Fossil Walrus Jaw, Found Offshore Nj

[jpevahouse]

Bought this fossil walrus jaw while vacationing at the Jersey Shore recently from a source who obtains fossils dredged from the ocean bottom by clam and scallop trawlers.

I would bet money someone is going to say it isn't a walrus jaw but walrus bones are routinely brought up by dredging in the area where this fossil was found. It's 10 inches in length.

Someone did suggest it's a turtle jaw. Yes, does kinda look like a sea turtle jaw but upon close examination displays various differences, like the holes from the roots of teeth. Turtles don't have teeth, at least that I know of, like chickens. The substance is very heavy, solid chalk like bone.

I suspect walrus lived along the central and north eastern coast somewhat earlier than mastodons whose remains are also found along the shore. Walrus like an arctic, ice age climate. Mastodon remains found in NJ have been dated at about 10,000 to 12, 700 years which is after the ice sheets melted, receeded into Canada and the climate was becoming milder.

Edited August 30, 2014 by jpevahouse

[Auspex]

Lots of good stuff gets dredged up off the mid-Atlantic coast, abd walrus material is some of the most interesting: LINK