Hamstead Mammal Calcaneum

[TXV24]

Hi, 

 

Had a very wet and windy trip to Hamstead this morning and amongst the usual finds of crocodile, turtle, and fish I stumbled upon this large and fairly unworn piece of a mammal calcaneum (fairly unworn for hamstead) at the base of a mudslide on the foreshore. The cuboid is missing and so is the rest of the calcaneum but apart from that the articulatory processes are almost intact. It's somewhat larger than the calcaneum I found a few weeks back (posted up on here), which was later identified as anthracothere by my local museum (so most likely Bothriodon), the articulatory process is also at a different angle. The mudslide was from the Bembridge Marls which is pre-grand coupre and dates to roughly the Eocene - Oligocene boundary but I'm unsure as to whether it is from there, possibly explaining why it's less worn than usual, or was washed into the mudslide by the sea.  

 

I'll attach pictures below in multiple posts because of size limits, including a comparison with the smaller anthracothere (The unidentified calcaneum is on the right)