Oligocene pointy object: Waipatiid tusk?
Here's something I found in alluvium this fall. The location is Dorchester County, SC, Oligocene, almost certainly Ashley or Chandler Bridge formation. These formations are known for a variety of marine vertebrates including Elasmos and bony fish including Scombrids and billfish, marine turtles, cetaceans, sirenians, and crocodiles. Fresh water species are apparently rare.
This is about 4.5 cm long, less than 1 cm diameter. It is not quite round in cross section, but has a slightly f
Awesome. Billfish rostrum is right on. It still really looks superficially like a shark spine to me, but it's much too young to be a Hybodont and Squaliforms and Heterodontus sp. are not known here from what I can see. Billfish on the other hand are well known. Here's a hypural from the same location that looks (to me) a lot like Aglyptorynchus also. Good call, thanks.
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