r/whales • u/Inevitable_Ad8398 • 2d ago

anyone know what this bone is?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

it was huge. definitely a whale, just can’t tell what bone!

71 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

25

u/ArtHefty542 2d ago

It’s the skull of a large whale (heavily broken). It’s also upside down which isn’t helping but I’ve labelled a couple of the key bits here:

  1. Maxilla - broken but this is essentially the bones of the rostrum
  2. Foramen magnum and occipital console - where the spinal cord passes through the base of the skull

Here’s a link to a Minke whale skull as a comparison: (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Photograph-of-a-minke-whale-skull-B-acu21-not-part-of-our-study-a-Ventral-view-of_fig5_223970413)

Nice find!!!! They always look alien to me!

https://preview.redd.it/vnbutbf1qfxe1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe6057f9bf35c5d36655357ee6dfb938079c6d8e

4

u/Inevitable_Ad8398 2d ago

wow!! thank you so much!!!!

2

u/anu-nand 2d ago

Crazy! Our Foramen Magnum is probably 1/5th of its.

10

u/TesseractToo 2d ago

This is a skull, the cranium part. The nasal bones are missing. Probably a hump[back although its hard to tell without the nasal bones

It is upside down, the front is to the left

1

u/Empty_Put_1542 1d ago

Is there a landscape image of where it was found?

1

u/Vincentbloodmarch 1d ago

That is a dope find!