Help with Bone Idenification from Calvert Cliffs

[ajnthony]

We went out fossil hunting and found these two bones in the wash along a beach on the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, MD by the Cliffs. Any help with identification is appreciated. Thanks. Below is the first bone.

[ajnthony]

Just now, ajnthony said:

We went out fossil hunting and found these two bones in the wash along a beach on the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, MD by the Cliffs. Any help with identification is appreciated. Thanks. Below is the first bone.

 

[Fruitbat]

Your first one is an equid (horse) phalanx I.

 

-Joe

[The Jersey Devil]

The second bone is also not marine. It may be modern, the dark color might be from being in the water for a long time.

[ajnthony]

Thanks. First one is right on but thoughts being a fossil? 

[ajnthony]

[caldigger]

Difficult one here. Drag your tounge across that shell encrusted end and tell me if it tastes icky.

 

It won't give us much information on age, but I'll sure get a kick out of it. 

[Miocene_Mason]

How about you do a burn test, hold a flame to them and if it smells like burnt bone or hair you know it isn’t a fossil. This will be burning collagen, not in fossils.

[Innocentx]

There looks to be marine type creatures encrusting the large one. Hmm.

[ajnthony]

The larger one was found between boulders that make a bulkhead that extends into the bay. 

[abyssunder]

The first one was in marine environment before it was collected, due to the presence of barnacle and bryozoan encrustation visible in the images.

[Laditz]

Bones can get that dark color suprisingly quick when spending time in the sea.

 

Over here (Dutch shoreline) you do find alot of near black bones that are still fairly recent. Some of it is just kitchen-waste dumped from ships, so you find alot of cow/sheep/pig/horse bones washing ashore. Alot of them lose their dark color when drying, but you can always just do the burn-test like mentioned.

 

Don't know if you figured this out already, but the second bone is a femur from a smaller mammal. Joints look a bit messed up though, so might be hard to identify further.

First one indeed horse phalanx.

[ajnthony]

2 hours ago, Laditz said:

Bones can get that dark color suprisingly quick when spending time in the sea.

 

Over here (Dutch shoreline) you do find alot of near black bones that are still fairly recent. Some of it is just kitchen-waste dumped from ships, so you find alot of cow/sheep/pig/horse bones washing ashore. Alot of them lose their dark color when drying, but you can always just do the burn-test like mentioned.

 

Don't know if you figured this out already, but the second bone is a femur from a smaller mammal. Joints look a bit messed up though, so might be hard to identify further.

First one indeed horse phalanx.

 

[ajnthony]

Just now, ajnthony said:

 

 

[Laditz]

2 hours ago, ajnthony said:

 

 

On your last picture you can see the bottom joint (think it's called an epiphyseal in english) is missing. That happens sometimes with bones of younger animals, when the epiphyseal is not fused to the rest of the bone yet. Makes it harder to identify.

 

I don't have any good comparing-material for smaller animals.  At 4 inches it must be something the size of a small fox or something. Hope someone with more knowledge can help  

 

Edit: To explain what parts (epiphysials) are missing, on this picture you can clearly see the fusing-lines on both ends of a fox femur.

Again, i have no clue if it is fox, it just has the right size. See this link for more pictures: Fox femur

 

 

[ajnthony]

I really appreciate all the information and detailed pictures. It has helped us a lot.  Thanks again