Cetacea? Fossils from Cape Town beach.

[Bran]

Hi everyone,

 

Found these two on Milnerton beach, Cape Town. I’m hazarding a guess that it’s cetacea, possibly flipper phalange?

 

I did find a paper on pliocene cetacea found about 10km further up the coast (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331004600_Fossil_cetaceans_from_Duinefontein_Koeberg_an_early_Pliocene_site_on_the_southwestern_Cape_South_Africa). Tried to contact the author but no answer yet.

 

I don’t know much about fossils so anything you can tell me about these would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

[Rockwood]

I think cetacean is a safe bet. It will take a good eye (experienced) to identify the elements however. 

The third photo has a turtle like look maybe ?

[Bran]

Just in case of confusion:

1; both side by side. 
2-5; top fossil from different sides

6-8; bottom fossil different sides 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Bran

[Mahnmut]

Hi Bran and welcome to the forum,

that flat but dimpled surface on the 3rd pic looks like maybe  a vertebra, where the intervertebral disc atached.

Otherwise there is mostly spongiosa visble, the spongelike interior of the bone. So with the original surface eroded away its nearly impossible to tell more about the pieces.

Something I would like to find anyway!

Best Regards,

J

[Bran]

So the paleontologist got back to me.

 

Top is too weathered to id but articulation surfaces look like it was a juvenile.

 

Bottom is possibly the distal end of a seal radius, but again very weathered.