On Friday I asked for your help with identifying this object:
There were a few interesting suggestions from beaks to bladders, but so far nothing really corresponds with the structure of this specimen. It’s very weird.
It looks like it’s probably from something aquatic, perhaps the ossified swim bladder of a fish, but I’m by no means sure of that.
I will see if I can read the notes written on the specimen under a UV light, but for now I have to admit that I am still stumped. Please let me know if you recognise what it is!
Sorry, I’ve only just seen this one. I have a suggestion…not sure if someone has made this suggestion already, I haven’t seen the original post. Have you considered hyperostoses? Apparently they are common in tropical and subtropical fish. I have a schnapper skeleton that has small ones (its only a 60cm fish). I was going to attach the picture but I don’t think I can…
Thanks Anthony – I’ll check it out!
Hmm, I found this piece of fishbone with hyperostoses on a site that some of my followers might like (scroll down to no. 33): http://www.jonesken.com/QWspring2012.html
Although the bones are quite different in shape, their general structure does seem quite similar. Now to solve the mystery of that bone!
It’s the nadgering piece from a 19th century Cornish grummet-tinker’s scrode.
It’s a bit too big to be the nadgering piece from a scrode
How about this?: http://australianmuseum.net.au/Hyperostosis-Swollen-Bones/
Here’s another pic.
http://www.lakeneosho.org/Paleolist/79/index.html.
They call it a tilly bone which is apparently another name for a hyperostosis. The skeleton I have has them on the haemal spine, but the xray on the page that henstidgesj attached also shows them on the neural spines. They are apparently common in the skulls of Schnapper, but don’t quote me on that.