Jalama Beach Success!

[hardlyatwork]

With the forecast calling for temps in the high nineties to possible triple digits in our neck of the woods, it was an easy decision to make. We were headed for the coast! The choices were either Gaviota or Jalama beach. Both gave us the chance to find fossilized whale bone and inverts but one was a farther drive. In the end we chose the farther of the two, that being Jalama beach, as it is a more secluded (or so we thought) area and we had only been there once before.

Well I forgot it was summer break so the place was packed with campers and day users. We found a parking spot loaded up the gear and headed south. Working our way down the line we found lots of bits and pieces of fish in some freshly fallen material. Speaking of which I would caution anyone who visits the place to be extremely careful as the material was quite loose in some places and i almost got caught in a small rock slide.

After my wife found the first complete piece it was on. You know the feeling where all the material around you becomes a blur and you can't stop splitting rock because the next piece could be "the one". My arms felt like jello but it was worth it. We ended the day with 4 complete pieces and some other odds/ends. I think one of them is possibly a viper fish. Another piece looks more like an amphibian than fish head. Identification on all the pieces would be appreciated.

Beach combing didn't produce any whale bone just a pelicans skull and some bony plates from a chiton. That was good enough for us.

All in all it was an awesome day spent away from the heat with my best friend.The bonus, some cool finds to add to the case!

[RyanNREMTP]

Very cool finds. Looks like it was a productive trip.

[KYAL]

Those are some really nice looking fossils. Congratulations!!

[Auspex]

Nice! Well done

[bluepickup]

Wow, nice little fish!

My wife is from near there and I've been there a couple times, but for some reason didn't look for anything.

I'm kicking myself now.

I know what you mean about the rock slides.

I did hunt further inland once, in a canyon along a river. The slide potential made me quite nervous.

[Fossildude19]

This PDF may be useful in helping to identify your finds.

Very nice fish, indeed. Thanks for posting them.

Regards,

[fossilized6s]

Very cool little guys! Congrats on the finds.

[JustPlainPetrified]

Great outing!

[Fossildude19]

The skull I believe is a fish skull, but looks strange because it is flattened dorso-ventrally - (squashed down from the top).

That is making it appear wider than it actually is.

The round item looks familiar, but I am unable to remember where I have seen such before, and what it is.

Regards,

Ah! Found it. It may be an impression of a fossilized vertebral epiphysis? One similar HERE.

[hardlyatwork]

This PDF may be useful in helping to identify your finds.

Very nice fish, indeed. Thanks for posting them.

Regards,

Thanks for the link fossildude19!

The skull I believe is a fish skull, but looks strange because it is flattened dorso-ventrally - (squashed down from the top).

That is making it appear wider than it actually is.

The round item looks familiar, but I am unable to remember where I have seen such before, and what it is.

Regards,

Ah! Found it. It may be an impression of a fossilized vertebral epiphysis? One similar HERE.

Yes i see what you are talking about. I just can't get over how lizard like it looks.

I also suspect the round "button" is a vertebrae of some sort.

PRK was nice enough to point me to his post on Miocene deep water fishes. So i possibly have a cyclothone sp (bristlemouth) and an eastern pacific viperfish.

[old bones]

Great finds! The fish are neat and that skull is eerie. What detail!

[Fossildude19]

...Yes i see what you are talking about. I just can't get over how lizard like it looks.

Keep in mind that these were salt water/ocean deposits, and therefore, lizard or amphibian finds would be highly unlikely.

Not totally out of the realm of possibility, but, not too probable, either.

Regards,

[hardlyatwork]

Keep in mind that these were salt water/ocean deposits, and therefore, lizard or amphibian finds would be highly unlikely.

Not totally out of the realm of possibility, but, not too probable, either.

Regards,

true, but its still nice to dream

[jcbshark]

Very nice finds , congrats!

[siteseer]

Tim,

I agree that it looks like an impression of an epiphysis or even the vertebra it was attached to. It is small but in the size range of a young dolphin.

Jess

The skull I believe is a fish skull, but looks strange because it is flattened dorso-ventrally - (squashed down from the top).

That is making it appear wider than it actually is.

The round item looks familiar, but I am unable to remember where I have seen such before, and what it is.

Regards,

Ah! Found it. It may be an impression of a fossilized vertebral epiphysis? One similar HERE.

[TNGray]

Building on the success of HardlyatWork, we journeyed the two hours to Jalama on Friday.

All of these came from the shingle. Lots of splitting required.

Some of the highlights..

[RyanNREMTP]

Nice fishing trip I would say.