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Calvert Cliffs unknown bone (mammal or bird)


cowsharks

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Found a small 1" long bone recently along Calvert Cliffs.  In the pic it's the small bone just under the small lower cowshark tooth.  Wondering if this is either a land mammal toe bone or a possible toe bone from a bird?

 

Daryl.

unknown calvert bone.jpg

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Can't help with the bone but I wanted to comment on the teeth. You got some nice cowsharks, sandtigers, hammerheads, angel, tigers, a nice thresher and some others. I would say you did well. Congratulations! 

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I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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A good day's work! :)

Some great shark's teeth and a mystery bone! 

Nice! 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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A straight metatarsal means it lives a curatorial life, and it’s rather long for a rodent toe. I vote bird.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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If I'm not too late to the dance, I'd like to see the other side, too.

~1.jpg

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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And for those that like to see the shark teeth... the rest that were on that plate in the first pic.  I had to sift a lot of beach to get these.  Got a nice assortment, including a couple of small Angel sharks, sharpnose, C. macloti, a few nice tigers and hemi's.

 

Daryl.

IMG_0196.JPG

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Can’t help with the ID but great finds Daryl:fistbump:

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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@MarcoSr may be able to help with the bone. He's done quite a bit with bird bones, if it is one.

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about science books.........

Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World

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On 4/2/2018 at 6:57 PM, Auspex said:

If I'm not too late to the dance, I'd like to see the other side, too.

~1.jpg

 

Hi @Auspex.  I posted additional pics for you to review.

 

thanks,

Daryl.

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7 minutes ago, cowsharks said:

I posted additional pics for you to review.

Good job!

I believe you have an avian pedal phalanx. They are pretty generic in form, and would be real difficult to ID more closely than "Subclass: Neornithes"

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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1 hour ago, Auspex said:

Good job!

I believe you have an avian pedal phalanx. They are pretty generic in form, and would be real difficult to ID more closely than "Subclass: Neornithes"

Chas, could I ask what feature allows you to ID it as bird vs. a mammal bone?

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A combination of the narrowness (in top view) of the distal condyle "spool", and the broad, double kidney-shaped depressions in the proximal end-view.
That, and the proportions: pretty skinny for a 1" mammal toe bone, IMO.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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On 4/3/2018 at 1:42 PM, SailingAlongToo said:

@MarcoSr may be able to help with the bone. He's done quite a bit with bird bones, if it is one.

 

Jack

 

Telling complete mammal toe bones apart from bird toe bones is not easy.  If the bone is broken the bone wall thickness helps a lot.  If in doubt, I send them to a researcher.

 

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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 Hi Daryl,

 

    Here is a similar bone that I would like identify. By the way I see you had a excellent day.

image.jpg

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1 hour ago, Calvert Cliff Dweller said:

 Hi Daryl,

 

    Here is a similar bone that I would like identify. By the way I see you had a excellent day.

 

Looks like a 1st phalanx. My best guess would be cervidae, though it could be sheep/goat.

On your second picture you can see the epiphysis (joint end) is missing, indicating it was probably not fused to the bone yet and the animal was relatively young when it died.

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