Bones on the beach?

[rocknroll]

[Fossildude19]

Yup. Some are unidentifiable bone chunks.

[Brandy Cole]

Several of these chunks show texture that helps identify them as bone. Unfortunately, they've been so weathered and rounded that identifying them to species likely isn't possible.  We often need some clearly identifiable features like at least one complete end or side of a bone with distinct features to make a confident ID.

 

I'm unfamiliar with your area, but just from posts on the forum, it seems that when it comes to beaches in California, whale is a much more likely candidate than dinosaur. 

 

Either way, good eye for catching that texture.

[Rockwood]

Ya, no, this last one doesn't look like bone. 

[Brandy Cole]

I agree that I don't see any bone texture in the final item.

[rocknroll]

Thank you. The last one is a small very worn vertebrae. I was hoping for possible identity of species. Thank you!

[Rockwood]

3 hours ago, rocknroll said:

Thank you. The last one is a small very worn vertebrae. I was hoping for possible identity of species. Thank you!

Can you suggest an explanation for the stripes? And perhaps post photos which better show the texture of bone. That looks nothing like a vertebra to me. 

[Brandy Cole]

The lighter colored stripes appear to be mineral banding common in rocks to me. 

 

I can see how they might resemble discs between vertebrae, but those discs are made of soft tissue.  Soft tissue is almost never preserved.  It has none of the distinctive features I could identify to vertebra. 

 

Also, unassociated vertebra, even in perfect condition, are notoriously difficult to identify.

[Fossildude19]

Better, well lit, in focus pictures of the last item from all sides would be required to say much more about the item.

[Browning]

They look like weathered/eroded corals to me. Tabulate or colonial coral fossils. Looks like a hard stone like limestone. Grpwing up I used to pick up very similar rocks in the river banks of Indiana. Fossil coral central. 

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, Browning said:

They look like weathered/eroded corals to me. Tabulate or colonial coral fossils. Looks like a hard stone like limestone. Grpwing up I used to pick up very similar rocks in the river banks of Indiana. Fossil coral central. 

I can see a similarity to Favositid corals here. If they were found in a different context, it might be good to ask for photos taken from a better perspective. Tabulate corals are very unlikely to be found on California beaches though. Whale bones, on the other hand, are to be expected. 

[Browning]

An internet search dates the El capitan state beach rocks/fossils to the Miocene era. Which I get whale bones being from that rock. But, were these specimens taken from the local bedrock or were they picked up from a river? They look like river cobble to me and if that's the case they could have come from unknown miles away. Or maybe these washed up on shore? 

[Rockwood]

It is possible, but I still don't think it at all likely.