Distinctive bone

[Shellseeker]

I try to get my fossil friends to join TFF, but still have a few who want my help in gettng odd finds here.  All I have in the photos.

Found in Gulf of Mexico while hunting Megs. @Boesse Maybe a process of a Baleen whale earbone. The grooved side seems possible, but the other side reminds me of jaw.  The Gulf collects both marine and land animal fossils,  just a lot more marine naturally.

[Al Dente]

42 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

but the other side reminds me of jaw. 

 

I think it is a part of a cetacean lower jaw. Looks like the midsection with tooth sockets on either side.

[Shellseeker]

4 hours ago, Al Dente said:

 

I think it is a part of a cetacean lower jaw. Looks like the midsection with tooth sockets on either side.

I believe that that is a prime possibility.. and now my mind goes speculation..  The bone seems to by 5 x 1.5 inch. To make sense, the groves would be pointing up.  The distance between teeth from the 2 sides of jaw would be close....A small Kogiopsis would fit the bill or maybe a large predatory dolphin...

 

The deep "V" down the center of the underside may be telling.

 

 

[Boesse]

This is indeed the middle part of a longirostrine dolphin mandible, and the side of the mandible that would be lateral to the teeth has spalled away.