Milnerton Beach: tooth or just bone?

[Max-fossils]

Hi all,

 

On my trip to South Africa, I went fossil hunting at some point (trip report hopefully coming soon). I went to a beach in Cape Town called Milnerton beach (famous for its extinct giant white (aka mako), great white and meg teeth). I also found a few other things, namely a few undefined bone pieces. Anyways in those bone pieces I found this one. It's kind of reminding me of some really thin mammoth tooth, maybe a piece of it? The third pic looks like a chewing surface. Have I really found something cool, or is my imagination just toying with me?

 

Also, does anyone know what epoch the fossils from Milnerton come from?

 

Best regards,

 

Max

 

[Max-fossils]

(The white/yellow stuff is coral stuck onto the fossil)

[abyssunder]

If you find the bone on the beach, it could be from a marine mammal. The encrusting whitish colored creature might be bryozoan, in my thinking.

[powelli1]

Hi it looks like part of a broken cetacean vertebrae to me, in the third photo you can the top of it with out the cap. George

[abyssunder]

That was in my thought, also.

 

" Fossil Bones and Early Stone Age Artefacts at the Lagoon Mouth

Fossils of Miocene and/or Pliocene age (12-3 million years), when the sea level was over 40 m above the present, have been recovered from the beach at the lagoon mouth. Tankard (1975) notes the existence of Miocene marine deposits with fossils near Ysterplaat, and submerged late Tertiary deposits at -10 m just off Milnerton, from which fossils derive. At the mouth of the Milnerton Lagoon J. Rogers (University of Cape Town, pers. comm.) cored through some 3 m of shelly marine deposit before striking bedrock. The fossils deposited on the beach at Milnerton Lagoon are mainly of whales, but include shark teeth and a small terrestrial element that includes a Gomphotherium (ancestral elephant). Equid and rhinoceros, may also fall within this time period. " - G. Avery. 1995. Archaeological and Palaeontological Survey: Milnerton Lagoon Mouth

[Max-fossils]

10 hours ago, abyssunder said:

If you find the bone on the beach, it could be from a marine mammal. The encrusting whitish colored creature might be bryozoan, in my thinking.

 

10 hours ago, powelli1 said:

Hi it looks like part of a broken cetacean vertebrae to me, in the third photo you can the top of it with out the cap. George

 

9 hours ago, abyssunder said:

That was in my thought, also.

 

" Fossil Bones and Early Stone Age Artefacts at the Lagoon Mouth

Fossils of Miocene and/or Pliocene age (12-3 million years), when the sea level was over 40 m above the present, have been recovered from the beach at the lagoon mouth. Tankard (1975) notes the existence of Miocene marine deposits with fossils near Ysterplaat, and submerged late Tertiary deposits at -10 m just off Milnerton, from which fossils derive. At the mouth of the Milnerton Lagoon J. Rogers (University of Cape Town, pers. comm.) cored through some 3 m of shelly marine deposit before striking bedrock. The fossils deposited on the beach at Milnerton Lagoon are mainly of whales, but include shark teeth and a small terrestrial element that includes a Gomphotherium (ancestral elephant). Equid and rhinoceros, may also fall within this time period. " - G. Avery. 1995. Archaeological and Palaeontological Survey: Milnerton Lagoon Mouth

Thanks for the info!

I'm not convinced though of this being a whale vertebrae...

I found a whale vert at Milnerton the same day (I will show you a picture later), and the two fossils have really nothing in common.

 

Btw, @abyssunder, it's not completely true that beach finds are often marine mammals; many beach finds are terrestrial (in fact I think that about 60% of my beach finds come from terrestrial animals). Of course, both are possible, because the sea levels change so easily and quickly.

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, Max-fossils said:

 

 

Thanks for the info!

I'm not convinced though of this being a whale vertebrae...

I found a whale vert at Milnerton the same day (I will show you a picture later), and the two fossils have really nothing in common.

 

Btw, @abyssunder, it's not completely true that beach finds are often marine mammals; many beach finds are terrestrial (in fact I think that about 60% of my beach finds come from terrestrial animals). Of course, both are possible, because the sea levels change so easily and quickly.

I think the centrum of large verts. is where this texture is more likely to be found. 

[abyssunder]

Yes, more precisely.

 

picture from here

[Max-fossils]

6 hours ago, Rockwood said:

I think the centrum of large verts. is where this texture is more likely to be found. 

 

2 hours ago, abyssunder said:

Yes, more precisely.

 

picture from here

Ah, I see it now! Thanks!

Btw, here is the whale vert I found:

 

[Bradley Flynn]

@Max-fossils nice whale vertdo you know what the species might be? 

[Max-fossils]

On 8/24/2020 at 6:08 PM, Bradley Flynn said:

@Max-fossils nice whale vertdo you know what the species might be? 

Thanks! No, unfortunately I don't know what species it belonged to. And I'm not sure a positive ID can be made given it is incomplete.

[Bradley Flynn]

Thank you!