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Hello, found this last Saturday at a beach in Galveston Island, Texas. Other fossils I’ve found there, are from the late Pleistocene (only around 20,000 years old). They come from the Beaumont Formation. 
I know this piece of bone is almost certainly from a fish. Does anyone recognize what bone this is, and from what species? 

It has a very weird shape, and something tells me that this is probably from a skull, possibly something similar to a sea robin skull plate.

Measures around 4.75 cm (1.87 inches long)

 

8A523E07-770B-41D0-B630-A53859278BA4.thumb.jpeg.19802b2c4afa7aad8300bca640202bad.jpeg

032C01A4-4BFC-4135-A21E-AF9A50496A01.thumb.jpeg.9e4c1d592dd48d940c66bc6d760806a0.jpeg

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"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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Reminds me of a fish skull roof. Afraid I can’t say anything more specific 

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“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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likely a fish neurocranium as @Jared C mentioned.  I'll look through some references to see if anything fits

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'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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It does indeed look like the top of a fish's skull. The rough patterning kind of reminds me of sturgeon. May be @Fossildude19 has ideas on this...

'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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Sea robin skull bit, I think.

 

Link to images.

 

ezgif.com-gif-maker.jpg

 

 

Image from HERE.

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    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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I second sturgeon. I have found many sea robin skull plates, and I would not consider this to be one.

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12-2023TFFsig.png.193bff42034b9285e960cff49786ba4e.png
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Possibly gar, but I doubt sturgeon. :unsure:  I'm still in the Sea robin camp, though. 

 

Atlantic Sturgeon skull

LINK to Original

13809784285_b43388f976_b.jpg

 

 

Tropical Gar

LINK to original

tropicalgar-FMNH-GarSummit2014-5788.jpg

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    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

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Another fish to consider would be hardhead catfish, very commonly found in Galveston.

 

 

 

Screenshot_20220420-081704__01__01__01.jpg.5baa1cad91723a541a6c74e03b35db1c.jpg

 

 

 

 

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18 hours ago, fossilus said:

Another fish to consider would be hardhead catfish, very commonly found in Galveston.


I think you hit the nail right on the head! It looks exactly like the bone in that photograph!

 

7BF7F90C-B3A5-4FA5-BB95-A9F96D903C23.thumb.png.ad6d96cadb75ae529c3116f35db6a510.png

 

So I guess I should label this as being a Hardhead Catfish neurocranium fragment.

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"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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5 hours ago, fossilus said:

Another fish to consider would be hardhead catfish, very commonly found in Galveston.

 

Nice ID! Always helps to have the local knowledge weigh in. :)

Thanks for posting this!

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    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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18 hours ago, fossilus said:

Another fish to consider would be hardhead catfish, very commonly found in Galveston.

 

 

 

Screenshot_20220420-081704__01__01__01.jpg.5baa1cad91723a541a6c74e03b35db1c.jpg

 

 

 

 

Good call!

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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