Ooo... is dis bone?!

[The Neanderoll]

Hello - l just found this amongst the loose rocks on the beach.

 

It's a small village on the coast of Yorkshire. And isn't accessible except by scaling the cliff or walking a few miles along the beach.

 

The cliffs here are made of clay deposited during the last ice age clay - so they're a real mix of rock types.

 

This block was pre broken. I saw some light shapes on the reverse and found these when I flipped it over.

 

I want to believe these are vertebrae so bad! But I turn to the immense collective knowledge of the fossil forum 

 

What have I got here? 

[The Neanderoll]

[TqB]

Yes, that's definitely bone.  Ichthyosaur vertebrae mainly, and most likely Upper Lias (Lower Jurassic). The hour glass shape is distinctive.

[The Neanderoll]

7 minutes ago, TqB said:

Yes, that's definitely bone.  Ichthyosaur vertebrae mainly, and most likely Upper Lias (Lower Jurassic). The hour glass shape is distinctive.

OMG OMG OMG! 

Thank you! I saw it and hoped, but geology can be so tricksy hahaha.

 

This is so sick!

 

Right - I better look up ways to protect this bad boy

 

Thanks again!

[TqB]

No protection needed on that stuff, usually. It might be preppable from the other side with the right gear.

(If you have fragile bone, and providing it's dry, a thin solution of paraloid is the best stuff available in the UK to impregnate it with - a forum search should bring up plenty of information.) 

And congratulations on your first piece!

[Ludwigia]

Nice find. As Tarquin suggests, an experienced preparator could approach this from the other side and make quite a nice display piece out of it in my opinion. Just check out some of @belemniten's work in the  Fossil Preparation section.                                                                          

[sjaak]

nice!

 

[belemniten]

That's a pretty nice piece  Congrats! (Go and search the rest ) 

I never prepped any Ichthyosaur fossils from England and this looks like a kinda tough job. Maybe @LiamL know somebody who would prep it for you if you want.

 

[LiamL]

Well done! Good job you spotted it. Cant believe someone left that, unless it broke when it fell from the cliffs.

[The Neanderoll]

15 hours ago, TqB said:

No protection needed on that stuff, usually. It might be preppable from the other side with the right gear.

(If you have fragile bone, and providing it's dry, a thin solution of paraloid is the best stuff available in the UK to impregnate it with - a forum search should bring up plenty of information.) 

And congratulations on your first piece!

Thanks so much @TqB! Great advice. And thank you everyone.

 

I'm going to have to think long and hard what to do with this. I kinda think it's beautiful right now 

 

3 hours ago, LiamL said:

Well done! Good job you spotted it. Cant believe someone left that, unless it broke when it fell from the cliffs.

Yeah @LiamL - it must have cracked as it came out of the cliffs. It was laid smooth side up in a rock pool and I just idly flipped it expecting to find bivalves! So lucky

[LiamL]

5 hours ago, The Neanderoll said:

Thanks so much @TqB! Great advice. And thank you everyone.

 

I'm going to have to think long and hard what to do with this. I kinda think it's beautiful right now 

 

Yeah @LiamL - it must have cracked as it came out of the cliffs. It was laid smooth side up in a rock pool and I just idly flipped it expecting to find bivalves! So lucky

Well done mate, reptile bone is certainly out there if you put the effort in. 

[JohnBrewer]

Nice vertebrae example of my favourite beast  

[dhiggi]

22 hours ago, The Neanderoll said:

It's a small village on the coast of Yorkshire. And isn't accessible except by scaling the cliff or walking a few miles along the beach.

 

Pretty sure I know where you mean, we’ve been a couple of times but haven’t been as lucky. Well done; great find!