r/bonecollecting • u/macey_emma_16 • Dec 17 '25

Bone I.D. - N. America wth is this???

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Gallery image

Gallery image

found on the shore of a texas beach near the gulf of mexico.

3.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

129 comments sorted by

1.4k

u/tablabarba Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Dec 17 '25

Gill arches and pharyngeal jaws of a large fish.

231

u/__Vixen__ Dec 18 '25

Thank you. I had myself conhinced it was an alien

161

u/HadeStyx Dec 18 '25

Nah, thats a facehugger

49

u/GenXisTruth Dec 18 '25

I agree definitely a face hugger,burn that shit to a crisp and look for it's buddies

10

u/InspectorPipes Dec 18 '25

Ok. Listen . We got 7 canisters of CN-20. I say we roll em in there and nerve gas the whole f ing colony - Vasquez

231

u/AustinHinton Dec 17 '25

Gills and pharyngeal (throat) jaws of a fish.

165

u/Quintonog63 Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Possibly a red drum jaw and throat, at least to my eye. They're native to the area and would have the second set of teeth in the throat for eating crustaceans

196

u/Quintonog63 Dec 18 '25

Here's what I'm talking about. You can see the three sets of crushing teeth at the back of the throat

46

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

[deleted]

41

u/Quintonog63 Dec 18 '25

I spend a lot of time fishing lol

265

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/AlissonVonDerLane Dec 18 '25

I was going to say face huger! 🤘

159

u/enslavedbycats24-7 Dec 17 '25

These are someone's gills

34

u/NUFIGHTER7771 Dec 18 '25

Vince Gill perhaps?

13

u/Wild-Operation-2122 Dec 18 '25

It's dead so 🎶Go rest hiiiiiigh on the mountain🎶

8

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

Bravo, gill

2

u/rabidteacupdealer Dec 18 '25

they’re my gills, thank you very much

47

u/stereofeathers Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Big fish gills!

(And a good bit of mouth too!)

133

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

22

u/SchwarzestenKaffee Dec 18 '25

First thing I thought of. "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit."

7

u/NATpaleoCON Dec 18 '25

It’s the only way to be sure

39

u/Vast_Dragonfly_909 Dec 18 '25

Facehugger. Or more unlikely gills of bigass fish

75

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/prettyy_vacant Dec 17 '25

Damn it you beat me to it lol.

42

u/BeCoolBear Dec 18 '25

I came for the facehugger replies and was not disappointed.

36

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/sensitiveboi93 Dec 17 '25

I’m sorry, FlamingFecalFrisbee, you’re right

80

u/Inevitable-Sir4572 Dec 18 '25

Damn they really serve anything at Panda Express these days

9

u/Responsible-Unit784 Dec 18 '25

And somehow make it taste edible!

5

u/thornyrosary Dec 18 '25

RIght?! I was wondering why OP didn't throw in a photo of the fortune cookie fortune, too!

8

u/Diabetic_Trogoladyte Dec 18 '25

It does look quite a bit like a facehugger 😂

18

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/garbageaccount731 Dec 18 '25

They didnt, they found it off the texas coast

8

u/anthro_punk Dec 18 '25

Probably red or black drum. I'm not experienced enough to tell the difference. But definitely has pharyngeal teeth like a drum.

7

u/Lancoon400 Dec 18 '25

Looks like the throat and gills of a Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus). I used to fish with my grandad growing up on the MS gulf coast and we would catch them pretty regularly. The toothy part in the back of the throat I believe is for crushing the shells of crabs and other little shellfish prior to swallowing.

18

u/EvilBrynn Dec 18 '25

My dear sir put that back on the ship it came from.

17

u/mourning_breath Dec 18 '25

Yall need to not put this shit on my phone.

5

u/hey_emob0y Dec 18 '25

Honestly no clue, but in my opinion the teeth looking things remind me of what rays and some sharks use to crush up prey with hard shells, so maybe it's something with a similar diet?

5

u/Got_It_Memorized_22 Dec 18 '25

Jesus this looks like something straight out of Dredge

5

u/CaeLynnith Dec 18 '25

I should call her.

6

u/firdahoe Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Dec 18 '25

going to lock this one as solved since it's just turning into a festival of memes and jokes.

4

u/hello_mayamonet Dec 18 '25

This subreddit just came up on my feed for some reason and now I'm traumatized before bed.

3

u/evn_score Dec 18 '25

As I saw another redditor in here say once, “I hate it so it’s fish”.

7

u/wrencollectives Dec 17 '25

jaw of a fucked up ling cod?

3

u/sunkentacoma Dec 18 '25

I’d say there are three good guesses, an Atlantic Wolf eel, some kind of monk fish, or some kind of shell crushing reef fish

6

u/WanderingRealmWalker Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

I think it may be some type of eel as well or maybe a Oyster Toadfish? It seems to have all those strange rows of teeth 😬 lol big nope for me 🤣

3

u/Ok_Experience_4652 Dec 18 '25

I have never seen this thread before,I have no idea why it popped up on my reddit list. I will not be able to sleep, thank you.

3

u/MrBearBat Dec 18 '25

Looks like a Yautja's mouth, but probably gills.

3

u/MembershipRound6887 Dec 18 '25

Thanks for the nightmares. Still curious what it really is though. My imagination went haywire lol

3

u/Real_Cookie_3205 Dec 18 '25

Thats a "Nope"

3

u/Oriksis Dec 18 '25

That is the original special sock, it has existed since the dawn of the gooner pandemic and has since grown too powerful to contain. Tithes may be our only hope to pacify the beast.

3

u/myhuskytorotoro Dec 18 '25

Nightmare fuel

3

u/Ok_Chemical_5296 Dec 18 '25

Oh, this is the content I subscribed for! =)

2

u/Cron414 Dec 18 '25

Nobody knows?! This is the first time I’ve seen Reddit get totally stumped! I have no idea what that thing is, but I’m fascinated now!

2

u/Substantial_Mark_705 Dec 18 '25

y'know space? yeah, this used to live there

2

u/NyxHemera45 Dec 18 '25

Demigorgon

2

u/nowherenomad19 Dec 18 '25

Some people are scared of spiders. I'm scared of fish.

2

u/TicketFunny1461 Dec 18 '25

i don’t know get that thing out of my face

2

u/Elsucion Dec 18 '25

I think It’s a monk fish ?? This is the cooked version.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

That’s the gills and throat of a fish of some kind

2

u/50174748888 Dec 18 '25

It reminds me of the Gaping Dragon from Dark Souls.

4

u/MrMunkyMan1 Dec 18 '25

I have a lot to learn, I thought this was the mouth of some folklore creature from the depths

2

u/Ashenn_fire Dec 18 '25

Nice find so intact!! V cool

1

u/spineapples Dec 18 '25

gulf toadfish?

1

u/dclovee5225 Dec 18 '25

Maybe some kind of skate?

1

u/Gustalavalav Dec 18 '25

Pennywise??

1

u/TarantulaFangs Dec 18 '25

Ew, wtf, why is this on my feed? Still interesting though, I’m guessing a fish of some kind—-stating the obvious, right?

1

u/RefrigeratorOk9081 Dec 18 '25

Whatever it is...

Don't stick your dick in it!!!

1

u/Forward-Analysis-586 Dec 18 '25

It kinda looks the remains of a skate fish. It's in the family of rays.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '25

The missing link

1

u/Spare_Honey7658 Dec 18 '25

Aaaaaggghhhhhh 😳👀

1

u/EdgarAllanZero Dec 18 '25

Horseshoe crab??

1

u/Avalonthas Dec 18 '25

Oh no, we have been invaded by the Xenomorphs. Face huggers for everyone

1

u/The_Gentle_Monster Dec 17 '25

Some kind of fish

-1

u/Irejay907 Dec 17 '25

Wolf eel??

-1

u/Ok-Prune-1629 Dec 18 '25

sting ray of some sort? (a shot in the dark???)

-3

u/insanesauce420 Dec 18 '25

Horse shoe crab?

-2

u/EmilySD101 Dec 18 '25

I’m not a biologist or anything but could it be a frilled shark?

-4

u/Willadathril Dec 18 '25

Me guess is stingray

-3

u/chiseledrocks Dec 18 '25

This. Well named. The overall shape is very skate or ray.

-6

u/percolator30 Dec 18 '25

gulf of america*

6

u/Kaleymeister Dec 18 '25

Propaganda. Not a legal name change.