Miocene era deposit, east coast south island New Zealand. Ribs of some kind - dolphin?

[inyenzi]

Hello,

 

I found this bone cluster in a Miocene era beach deposit on the east coast of the South Island New Zealand. Appears to be ribs of some kind, 5 in total. Perhaps some sort of dolphin? Any help identifying the type of animal this came from would be much appreciated. Scale is in inches. Thanks!

[Fossildude19]

@Boesse  @mamlambo  @Doctor Mud

[mamlambo]

Hi @inyanzi! Those are some cool looking bones, and they sure look like ribs that I have found before. I wouldn't be able to say the species, there are a few animals of that size that are found in the area: whales, pilot whales, dolphins, turtles, fish (probably not by the look of this), seals and probably a few I have forgotten. Maybe someone else knows how to ID those bones to a specific type.

[Boesse]

Hey all sorry for the delay, this looks like a classic concretion of the Mount Harris Formation and I am assuming this is from just a few miles south of Oamaru =]

 

Definitely cetacean ribs, though I suspect actually baleen whale, none of the dolphins are very large. There are dozens of concretions collected from that area by RE Fordyce and stored in the OU Geology Museum collection.

[inyenzi]

On 9/12/2022 at 8:01 PM, mamlambo said:

Hi @inyanzi! Those are some cool looking bones, and they sure look like ribs that I have found before. I wouldn't be able to say the species, there are a few animals of that size that are found in the area: whales, pilot whales, dolphins, turtles, fish (probably not by the look of this), seals and probably a few I have forgotten. Maybe someone else knows how to ID those bones to a specific type.

 

Hey Mamlambo. I'm a huge fan of your youtube videos! Thanks so much for the response - that billfish you found was incredible.

 

On 10/6/2022 at 11:11 AM, Boesse said:

Hey all sorry for the delay, this looks like a classic concretion of the Mount Harris Formation and I am assuming this is from just a few miles south of Oamaru =]

 

Definitely cetacean ribs, though I suspect actually baleen whale, none of the dolphins are very large. There are dozens of concretions collected from that area by RE Fordyce and stored in the OU Geology Museum collection.

 

Awesome! Thanks for sharing and helping - I'll have to check out the collection myself one day.