tracer Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 is this from a whale or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 could be a small toothed whale, what age is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hey! He's got one of the new Alaska quarters! "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...
Pristiformes Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hey! He's got one of the new Alaska quarters! Auspex, this is the Fossil Forum and not the Numismatic Forum. We're looking at the fossil under the quarter. Let's stay focused here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hey! He's got one of the new Alaska quarters! boy they made that thing big and brown, and the more you look at it the more it looks like it has holes in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 yes, some vicious clerk at a stop-n-rob convenience store sandbagged me by giving me a coin with a bear on it. the nerve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 yes, some vicious clerk at a stop-n-rob convenience store sandbagged me by giving me a coin with a bear on it. the nerve. lol oh we were talking about a coin, i thought we were done with that lol. So what was the age of the fossils? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pristiformes Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 boy they made that thing big and brown, and the more you look at it the more it looks like it has holes in it I'll assume they put the bear on the quarter to alert people of what a Godless killing machine looks like so as to avoid one at all costs. Plus, I believe Steven Colbert also put the grizzly bear "on notice". Bears are the No. 1 threat to America due to the fact that they're after our honey and our women (as per Steven Colbert). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Bears are the No. 1 threat to America due to the fact that they're after our honey and our women (as per Steven Colbert). thats for telling me now i need to find a place to hide my megs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 bmore - i'm not sure of the age since it was in the surf. some of the gulf exposures in the area are pleistocene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 bmore -i'm not sure of the age since it was in the surf. some of the gulf exposures in the area are pleistocene. oh, hmmm so you didnt go in search of fossils? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Tracer Looks somewhat whalish to me (as I stare at a 50 LB block containing 2 articulated whale verts in my office) - not much of that sort of thing in TX but the late Don O'Neill told me he used to find whale material in your area. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obsessed1 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 thats for telling me now i need to find a place to hide my megs Send me all your Megs...I will keep them safe !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Send me all your Megs...I will keep them safe !! but you got more bears up your way dont you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 is this from a whale or what? A vertebra from a small toothed whale wouldn't be much larger than the quarter. Thats either a seriously gigantic toothed whale (i.e. sperm whale) or far more likely from a baleen whale. Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 A vertebra from a small toothed whale wouldn't be much larger than the quarter. Thats either a seriously gigantic toothed whale (i.e. sperm whale) or far more likely from a baleen whale.Bobby Don't get me wrong but I have seen baleen whale verts and they are usually stand 8inches or taller. So it still looks like a small toothed whale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 "Don't get me wrong but I have seen baleen whale verts and they are usually stand 8inches or taller. So it still looks like a small toothed whale" Size doesn't define or discern between odontoceti and mysticeti. For example, there is a Mio-Pliocene baleen whale that I research called Herpetocetus, multiple species of which are represented in the Pliocene of the east coast. It and its relatives Piscobalaena and Nannocetus all have vertebrae that are inches wide - and these are relatively common mysticetes. Additionally, modern baleen whales such as the pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) and the dwarf minke whale are both in a similar size range. Additionally, sperm whales in the 20-30 foot range are known from the neogene of the east coast, and some of the extant, 60-70' sperm whale Physeter. Their vertebrae are bigger than most fossil baleen whale verts. And again, if this were toothed whale, it would not qualify as a small vertebra. Many mio-pliocene (and extant) odontocetes (as adults) have vertebrae that are little more than an inch wide. In summary, there is a huge size overlap between the two, such that size is 100% unreliable. Lastly, morphology is useless as well, as the vertebrae of mysticetes and odontocetes are nearly identical, and can't really be identified. So... all you really can say in this case is 'cetacean'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 dang! i was readin' all that and thinkin', "man, this is gettin' good!" and i pretty much had decided that by the time i got to the end of the post, i was gonna know that critter's social security number and which squid bars it hung out at, and then, bam, he gets pronounced a cetacean. oh, well, at least i know that one's not a cow that wandered too far out while moo-boarding... thanks, boesse. it's good to have you sea-smart guys on the forum, because i figure if the briney deep can throw something up at me, i've got a chance at learning something about it around here. now if i could just get the gulf to pull back about thirty miles to pleistocene levels, i could do some serious finding of stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worthy 55 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Looks like just half of a vert can't really tell let's see the end's of it. It's my bone!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl O'Cles Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 "Don't get me wrong but I have seen baleen whale verts and they are usually stand 8inches or taller. So it still looks like a small toothed whale"Size doesn't define or discern between odontoceti and mysticeti. For example, there is a Mio-Pliocene baleen whale that I research called Herpetocetus, multiple species of which are represented in the Pliocene of the east coast. It and its relatives Piscobalaena and Nannocetus all have vertebrae that are inches wide - and these are relatively common mysticetes. Additionally, modern baleen whales such as the pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata) and the dwarf minke whale are both in a similar size range. Additionally, sperm whales in the 20-30 foot range are known from the neogene of the east coast, and some of the extant, 60-70' sperm whale Physeter. Their vertebrae are bigger than most fossil baleen whale verts. And again, if this were toothed whale, it would not qualify as a small vertebra. Many mio-pliocene (and extant) odontocetes (as adults) have vertebrae that are little more than an inch wide. In summary, there is a huge size overlap between the two, such that size is 100% unreliable. Lastly, morphology is useless as well, as the vertebrae of mysticetes and odontocetes are nearly identical, and can't really be identified. So... all you really can say in this case is 'cetacean'. In all seriousness if there was a way to jam a cable in your ear and the other end in my ear and download all your knowledge on cetaceans i would be on the way to your house right now. Keep the knowledge coming!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 worthy - it just had more or less flat ends with little dimples in the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worthy 55 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Yes, I would say some type of whale but what kind no idea. It's my bone!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Ya, that looks like whale - probably a caudal vertebra. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoRon Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Looks like whale to me. 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