Styles Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 Saw a thread titled "Help identify" with two pages worth of comments and got my popcorn ready for the drama. Instead I got an absolutely stunning find. This is incredible - the fossil, the mystery, the sediment around the fossil, etc. Really cool watching the people in this forum come together and incorporate such diverse technology, skills, and expertise to nail it down. Great find OP. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagebrush Steve Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 Nobody seems to have made the obvious connection yet. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 Hey all, sorry for the delay I've been on vacation in the Caribbean. This is a cross-section through a small baleen whale skull, and appears to be from a diatomaceous unit like the Monterey or Sisquoc Formation. 7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuckMucus Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 10 minutes ago, Boesse said: Hey all, sorry for the delay I've been on vacation in the Caribbean. This is a cross-section through a small baleen whale skull, and appears to be from a diatomaceous unit like the Monterey or Sisquoc Formation. Lay person here: Do you have a ball park on age? And can you tell which way the animal is facing us? i.e. are we looking toward the tail or nose? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 Age is almost certainly going to be middle to late Miocene. Because the cross-section is exactly transverse (plane perpendicular to the midline), it's not possible to say without more information. If you flipped the boulder over, and we saw a bit of the rostrum (snout), then we'd know. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 @derekshannon10241988 Any updates on this piece? The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members derekshannon10241988 Posted June 12, 2022 Author New Members Share Posted June 12, 2022 *UPDATE* First, I want to thank everyone who has put in the time and effort to help me figure out what this fossil actually is. Second, the rock is now safe and in a place where it can be better photographed (NEW PICS VERY SOON!!) I will make sure to get most of it in the photos. Just give me a break because it is a very very heavy rock.. On 6/10/2022 at 1:13 PM, Sagebrush Steve said: Nobody seems to have made the obvious connection yet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Hunter Posted June 12, 2022 Share Posted June 12, 2022 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuckMucus Posted June 12, 2022 Share Posted June 12, 2022 22 minutes ago, derekshannon10241988 said: *UPDATE* First, I want to thank everyone who has put in the time and effort to help me figure out what this fossil actually is. Second, the rock is now safe and in a place where it can be better photographed (NEW PICS VERY SOON!!) I will make sure to get most of it in the photos. Just give me a break because it is a very very heavy rock.. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members derekshannon10241988 Posted June 13, 2022 Author New Members Share Posted June 13, 2022 1.Width 2. Height 3. Length 4. Back 5. Back again picture is upsidedown 6. Left 7. Right 8. Top left 9. On face/right side 10. On face/bottom 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members derekshannon10241988 Posted June 13, 2022 Author New Members Share Posted June 13, 2022 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 Now, thats a contestant for the vertebrate fossil of the month in my eyes. Without any preparation, if with a lot of work, its a thing of beauty. I would never have expected that kind of airways in a whale, my only excuse being that I never found a scan of a baleen whales skull that showed internal structures, them being to big for regular CT. The luckier for me that you found this natural cross section. Cheers, J . 2 Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 First of all - wow it looks even more incredible out of the sand. That’s such an incredible find. But I gotta ask, how did you end up taking it out of there in the end? Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilhunter21 Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 (edited) It looks so much nicer out of the sand! It would definitely make a good contestant for the vertebrate fossil of the month. That is a very epic find. -Micah Edited June 13, 2022 by fossilhunter21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Styles Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 Now, to prep or not prep? I vote leave it as is, since the cross section already has a ton of detail, and the material is almost as pretty as the fossil itself 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilhunter21 Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 2 minutes ago, Styles said: Now, to prep or not prep? I vote leave it as is, since the cross section already has a ton of detail, and the material is almost as pretty as the fossil itself I agree that it looks really nice unprepped, but it would also be awesome to prep it and see what it looks like. -Micah 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 For the possibility of it being scientifically important, prepping might be preferred. Artistically, leave it as nature intended. So when in doubt,....... FLIP A COIN! Tails it is, the artists have won. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 As much as I love how it looks in the stone - what if there's more bits in there? What if you've got verts and spine in the rock too? So I'm gonna say prep, personally. Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 I would absolutely leave this one as is. the contrasting colors, the contoured sediments, and the red bone are all unique and exquisite. If the specimen is scientifically important, I might be susceptible to CT scanning, which would leave the stone intact. 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranzBernhard Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 There may be a compromise: Prepping from the back side and leaving the very impressive front side as it is. Franz Bernhard (notorious non-prepper, but flat-surface-polisher .) 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuckMucus Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 Look at the serrations on vertical plane on the second-to-last photo. Cool. Also, imagine if any other side had been facing up. You probably would have walked on by. I think it is a work of art as-is. But I don't know how important it could be scientifically. Thing is, even if you left it out in the elements, absent of bolt of lighting, it's going to be good a a few more hundred thousand years, at least. Awesome. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 @Boesse The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members derekshannon10241988 Posted June 13, 2022 Author New Members Share Posted June 13, 2022 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 So can anybody really tell us what this is for sure? or are we still waiting for @Boesse 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peat Burns Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 1 minute ago, Ludwigia said: So can anybody really tell us what this is for sure? or are we still waiting for @Boesse Boesse replied earlier in the thread: "This is a cross-section through a small baleen whale skull, and appears to be from a diatomaceous unit like the Monterey or Sisquoc Formation." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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