @Bone Daddy could chime in. 

[PODIGGER]

I think #1 is probably turtle.  I am pretty sure #3 is turtle.

[PODIGGER]

I would agree #6 is dugong.  The others do not appear to be solid enough to be identified as dugong.  You don't usually see any "honey comb" appearance in the interior of fossilized dugong bones.

[Cyoder2020]

16 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

I think they look like weathered bone as well, but I’m no expert in Floridian fossils.
 

Maybe @digit @Shellseeker @Bone Daddy could chime in. 

Thank you! 

[Cyoder2020]

9 minutes ago, PODIGGER said:

I would agree #6 is dugong.  The others do not appear to be solid enough to be identified as dugong.  You don't usually see any "honey comb" appearance in the interior of fossilized dugong bones.

Interesting! So does size indicate turtle for you on 1 and 3? Or is it the shape?

[Shellseeker]

Here is a way I think about it.  Over the last 500000 years, billions of land and sea mammals have died and drop their bones and teeth on the Florida land mass to be  broken, pulverized, eroded away to tiny remnants of their previous forms. A very small % have been fossilized.  We get to analyze the remains and puzzle over what it might have been.

By far the most common bones come from turtle, dugong, horse.  So, pick up a random bone segment and it has a better probability of being one of those.

Podigger has been picking up those bones for a long time. He detects subtle hints in the texture that might imply one mammal over another,  like the density of dugong rib or the shape and porous nature of turtle shell.  I tend to agree with his insights, but it is all guesswork... Eventually, if you see millions of bones , you also will be able to suggest those identifications.

I prefer going from bone fragments to complete fossilized bones  contained in Natural History Museums or in the captured history of this forum and imagine what might happen to the bone broken, pulverized and eroded.

 

I have been trying to identify a bone that I thought was turtle and some have suggested a flipper bone.  It has some similarity to your 1st bone.  I find this hobby fascinating.  Welcome to the hobby and to TFF.

 

[Cyoder2020]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

Here is a way I think about it.  Over the last 500000 years, billions of land and sea mammals have died and drop their bones and teeth on the Florida land mass to be  broken, pulverized, eroded away to tiny remnants of their previous forms. A very small % have been fossilized.  We get to analyze the remains and puzzle over what it might have been.

By far the most common bones come from turtle, dugong, horse.  So, pick up a random bone segment and it has a better probability of being one of those.

Podigger has been picking up those bones for a long time. He detects subtle hints in the texture that might imply one mammal over another,  like the density of dugong rib or the shape and porous nature of turtle shell.  I tend to agree with his insights, but it is all guesswork... Eventually, if you see millions of bones , you also will be able to suggest those identifications.

I prefer going from bone fragments to complete fossilized bones  contained in Natural History Museums or in the captured history of this forum and imagine what might happen to the bone broken, pulverized and eroded.

 

I have been trying to identify a bone that I thought was turtle and some have suggested a flipper bone.  It has some similarity to your 1st bone.  I find this hobby fascinating.  Welcome to the hobby and to TFF.

 

This is great! Thanks! I look forward to researching more! Looking at full bone structures is a great suggestion.