Please help me figure this out...

[The Neanderoll]

Hello all!

First time posting here. I'm hoping you can help me out, please.

About a week ago I found this bone on a beach in the North East of England while I was out hunting for small fossils. 

I'd like to get better at recognising bones, so I bagged it and brought it home as a little tester. But for the last 6 days i've been driving myself mad trying to figure out what this thing is!

I started trying to narrow down the most common possibilities. I've been looking at Sheep and Cow bones for like 3 days. Then I tried referring to the Natural History Museum's guide to British Mammall bones. I even tried looking at different cuts of meat.

I've tried to imagine this thing attached to a larger bone. Like, perhaps that's why I can't find a match? But I'm drawing a blank.

It doesn't seem quite fossilised, but I'm anosmic... and well, I can't really face the idea of asking someone to "Sniff my bone". So the burn test is out the window for me at the moment. Haha. 

Please can someone help shed some light on this? Whatever it turns out to be, I'm super interested.

Huge thanks!

 

 

 

 

[ynot]

Part of a shoulder bone (scapula) or pelvis.(?)

[JohnBrewer]

A bit difficult to see as pix are dark but could be an ichthyosaur scapula?

[The Neanderoll]

1 hour ago, ynot said:

Part of a shoulder bone (scapula) or pelvis.(?)

Thanks! I did wonder that myself, but the angles seem sort of off.

 

I just took some new pics in better light. Maybe these will help people!

[The Neanderoll]

10 minutes ago, JohnBrewer said:

A bit difficult to see as pix are dark but could be an ichthyosaur scapula?

Ooo... Away to Google I go. I would love it if you were right!

[Natalie81]

Do you know from what age this bone could be? 

[The Neanderoll]

13 minutes ago, Natalie81 said:

Do you know from what age this bone could be? 

Sadly not. It was laid on the beach alongside a tidal barriers with a lot of other debris - mostly modern shells, but some belemnites and bivalves.

 

The beach in question is at the mouth of the humber esturary. There's no deposits directly there, but there are Jurassic chalks and deposits just up and down the coast.

 

I'm an amateur - but It doesnt feel heavy or 'rock like' enough to be a jurassic era fossil. But it doesnt feel like bone either. haha

 

So... I tentatively tried the burn test. I'm mostly anosmic, but occasionlly get a hint of strong smells. I THINK this doesnt stink. But I really cant trust this nose.

[Natalie81]

4 minutes ago, The Neanderoll said:

Sadly not. It was laid on the beach alongside a tidal barriers with a lot of other debris - mostly modern shells, but some belemnites and bivalves.

 

The beach in question is at the mouth of the humber esturary. There's no deposits directly there, but there are Jurassic chalks and deposits just up and down the coast.

 

I'm an amateur - but It doesnt feel heavy or 'rock like' enough to be a jurassic era fossil. But it doesnt feel like bone either. haha

 

So... I tentatively tried the burn test. I'm mostly anosmic, but occasionlly get a hint of strong smells. I THINK this doesnt stink. But I really cant trust this nose.

It's defenitly bone, but I'm not sure of what animal... What size is it? 

[Natalie81]

My first tough was also scapula but as you mentioned, the angles are a little bit off. I came across this picture... Side-view of a neural arch and spine of a cervical vertebra. 

[The Neanderoll]

Okay! I scrounged a tape measure

 

First pic in Inches and then the rest in CM.

 

Pls ask if you'd like some more angles. Thank you for the help everyone x

[Natalie81]

And now I'm more confused I think you should wait for the experts 

 

Could be recent bone

[The Neanderoll]

1 minute ago, Natalie81 said:

My first tough was also scapula but as you mentioned, the angles are a little bit off. I came across this picture... Side-view of a neural arch and spine of a cervical vertebra. 

Oh man! I didnt even think about a chunk of vertebra!

[The Neanderoll]

7 minutes ago, Natalie81 said:

And now I'm more confused I think you should wait for the experts 

 

Could be recent bone

Bahahaha! Thank you Im stumped too.

 

I thought for a moment it could be a chunk of antler... From the base near the skull. It's got a curvature that reminds me of the elk I saw in canada.

 

But antler isn't actually bone, right? This is really fun to try and figure out

[The Neanderoll]

Hey guys!

I think this may be a chunk of an Axis Vertebra.

 

It kind of looks like grey seal?

 

Which would make sense. They come yearly to breed just along the coast from here 

 

So could be modern seal?

[JohnBrewer]

@Boesse would know if it’s cetacean 

[Boesse]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ unclear, too incomplete for me to identify. Not marine mammal.

[The Neanderoll]

Hi all! Sorry to bring this post back from the dead. But I kinda wanted your opinion on this...

 

After @Boesse's helpful comment (thank you), I just assumed this was too fragmented for ID and forgot it.

 

But I'm starting a Palaeoanthropology degree next year, so i'm brushing up on Human anatomy.

 

...and, well, I was idly looking at Temporal Bones (which are part of the skull), and there seems to be an eriee similarity.

 

Am I seeing something where there's nothing?

[Boesse]

I can clarify somewhat: this is not a squamosal/temporal bone. The squamosal is a fairly dense and fairly complicated element and in a terrestrial mammal is riddled with sinuses and foramina, including the petrosal (inner ear). This *does* look to be part of a neural arch but I don't think it's from an axis vertebra - if it were, it should be symmetrical (and it isn't).

[The Neanderoll]

Phew! That's brilliant. Thank you for the insight. Very useful and interesting.