A couple of unusual periotics

[Shellseeker]

Hunting this week,  and the highlights of one trip were 2 ear bones, one small dolphin and one larger.

The dolphin is smaller than any I have ever found, @Boesse

 

and then another,  somewhat similar to Equus but a lot bigger,  somewhat similar to mastodon but smaller.  A couple of years back,  @PrehistoricFlorida put a 2 inch mastodon ear bone up on online.  I now wish I had purchased it for comparison purposes. Mastodon on the left of 1st photo. My new find is L 39 H 46 W 28 mm. There is not a lot of material out there on fossil mammal ear bones.  Let me know if you see the similarities....

 

 

 

[Boesse]

I still have no idea how to interpret land mammal earbones and cannot comment on the second one - but the first one is easy - it's from a pontoporiid dolphin, which are small shallow marine "river" dolphins closely related to the modern franciscana or La Plata River Dolphin of Argentina. Auroracetus and Stenasodelphis are known from the late Miocene and Pliocene of North Carolina and Maryland (respectively) and isolated periotics of cf. Pontoporia (but could be Auroracetus) are reported from the Lee Creek Mine.

[Shellseeker]

Thank you, Bobby..

I did not see your reply until late , and then up early to hunt today. Needless to say this is my very first fossil from a pontoporiid dolphin, and I was hunting an area that produces mostly Miocene fossils.

 

I have a new fauna to learn, and will attempt to do so the next couple of days.

[Plantguy]

Another couple nice and very interesting/different finds Jack! Ear bones continue to amaze me as well! Continued hunting success!

Regards, Chris 

[Shellseeker]

1 hour ago, Plantguy said:

Another couple nice and very interesting/different finds Jack! Ear bones continue to amaze me as well! Continued hunting success!

Regards, Chris 

Thanks,  Chris.  I feel real comfortable when I pick up a marine mammal earbone and need an ID.  (Mostly because of Bobby). However,  when it comes to land mammal ear bones, (with the exceptions of Equus and Mammoth/Mastodon), I generally feel lost...