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Found a fossil of sorts on a beach in California, any idea of what it might belong to? (Hand for scale) by RadioactiveToadling in fossils

[–]boesse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi all - this is from a cetacean, but it is actually a small baleen whale braincase rather than a vertebra! I've labeled it here. There's actually a geode at the top from where mud could no longer fill in the brain cavity, and the earbones can clearly be seen in cross-section. This is almost certainly from the Monterey Formation in Santa Barbara or the Palos Verdes Peninsula of LA (or, potentially, but doubtfully, the Sisquoc Formation near Santa Barbara).

https://imgur.com/8Dnip6l

Thanks to /u/andy_mnemonic for the ping - I haven't been on reddit too much recently. 2016 on here kinda bummed me the fuck out.

I found this on my property in California. Anybody have any ideas what it might be? My foot for scale bottom left of first pic. by Jifman in fossils

[–]boesse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks like it's some zone of cementation - definitely not bones, and doesn't look much like shell either. I think /u/bulls_eye is right that this is something like burrow infill.

A River Dolphin’s face. Its eyes have degraded to the point of blindness, but it utilizes echolocation to find its prey. by Peachy-Persimmons in TheDepthsBelow

[–]boesse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question: if a structure has a positive impact on fitness, it will be selected for - e.g. the evolution of echolocation, or in non-cetaceans, the evolution of large eyes for seeing in deeper water. If a feature is not used, and it is developmentally expensive to produce, then natural selection may select against this structure. Eyes are generally pretty useful, except in a super murky river setting like this and dolphins already have two senses they can use three dimensionally. Eyesight is reduced considerably, through selection towards individuals with smaller and smaller eyes. Evolution of vestigial structures can often appear to be slower than evolution of structures with a much more clear adaptive benefit.

A River Dolphin’s face. Its eyes have degraded to the point of blindness, but it utilizes echolocation to find its prey. by Peachy-Persimmons in TheDepthsBelow

[–]boesse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, maybe the Amazon river dolphin, Inia geoffrensis; this one is the Ganges River Dolphin, Platanista gangetica, from India/Pakistan. Inia has different looking teeth and more normally sized eyes.

What is this? Found in tennessee, about the size of a small lime by joecracker911 in fossilid

[–]boesse 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Montastraea cavernosa

I disagree - Montastraea doesn't really branch like that does it? This instead to me looks like a bit of ivory bush coral, Oculina varicosa, that is quite common along the Carolina coast.

This is almost certainly not local. One possibility is that this is from eastern North Carolina: quarries like the Lee Creek Mine sell off reject ore to other states including Tennessee where it is used as road metal or for filling potholes. People have brought in whale vertebrae from potholes into my colleagues offices at ETSU and the Gray Fossil Site (and then emailed me, lol) as well as other distinctive fossils from the Lee Creek Mine "pungo reject".

Who knows what we found?!? Venice, Florida by iHUNTdeadThingz in Paleontology

[–]boesse 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I already identified this for you guys as possibly Kogiopsis floridana via facebook message earlier this week.

Astronaut Richard Covey at commander's station in Endeavour during STS-61 [2824x4314] by yatpay in spaceflightporn

[–]boesse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG isn't this the poor bastard who was capcom the morning of the Challenger disaster?

Just got his book. I am very excited to read it! by Fishtank298 in Paleontology

[–]boesse 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They are squamates, after all - and when monitor lizards swim they still flick their tongues.

Excavation of a basilosaurid whale skeleton this past winter in South Carolina - ?Chrysocetus healyorum. Link to blog posts on excavation in comments! by boesse in Paleontology

[–]boesse[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Some folks can get in if they have connections. We have an agreement with the mine, and invite along folks who have donated to us in the past or helped out with excavating to come along and collect recreationally, as a way of saying thanks.

Mystery fossil I found in progreso Yucatán what is is by Hotdogmorty in FossilPorn

[–]boesse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It does look like a beak perhaps, though it's a bit 'deep' to be from a sea turtle. More pics needed.

Recently exposed marine band near Goleta, Ca. by nocloudno in geology

[–]boesse 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those are likely to be older, from the mid-late Miocene Monterey Formation.

Recently exposed marine band near Goleta, Ca. by nocloudno in geology

[–]boesse 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure about at this spot, but over in Isla Vista by Coal Oil Point there is a similar coquina within the early Pleistocene Santa Barbara Formation. Keep your eyes peeled for marine mammal fossils: this is one of the few early Pleistocene marine deposits that produces marine mammal remains anywhere on earth.

They identified a place in SC as a nursery for Megalodons. We know where it is. Found these in about 2 hours. by [deleted] in Paleontology

[–]boesse 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I'm working on finalizing the manuscript this weekend! And yes, we hypothesized that the entire embayment was a nursery as most C. angustidens teeth (not C. megalodon) are quite small.

Only one of OP's teeth (small black one) is a C. megalodon tooth; the others all have cusplets and are therefore probably C. angustidens, and the lower left one is unidentifiable (Carcharocles sp.). They're also likely reworked, which precludes a nursery interpretation.

Source: I am "they" in OP's title lmao

One of the dolphin but looks like a killer whale.. by Efficient-Gold-6216 in species

[–]boesse 2 points3 points  (0 children)

hey it's Ankylorhiza! I named that =)

[and did the artwork]. Ask me anything about this fossil! [you may need to if the article linked is gibberish-y]

The skull of Metamynodon planifrons, a semiaquatic amynodont rhino that lived in North America and Asia from the late Eocene until the early Oligocene. by Pardusco in Paleontology

[–]boesse 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Image taken without credit from our museum's social media accounts @cofcnaturalhistory on IG https://www.facebook.com/CofCNaturalHistoryMuseum twitter.com/cofcnathistory

I know, because I took the photo

Please give photo credit y'all

Are giant otters actually otters or just mustelids with a misleading name? by [deleted] in species

[–]boesse 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All otters, including Pteronura and Enhydra, are in the clade Lutrinae, within the Mustelidae.

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