We headed south yesterday and had a good time at the Ocean Shores jetty --
thanks to those who sent me wave information. We found about 40 surfbirds,
a dozen or so black turnstones, and three rock sandpipers. and got off the
jetty shortly after the wind kicked up and the first big wave reached the
top of the jetty just beyond us.

Later in the day we were down at Tokeland, and after getting our fill of
marbled godwits and willets, we noticed a large partial skeleton that had
washed up, behind and to the left of the usual godwit roost.

We went over to examine it, and it had some very interesting features. The
rib cage and most of the spine were almost intact, though there was nothing
else.

It seemed to be compressed a bit laterally: I estimated the depth of the
rib cage at around 18 inches, and the width at around 12 inches. The
vertebrae seemed to thicken as they moved away from the rib cage in either
direction, and the cervical vertebrae seemed huge -- I'd guess that they
were more than three inches square. Another interesting feature was the
dorsal processes that extended from the back of the spine above the rib
cage. These varied in length from maybe 3 inches to 7 inches. The longest
seemed to have been compromised -- either broken or gnawed at the ends --
and might have been slightly longer. These are the primary reason that I'm
assuming it was a cetacean: the length of these processes looked they might
support a dorsal fin, but I could think of no other mammal that would likely
have such a structure. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Has anybody seen this skeleton? Can anyone identify it, give or take a
species, based on the description?

Thanks,

Jim McCoy
Bellevue, WA
jfmccoy at hotmail.com