Middle Miocene

Round Mountain Silt, Sharktooth Hill Bonebed

Ernst Ranch, Bakersfield

California, USA

Very rare 38mm bone

Bird.

Bird bones are delicate natural structures.  They tend to be thin-walled and hollow so they are poor candidates for fossilization and yet they are found in some deposits.  They are rare finds in the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed.  A well-preserved bone end is a prize to a collector because an expert can often identify it to at least family.

This bone appears to be the distal end of a tibiotarsus.