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ConnieS

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Oligocene? Are you saying that this piece could be that old? I'm gonna need a chair...quickly.

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I'm developing a taste for crow... :blush:

Please pass the salt.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I'm developing a taste for crow... :blush:

Please pass the salt.

I was gonna click your comment as informative, LOL! I've eaten a ton of it... remove feathers first if ya do! :P

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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Oligocene? Are you saying that this piece could be that old? I'm gonna need a chair...quickly.

Mostly Oligocene with some late Eocene.

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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Here's a crab (Pulalius Vulgaris) from a site not too far from your site. Same material as the shell and skull.

post-7395-0-82433100-1373305156_thumb.jpg

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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Here's a picture of the Oligocene of North and Central America, our area of the Pacific NW was sea floor then with lots of volcanic activity, plate collision with the formation of the Cascade range, and a huge amount of this material swept down to the sea.

post-7395-0-08220600-1373305466_thumb.jpg

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Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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I've learned more in the past two days... Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. And thanks to google and wiki for being there every time I had to copy and paste one of the words you nice folks have used. :)

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That is definitely a small odontocete skull - but it doesn't really look like anything that was around in the Oligocene. Instead, it really looks to me to be a small delphinoid - either a kentriodontid (the earliest delphinoids, common in the early to late Miocene), or a phocoenid or delphinid. I know that there are early Miocene rocks on the west coast of Washington, and I'm wondering if there are any rocks that are a tad younger than that. Here in NZ we have kentriodontids in the early Miocene, so I suspect that a delphinoid in the early Miocene of Washington is not unheard of.

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Total newbie here. Can anyone identify the animal this bone used to belong to? I'm not certain it's fossilized, but the bone feels to me as if it has turned to stone. It was found at Ocean Shores, WA.

Would appreciate anything anyone can tell me about it. The more details, the more ethralled the grandkids get. :)

Thanks much for any help.

Very nice find Connie S. Well spotted. Thanks to Bobby for shedding light on this find too so now we know what this is. I bet the grandkids will love this outcome.

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I looked up images of an odontocete skull and I can easily see my fossil's shape in them. No air holes, but everything else looks to be a perfect match. On one of the many sites I've visited over the past three days it said something about how the nose migrated on one type of marine species. With no air holes near the eyes, does this mean my odontocete was from the period when the nose had migrated to the end of the 'snout'? (If this migration even applies to the odontocete.) Or maybe that's where the nose began, making mine the older version of nose placement. It was so many web sites ago that I don't remember the direction of the nose migration.

You people have amazed me with your skills. Hugs all 'round. :)

My family is thrilled by this. All these years I've been showing it to people saying it's probably a dog or cat pelvis, maybe a few hundred years old. Maybe a thousand years old? I couldn't fathom being so lucky as to stumble upon something like that so dismissed the notion. But it's really cool looking and people have always enjoyed looking at it even though I was sooooo wrong about what it is. Things have now changed. We're all looking at it with the proper reverence.

And while I'm still adjusting to having my mind blown, can anyone estimate the age of those two shell fossils?

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great find.

now mr. a.u. spex, don't you go bogartin' all that crow! leave's me some! i'll certainly be circling back soon for my regular portion...

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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great find.

now mr. a.u. spex, don't you go bogartin' all that crow! leave's me some! i'll certainly be circling back soon for my regular portion...

Fear not, this is an apparently inexhaustible resource...

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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In picture #3, the occidental (can't remember the proper/full term) is easy to see.

Occipital Condyle?

Great find!

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Occipital Condyle?

Thanks! ;)

Edited by CH4ShotCaller

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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Yay! Hahaha! And nice shells!!! Thanks for sharing! Hope you make a separate post with some of your other finds. :D Or finds from future hunts with your grand kids? Glad you got an ID! I'd be tickled pink if I were you! :)

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Yay! Hahaha! And nice shells!!! Thanks for sharing! Hope you make a separate post with some of your other finds. :D Or finds from future hunts with your grand kids? Glad you got an ID! I'd be tickled pink if I were you! :)

I'm tickled several shades of pink. I've been showing it to all my neighbors. I'm such a little kid when it comes to things like this. :)

I'll be sure to post what I learn from the palaeontologist. This has been so much fun! Thanks to all for sharing in it. :)

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I've got a beach-worn large femur type bone found near Ocean Shores. I'll get a pic and post it... I think it's in the flower garden. Did you find yours on the west or east side of the spit? Mine was from the eastern side of that spit. Thinking I'll take another walk that way while the weather's good.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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I've got a beach-worn large femur type bone found near Ocean Shores. I'll get a pic and post it... I think it's in the flower garden. Did you find yours on the west or east side of the spit? Mine was from the eastern side of that spit. Thinking I'll take another walk that way while the weather's good.

West side of the spit. I'm not sure I've ever really properly combed the east side. The agates seem to be on the west side and that's what I look for (well, that and shells, beach glass, and piddock rocks - standard beach comber fare (although the piddock rocks might be a quirk particular to me)). I found it towards the tip of the point, in the area above the rock beds (a bit of grass here and there, some larger pieces of driftwood, closer to the SS Catala's grave than to the water - know the area I'm refering to?). You definitely need to get out there in this beautiful weather we've been having. Me too!

Looking forward to seeing your pic of the femur type bone. I wonder if I've ever seen anything like it at the beach but didn't know what I was looking at.

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I think (I've found material on both sides) tidal influences over the years eroded and cut material out of the bay and deposit on both sides, predominantly on the south western edge of the spit. Had a fella tell me if you look hard enough, you'll find geodes in the beach gravel. Those are clam/mollusk fossils worn down and exposing calcite crystals. It's a good area to collect. I found most during the winter after a big storm, not many folks out there and the pickin's are better.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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I think (I've found material on both sides) tidal influences over the years eroded and cut material out of the bay and deposit on both sides, predominantly on the south western edge of the spit. Had a fella tell me if you look hard enough, you'll find geodes in the beach gravel. Those are clam/mollusk fossils worn down and exposing calcite crystals. It's a good area to collect. I found most during the winter after a big storm, not many folks out there and the pickin's are better.

I've never found a geode there. I'll try to look harder. After a winter storm is definitely the best time to comb. I've been known to comb during a storm. When I drive that far, I get out there no matter the weather. I make it a looong day trip so no turning back if it's miserable. And I have to stop at the Sand Castle for some fried bread on my way out of town. :)

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Here's that item I found, it's in advanced stages of weathering from wave action, not too far from your find. But, it was not on that spit, I found it between the jetty and the sewage treatment plant. I know, here come the coprolite jokes.

post-7395-0-53452200-1373486904_thumb.jpg

post-7395-0-96870200-1373487008_thumb.jpg

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

crabes-07.gif

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I would have totally missed that. Makes me wonder what I am missing down here in Alabama!

You have one beautiful fossil there! :envy:

Gabe

I like crinoids......

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