Some things from Beltinge (vert, bone fragment, chimaera?)

[Calli99]

Hi everyone, so I went to Beltinge, Herne Bay for the first time yesterday. Unfortunately the conditions weren't great so not many teeth and only one complete. I did however find a couple of nice items I'm hoping some intelligent people can help me with! The area is late Palaeocene and early Eocene.

 

1. Bony fish vertebra. I know these can be hard to ID, but it makes me sad to have such a nice one only to label it 'bony fish'!

2. Bone fragment (Possibly turtle? Is it possible to tell what bone it is?)

3. Chimaeroid fish mouth part?

4. I think this one could just be a conveniently shaped concretion, but another part of me hopes fish tooth?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Calli99]

Ok well for some reason the photos didn't come out in the right order  but I think you lot are smart enough to figure it out! 

[digit]

5 minutes ago, Calli99 said:

Ok well for some reason the photos didn't come out in the right order

Can't help with the identifications but I can shuffle your images for you. I've never found any Chimaeroid bits myself but the pitted texture on that one does match some of the chimera items I've seen here.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Calli99]

Thank you Ken, very kind of you to do that.

[hemipristis]

2 hours ago, digit said:

Can't help with the identifications but I can shuffle your images for you. I've never found any Chimaeroid bits myself but the pitted texture on that one does match some of the chimera items I've seen here.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I agree that it looks chimaerid.  I've found some Cretaceous and Paleocene chimaerid material on the U.S. east coast, and they have a similar texture.  Nice find

[hemipristis]

Regarding the second bone, you may be correct on turtle.  I can't see by the photo, but are there striae on the ends like the photos below (top photo, right image bottom photo, left bone)  Such are characteristic of turtle limb bones

[Calli99]

17 hours ago, hemipristis said:

I agree that it looks chimaerid.  I've found some Cretaceous and Paleocene chimaerid material on the U.S. east coast, and they have a similar texture.  Nice find

Thanks, good to have that confirmed.

17 hours ago, hemipristis said:

Regarding the second bone, you may be correct on turtle.  I can't see by the photo, but are there striae on the ends like the photos below (top photo, right image bottom photo, left bone)  Such are characteristic of turtle limb bones

Not really sure I understand what you mean, there are certainly no lateral striations. There are some rings though on the broken end:

 

[hemipristis]

On 8/4/2019 at 9:50 PM, Calli99 said:

Thanks, good to have that confirmed.

Not really sure I understand what you mean, there are certainly no lateral striations. There are some rings though on the broken end:

 

 

I'm sorry, I should have been clearer.  Please refer to the photo below. It is of a Cretaceous turtle limb bone (both ends).  There are faint striations at the bone ends.  These are what I was referring to.  They're characteristic of turtle limb bones.

[Calli99]

8 hours ago, hemipristis said:

 

I'm sorry, I should have been clearer.  Please refer to the photo below. It is of a Cretaceous turtle limb bone (both ends).  There are faint striations at the bone ends.  These are what I was referring to.  They're characteristic of turtle limb bones.

 

Thank you for the clarification! I don't think I see any striations like that, but it could be because the bone is broken before the end of the limb? In my research this bone looks to me like it might be the central part of a turtle femur but broken before the head and lower end. However I have absolutely no experience with turtle fossils!