Calvert Cliffs, MD, USA

[Sauropod19]

Hi all! I hope you are well! I recently made my annual trip to the Washington, D.C. area, which always includes a trip to the Miocene deposits of the Calvert Cliffs. I think I have a general idea on these IDs but wanted to confirm with others, especially the first two sets of images. I’ve tried to group like fossils as well. Thanks for looking!

1 (ray dermal plate?):

2,3, and 4 (otoliths?):

 

5, 6, and 7 (with 6 and 7 magnified at the end, respectively; cetacean ribs?):

 

8 (crab claw?):

 

9 (ray mouth plate part?):

 

10 (?):

 

11 (third image is root zoomed in; cetacean tooth?):

 

 

Plus, here are a couple of finds that I just wanted to share for fun!

 

Thank you again!

 

 

 

 

[automech]

Hey there! Glad you had a good trip in my neck of the woods. Here's some answers for you on your finds:

 

1 is a puffer fish mouth plate. Nice size and condition!

2-4 are teeth from a drum fish

5-7 are bits of bone. Could be cetacean

8 is a yes on crab claw tip

9 not sure. Could be ray plate. Maybe take a picture of the sides?

10 another bone?

11 not enough there for me to guess

[Sauropod19]

Thank you kindly! I love going to Maryland for fossils; I’m from Indiana and as much as I love the Paleozoic stuff, post-Paleozoic fossils (especially the diversity of vertebrates) are so much more interesting to me. Your reply was immensely helpful !

[debivort]

agree with the above. I think 9 is a ray plate.

[debivort]

The pharyngeal teeth (2-4) might be wrasse as well, I believe. As far as I understand the source species is hard to ID, if the teeth are round like these.

[Fin Lover]

I think #1 is porcupine fish or burrfish (not puffer).  

[automech]

@Fin Lover You're right. Thanks for the correction.

[hemipristis]

On 5/30/2024 at 5:27 AM, Sauropod19 said:

Hi all! I hope you are well! I recently made my annual trip to the Washington, D.C. area, which always includes a trip to the Miocene deposits of the Calvert Cliffs. I think I have a general idea on these IDs but wanted to confirm with others, especially the first two sets of images. I’ve tried to group like fossils as well. Thanks for looking!

1 (ray dermal plate?):

 

 

Because this comes up a lot, I thought I'd post a comparison/contrast post:

 

The first is pufferfish, e.g., Spheroides sp.. Note that the upper & lower mouth plates are segmented.

[hemipristis]

And for contrast, here is porcupinefish/burrfish e.g., Diodon sp.

 

In this family of fish, the mouth plates are fused

Edited June 1 by hemipristis

[cck]

11 looks like a worn fish tilly bone