Bones of the Ocean, experts needed here

[leon]

Hi Guys,
As some of you know we are house sitting in Yeppoon QLD.

We like it here and enjoy our early Sunrise walks along the beach, Alice finds some interesting Shells and I too have come across some interesting finds, hence the thread.

So to make a long story short.

Some days ago I found a jaw bone with a big tusk in it and thought, well that is different and took it home.

The next day on our walk i found a skull of some Sea creature.

And bugger me the following day i found two very odd shaped bones, and after examination of them I found that they were a pair and formed perfectly together, these two had some holes in them which were identical and i assumed they were where some big teeth once were.

Looking at the bones and looking at the color of them and that they are all very fragile i expect that they came from the same creature.

I have no idea of what i have found, but the bones, skull , have been in the Ocean a long time, they are so fragile to touch.

So why would these bones wash up at the same Beach, if they, the bones have been in the Ocean so long that they are fragile.

Leon

[rrussell1962]

30 or so years since my comparative anatomy classes and I had to think about anything like this, but at risk of making a fool of myself here goes, photo 4 looks to me like a very degraded vertebra seen from the posterior side i.e. as if you were looking down at the animals back. I think the bits sticking out are the remains of the transverse and articular processes. Given the size you might be looking at something at least the size of a dugong.

As to photo 1, which I think is what you referred to as the tusk, I remember even less about teeth in Marine Vertebrates. I would say it's either an incisor or canine tooth though and not a molar, and from the upper jaw. It does look a bit like the end of a Dugong upper jaw, but that's a pure shot in the dark on my part. Google Dugong skull and you may see what I mean. Any dentists on here to comment on the tooth?

[el_draco (Rom)]

Originally Posted by rrussell1962

Any dentists on here to comment on the tooth?

Looks real painful...

[rrussell1962]

Originally Posted by el_draco

Looks real painful...

Indeed.

[leon]

Thank you Russell, at least this a start, to finding out what this may be.

Leon

[leon]

Checked it out Russell, yep my friend you are spot on it is what you said. so now i will be posting some other stuff i also found which is not related to this find, maybe you will also shed light on this discovery.

Thank you

[leon]

Ok these items were found on the same Beach however days apart and are not related to the Dougon, however very interesting for me at least.

The Tusk look a like bone is very heavy for a bone, and has a distinct resonance when one taps it but, it is bone.

The other two specimens that i found are unusual, and look like a rib bone attached to some other bone structure, so once again i have no idea.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Leon

PS: sorry, the photos give no scale in size, however the curved bone tusk like structure is approximately 500 mm across and the other ones approximately 200- 300 mm across

[leon]

Russell, here is a what i found at it is identical to the Dugong

Leon

[rrussell1962]

I think if you start to piece your bones together you may get something that looks like an upper jaw! Looking at the first 2 photos in your later post, possibly the ribs are starting to show up?

[Nebulous (Chris)]

Fascinating finds Leon.

I have no ideas about what animal(s) the bones come from but dugong certainly sounds good for at least some of it. it did occur to me that some forms of fishing used chunks of animal in the pots as bait, so at least some bits of bone found on beaches could be from land animals. I once worked on a crayboat as a deckie and various unsavoury bits were put in the pots. The ranker the better.

Some are apparently not allowed as bait now , but of course it probably depends on how old the bones are, and of course how legal the fisherman is....

I hope you get good ID on all your finds.

EDIT: WAIT! That toothy jaw.... it's the missing body of Lord Lucan isn't it?

[rrussell1962]

Chris, It can't be Lord Lucan. He is living with Elvis. Everybody knows that.

[rrussell1962]

I do wonder whether your latest photos are from the
forelimbs and remains of the shoulder blades though. But I'm still going for ribs. Not sure what the things that look like quills are, cuttlefish?

[rrussell1962]

If you keep an eye out on your walks Leon I would love to see if anything else shows up. I wouldn't be surprised if you find parts of the brain case which should be fairly easy to identify, curved and relatively thick. Very durable.

[rrussell1962]

Originally Posted by leon

Russell, here is a what i found at it is identical to the Dugong

Leon

That shows it really nicely! Good photo find. Thanks for the confirmation Leon.

[rrussell1962]

Interesting to look at your photo of the upper jaw and fit it to the Dugong. They feed on sea grass, so I imagine the front teeth are used like shovels to dig it up and it is passed to the molars at the back for chewing. Interesting to compare with, say, a cow skull, same idea, except cows just chew the grass off at ground level.

[iborg (Philip)]

Hi

I think turtles have ribs fused to the inside of the shell, so that may be one of the mysteries.

https://onebendintheriver.com/2015/0...r-for-turtles/

[leon]

Philip I thing you might be on to it, your photo is pretty much identical to what i have found.

Now for that long curved tusk like one, it is very heavy for a bone in my opinion, but then i don't know much about that sort of stuff.

Thank You.

leon