Found this clear yet rigid thing along the Puget Sound, WA
Posted by neopolitan95@reddit | marinebiology | View on Reddit | 13 comments
Is about the size of my palm, almost reminds me of the cartilaginous fins of rays. Help identifying would be great! I found it just beach-combing
biscosdaddy@reddit
Preopercle of a salmon of some kind (all the Pacific ones are Oncorhynchus).
Compare here.
neopolitan95@reddit (OP)
That looks like it! Thank you! I was wondering if it could have been an operculum or something along those lines.
flyingshank@reddit
Could be a fish cleithrum ~roughly equivalent to the collarbone https://web.pdx.edu/~virginia/salmon/images/cleithrum_lateral.htm
biscosdaddy@reddit
Right taxon (salmon, Oncorhynchus sp.), but it's the preopercle.
ExtraReserve@reddit
For sure either a cleithrum or one of the opercular bones!! Just did a class project on reconstructing a fish skeleton
NaldoCrocoduck@reddit
Definitely a teleost fish bone. Could be a cleithrum, more likely a preopercle or interopercle
Pokewok66@reddit
Sort of reminds me of the thin shells certain species have on the inside, like a seahare
hypnofedX@reddit
I thought the same. Looks kinda like the pen of a squid, but not the right shape.
Pokewok66@reddit
Yeah I guess it’s something shared by a lot of mollusks, but someone else pointed out exactly what it is already, something from a fish I think
Mountain_Nerd@reddit
Hard to tell from the photo but is it a sail from a By-the-wind-sailor - Velella velella?
neopolitan95@reddit (OP)
I don’t think it is because it’s rigid. I’ve never seen hard parts of gelatinous zooplankton like that
SoupCatDiver_JJ@reddit
looks like fish bone, part of the face, fish have like 20 pieces to their faces
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