Several Bones From Sooke Fm, Vancouver Isl, Bc, Cda

[ssuntok]

These are all from the Sooke Fm, southern Vancouver Isl . I previously found cetacean vertebrae at this locality (see thread at http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/29164-cenozoic-vert/). Here are some new finds, with my guesses (I stress these are uneducated guesses) at what they might be:

The first is a centrum (shark?) approx 2 inches in diameter:


The next two pics were found beside one another (less than 2 inches apart); the first appears to be a scapula (poorly preserved) while the second appears to be an atlas vertebra, possibly from a small cetacean? :


This last one has me completely stumped. Small shore-line mammals have been found here in the past, as well as cetaceans and desmostylus. The only thing I can find online that looks even remotely like this is a cetacean "earbone" - could this be a fragment of one? :


Maybe Boesse will see this and weigh in. Any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated.

Lastly, if anyone has a copy of The Fauna of the Sooke Formation (Clark & Arnold, 1923) and a link they can post, I'd sure appreciate it. I can't seem to get my hands on a copy of that paper. Thanks everyone for looking.

Cheers

Steve

Edited August 30, 2013 by ssuntok

[Boesse]

Hey Steve,

That's definitely an axis vertebra from a small cetacean (it looks to be an odontocete, but it just as well could be from an aetiocetid mysticete), and the other vert could be from a shark... but the photo quality is a little to low to tell. Could you post some more photos where the contrast isn't all crazy?

The big flat element... does not appear to be a scapula. Could you please post some more photos of that? And also, the last item doesn't really look like an earbone... but it is also very hard to tell from the photos what it is. Could you post some more? Some more angles, and perhaps some larger photos where the contrast is less extreme would help. Lastly, Cornwallius sookensis is the desmostylian known from the Sooke Formation; Desmostylus is strictly Miocene.

Bobby

[siteseer]

Hey Steve,

You might have a hard time finding a PDF of that unless there's some paleo student/researcher who really had to have that paper and made a PDF for himself/herself. It's over 100 pages. For one thing, few universities would have a full run of the journal (University of Calif. Publication of Geol. Sciences), and of those that have a good number of issues, some of the older issues have deteriorated (chipped or missing pages) and some pages were miscut in any case. I can see what the USGS library in Menlo Park, CA has on hand and let you know (that library has a decent run of them as you might expect). I plan to stop there one day next week if I have a short day at work.

Jess

Lastly, if anyone has a copy of The Fauna of the Sooke Formation (Clark & Arnold, 1923) and a link they can post, I'd sure appreciate it. I can't seem to get my hands on a copy of that paper. Thanks everyone for looking.

Cheers

Steve

[FossilDAWG]

The University of British Columbia library had a copy when I was there (1989 when I left).

Don

[ssuntok]

Thanks everyone. I will take some better photos this weekend and post on monday. Thx so much for helping me out here

have a great wkend in the meantime

steve

[ssuntok]

New pics - i think the photo resizer i was using had preset image quality "adjustments". I've deleted those adjustments, so hopefully these look a whole lot better.

The atlas (axis?) vert:

The ?shark? vert, front back and from the side:

The earbone?:

[ssuntok]

...and here's several views of what i've been calling the scapula?

front:

back side:

detail of "base":

more angles:

also thought i'd throw this into the mix - i've been finding a few ribs out there, but this one's the most complete:

[Auspex]

I think, comparing it to a Google Image search, a whale scapula is what you have.

Bobby knows best, though, so don't print labels just yet...

[ssuntok]

I think, comparing it to a Google Image search, a whale scapula is what you have.

Bobby knows best, though, so don't print labels just yet...

lol auspex. i knew you'd be one of the first to reply, and i thought it was whale scapula too. but that's just from google image search as well - i shall wait to hear what Boesse has to say

[Boesse]

Ok - the little bone is the distal epiphysis of an "enaliarctine" pinniped femur... probably Enaliarctos. The scapula is from a large odontocete, and the rib... is probably cetacean as well.

Bobby

[ssuntok]

Thanks Bobby. Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply actually. have a good one

cheers

steve

[ssuntok]

4 inch tibiotarsus fr same location today

[Auspex]

4 inch tibiotarsus fr same location today

20130804_160311-1.jpg

Ooh yeah; good one!

[ssuntok]

Thx Auspex.

It appears to be the first known bird material from that formation - quite exciting actually. It's going to the museum, and I hope it gets written up/studied. Very exciting for an amateur like myself!

I should know within a matter of weeks what the ID is on it, and will post more info once I've met with the curator in a couple weeks' time

[ssuntok]

The latest post has been preliminarily identified by Gary Kaiser of the Royal British Columbia Museum as the tibiotarsus of a cormorant-like bird from the uppermost oligocene. Only the second Aves fossil found at this site, and the first one in over 120 years.

It is now deposited at the RBCM, along with all the other bones depicted in this thread.

[RichW9090]

Excellent find, Steve, and thanks for depositing them with the museum. Has someone committed to writing the bird bone up?

Rich

[Auspex]

Wow! Excellent! I wonder whether they'll refer it to Palaeochenoides (though that Genus is disputed)?

[ssuntok]

Excellent find, Steve, and thanks for depositing them with the museum. Has someone committed to writing the bird bone up?

Rich

Hi rich

Yes, dr. Gareth dyke (Dublin) and Gary Kaiser are gping to write it up kindly.

I was down in Scottsdale couple months ago - beautiful place you live in there!

[RichW9090]

Great! I'll look forward to seeing their report. Let us know where it gets published, eh?

[Wrangellian]

Just saw you on the news, Steve!

Congrats on the find.

[ssuntok]

Will do Rich.

Thanks Eric - that was pretty cool

Have a great weekend everybody

[Fossildude19]

Nice write up about the bird find HERE.

Congratulations Steve.

Regards,

[RichW9090]

I think we have a fossil of the month nominee!

[Wrangellian]

Front page of the Times-Colonist today, too - bigger story than I thought! (Verts garner so much more attention )

[Wrangellian]

Nice write up about the bird find HERE.

Congratulations Steve.

Regards,

Thanks for that, Tim

I wonder what is meant when it said:

“People actually dig these up in big blocks and chip away at it for the winter months, hoping they’re going to find a shark’s tooth or something,” Kaiser says. It’s a practice that can destroy precious evidence of both provincial and global heritage, says Richard Hebda, curator of botany and earth history at RBCM.

I suspect something was lost in translation, but who is digging up big blocks, how big, from where, and how does it destroy precious evidence, if it's exactly that evidence that they are looking for (and as long as the block's location of origin is recorded)?