Unknown Kern County Bones

[Interpaleo]

I found these two strange bones the last time I was down in Bakersfield digging shark teeth in the the Round Mountain Silt, Early-Mid Miocene. A forum member suggested the larger of the two may be a turtle bone or some sort. I do not think they are from dolphin, seal, or whale. Desmostylus perhaps? Leatherback sea turtle? I am unsure...

Has anyone seen these before?

Thanks for taking a look,

Joe

[Interpaleo]

Couple more shots.

[Interpaleo]

And another.

[siteseer]

The first bone appears to be a very worn finger bone of Allodesmus, the most common pinniped in the bonebed. It's generally called a sea lion but it belongs to an extinct group. The second bone is a toe bone (fifth metatarsal?) of Allodesmus.

I never had a lot of luck finding Allodesmus bones (seemed to be more lucky with dolphin/whale) but Bob gave me a lot of stuff he considered extras, so with other acquisitions included, I might have enough bones to make at least most of a hand and maybe a foot too.

You should look for this publication:

Mitchell, E. 1966.

The Miocene Pinniped Allodesmus. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. Vol. 61. Univ. of Cal. Press,

It's a bone-by-bone study of a near-complete skeleton collected in the STH Bonebed in 1960 with a review of other remains of the genus known up to that time. It happened to be one of the first technical paleo publications I bought when I started collecting fossils and it came in handy when I started seriously digging the bonebed in the early 90's.

I found these two strange bones the last time I was down in Bakersfield digging shark teeth in the the Round Mountain Silt, Early-Mid Miocene. A forum member suggested the larger of the two may be a turtle bone or some sort. I do not think they are from dolphin, seal, or whale. Desmostylus perhaps? Leatherback sea turtle? I am unsure...

Has anyone seen these before?

Thanks for taking a look,

Joe

Edited March 5, 2012 by siteseer

[Interpaleo]

Thanks, sounds like you have a better idea than me.

I'm not too surprised about the longer bone.

The first bone is not worn though, that is the natural shape. That's why I was unsure it was from a marine mammal. To me the shape is more reminiscent of a land mammal, but I haven't looked at STH for long. I like to recognize what I'm bashing through though while I'm digging like a mad man for shark teeth.

I'll take a look at that publication, if I can find it.