uscedisto Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 I found this yesterday in a Lowcountry SC creek where I have found fossils from the Oligocene, Miocene & Pleistocene epochs. At first glance I thought it was a bone fragment, but it is tapered widthwise and has striations along the top half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Huh...maybe the edge of a turtle shell? "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Seems too dense to be turtle shell. Here a cross section of turtle shell I did. Sorry about the low resolution. It was fairly good resolution for a digital photo a few decades ago... It would be more dense than the above if it was the edge of the shell, or an ornamentation of the shell, or an odd species with high density, but with turtle sheel I expect to see more cavities than this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uscedisto Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 Doesn't look like turtle to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 The surface texture reminds me of bones/scutes that were thinly covered with vascular tissue in life. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Notice the bizarre swirl patterns on the bottom of the specimen. And then at the top it is all straight grooves. That is saying something important, but I can't hear it. As long as the swirls aren't tool marks from cleaning... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uscedisto Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 Not from cleaning, I used a soft-bristled toothbrush & Dawn detergent. Gently scrubbed parallel to the striations instead of a circular motion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Looks mighty fishy to me, but don't know what fish-part it represents. Don't think it's a billfish rostrum. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/16947-billfish-rostrum/ http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 I agree with Harry - this is certainly fish (bony or cartilaginous). No turtle bone looks like this. That "flaky" pattern is characteristic of fish bone. While it's not from a billfish bill (wrong cross-sectional shape), the possibility remains that it's another bone in the skull. I just flipped through a couple papers by Harry Fierstine but couldn't make a match. If not billfish, there are all sorts of other large bony fish that this could have belonged to - and unfortunately most other Oligocene bony fish are not osteologically well known. The other possibility, perhaps more unlikely, is that this is some sort of ossified chondrichthyan element - I've seen that texture and histology, if I recall correctly, on large hybodont spines and large batoid tail spine fragments. Obviously it's not hybodont, but I'm just saying that a small possibility exists that it's chondrichthyan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now