Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Beach Report 7/27/21

It was pretty warm and steamy today (87 F and 77 percent RH) so we decided to drive to the beach. As soon as we got out of the car we spotted this Osprey sitting on the pylon that marks the harbor.
I guess it was just too muggy to hunt. 
Don't let the appearance fool you. It was warm going.
A pretty good day for fossils, 37 shark's teeth between us and the usual other stuff, but nothing worthy a separate picture; however, harking back to yesterday . . . 
Georgia showed me this after we got off the beach. I know it's not much to look at, but after initially writing it off as a random concretion, I convinced myself it might be a cetacean ear bone, and I posted these pictures on the local fossil facebook group. Some of the responses:
Dolphin earbone. Should be diagnostic. Probably reworked from the Calvert formation; probably Xiphiacetus - very nice find!!!
. . .
Nice find! This is probably Zarhachis or Pomatodelphis, or possibly Phocageneus! Regardless, it's a platanistoid and probably a platanistid.
. . .
Related to the river dolphins right?
A reconstruction of Xiphiacetus


 

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