A few Lee Creek unknowns

[Parthicus]

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at posting photos, hope it works. Anyway, I have a few Lee Creek vertebrate fossils that I'd like some help identifying. I got them a couple of years ago on Ebay as part of a group of miscellaneous Lee Creek vertebrate stuff- various shark teeth, some bony fish remains, and several small cetacean teeth and bones. Here's what I've been able to figure out:

1. Unknown bone. Not sure if this is fish or mammal. I am hoping the distinctive "pebbly" surface on one side is diagnostic, otherwise it is destined to remain as "chunkosaur" (or whatever the mammalian equivalent of "chunkosaur" is.)

2. I am pretty sure this is a bird bone, but is anyone willing to hazard a more specific guess (even to the family level)? I am also an avid birder, so having an ID'd bird fossil would be a cool way to unite the two hobbies.

3. Unknown tooth. It doesn't seem to be shark, but I don't know what it is. There is no trace of serrations along the edge.

Thanks for any help you can give!

[siteseer]

I think #3 is a squalodont whale incisor. Not sure.

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at posting photos, hope it works. Anyway, I have a few Lee Creek vertebrate fossils that I'd like some help identifying. I got them a couple of years ago on Ebay as part of a group of miscellaneous Lee Creek vertebrate stuff- various shark teeth, some bony fish remains, and several small cetacean teeth and bones. Here's what I've been able to figure out:

1. Unknown bone. Not sure if this is fish or mammal. I am hoping the distinctive "pebbly" surface on one side is diagnostic, otherwise it is destined to remain as "chunkosaur" (or whatever the mammalian equivalent of "chunkosaur" is.)

2. I am pretty sure this is a bird bone, but is anyone willing to hazard a more specific guess (even to the family level)? I am also an avid birder, so having an ID'd bird fossil would be a cool way to unite the two hobbies.

3. Unknown tooth. It doesn't seem to be shark, but I don't know what it is. There is no trace of serrations along the edge.

Thanks for any help you can give!

birdtooth.jpgbumpybone.jpg

[Al Dente]

The bumps on number one look like the little teeth found on a billfish rostrum. I think you have a fragment of a rostrum. Number two looks like part of one of the phalanges or metacarpals from a seal.

[Parthicus]

Thanks for the suggestions, site seer and Al Dente! The squalodont incisor theory seems to fit #1 perfectly- it looks very much like the squalodont incisor photos I found online, and the group of fossils this came with included a squalodont molar, so it makes sense that an incisor might also be present. The billfish rostrum and seal digit ideas seem not quite as definitively proved, but after looking up related photos online they do at least seem plausible. Too bad if #2 turns out not to be a bird after all- I was excited to get a bird fossil!