Took this pic years ago. No idea what it is! Please help!

[Phreak Chicken]

Hi there,

Hopefully someone can help me out. I used to live on the east coast of Canada and I found this laying on the beach years ago. When I first saw it, I thought it might be from a shark (?) as it was made entirely of cartilage (or cartilage-like). Even though there is a shadow on the right, it's symetrical with the left which looks like eye sockets. Although the angle doesn''t show it, the piece in the middle "fins" up to a point. The size of it is roughly that of a football. Does anyone know what this could possibly be? Help me end this little mystery.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Rich Keller]

I do not know what it is but my first impression was that it was a vertebrae. Do you have any other pics?

 

[Phreak Chicken]

No, sorry. I wish I would have looking back at it now. It was just one of those, "what the hell is that?" moments as I was going down the beach an snapped a quick pic. Such an odd looking head. I tried looking through types of marine creatures native to the area, but given that it's the Atlantic ocean, it could have been anything washing up on shore. I'm stumped.

 

[CT-Rich]

Hard to say what it is. You said it appeared to be cartilage? If it was the size of a foot ball and it does appear to be a vertebra, have to be pretty big. I think it is bone because it doesn't look like a shark. The way the sslot is arranged at the from of the bone and then closes into a dorsal spine is pretty fish like. There are fish that could have bones that large, and it looks like there was still some flesh attached to it, that may be why you thought it was cartillage. My next guess is that this a dorsal down veiw of the bone. Beats me beyond that. Try googling in images "insert name of Large local fish here vertebrae" and see what pops up.

 

[Phreak Chicken]

That's good to know. I'll try what you said to see what I can come up with. Thanks for your insight, guys. It's definitely helpful and appreciated.