Most beachcombers I know love finding fossils, but there’s a whole world of other treasures hiding in the sand. Fish bones and fragments - vertebrae, teeth, mouth plates, and defensive spikes - wash up more often than people realize, and each one tells a small story about the marine life that once swam just offshore. 

 These pieces may not look like traditional fossils at first glance, but they’re every bit as fascinating once you know what you’re looking at. 

 Vertebrae 

 Most of the vertebrae found on the beach come from bony fish, mainly because it’s extremely difficult to identify the exact species from a single bone. Specialists may be able to distinguish them, but for casual beachcombers like me, the vertebrae are so similar in size and shape that it’s easiest to group them into this general category. 

 They’re easy to recognize: most have two long lateral processes (the “spikes” on each side), though one or both are often broken by the time they wash ashore. These vertebrae are among the most common finds on our beaches. 

 Dolphin vertebrae are much easier to identify but far less common than fish bones. Most dolphin species have 65-90 vertebrae, and the bones get smaller as they approach the caudal (tail) end, with the largest ones located closer to the mid-body near the dorsal fin. 

 One of the most recognizable pieces is the epiphysis - the flat, circular disk that often separates from the main vertebra and washes up on its own. These disks, usually about the size of a quarter to a half-dollar (roughly 1-1.25 inches), are affectionately known by beachcombers as “dolphin cookies.” 

 

 An epiphysis is smooth on one side and shows an intricate raised pattern on the side that once attached to the vertebra. They’re wonderful finds, especially when they’re fossilized. 

 Shark vertebrae are another exciting find, though they’re much rarer than fish bones. They’re easy to recognize: the vertebrae are round and about one quarter to one-half inch thick, with a concave center and no lateral spikes like those seen on bony-fish vertebrae. 

 Each vertebra has two small openings on either side of the centrum called foramina. In a living shark, these openings allow blood vessels to pass through and provide anchor points where cartilage attaches to the vertebra. 

 I find both fresh and fossilized shark vertebrae. Fresh ones are white, very lightweight, and often still have a chalky feel. 

 Fossilized vertebrae are heavier and come in a range of colors depending on the minerals absorbed during fossilization. In older specimens, the foramina may be filled in or no longer visible due to calcification. 

 Stingray and Catfish Spikes 

 Two types of sharp bones often wash up on the beach and are easy to confuse: stingray barbs and catfish spines. The rarer of the two is the stingray barb. 

 A stingray’s barb is the defensive spine located near the base of its tail - the reason beachgoers are taught to shuffle their feet instead of stepping high through the surf. 

 When you shuffle, you’re more likely to gently nudge a buried stingray, giving it a chance to swim away. But if you step directly on top of one, the startled animal may whip its tail upward, driving this serrated, venom-coated spine into your foot or leg. 

 

 Stingray barbs can range from three inches on smaller rays to 8-12 inches on very large species. Even a small stingray puncture can send you to the emergency room, and a large barb can be deadly - a stingray spine was responsible for the 2006 death of Australian naturalist Steve Irwin. 

 The barb itself is a slender, straight piece of bone with two rows of backward-facing serrations running along the sides. These serrations are what make the injury so painful and difficult to remove. 

 A much more common find - and one often mistaken for a stingray barb - is the catfish spine. These spines can resemble a stingray’s serrated barb and can deliver a very painful poke if you’ve ever handled a catfish on a fishing line. 

 The easiest way to tell them apart is by shape. A catfish spine is smaller, has a slight natural curve, and ends in a knob-like “shoulder” where it once attached to the fish. A stingray barb, by contrast, is straight, longer, and lacks that knuckle at the base. 

 Catfish have these sharp spines in both their dorsal and pectoral fins, which is why anglers are so often stuck by them. When they wash up on the beach, they stay dangerous: the spines remain rigid and sharp for decades - even centuries after the fish is long gone. 

 I always pick them up when I see them, just so no one steps on one and ends up with a painful poke. 

 

 Spotted Eagle Ray Mouth Plates 

 One of the most unusual and instantly recognizable bones you can find on the beach is a section of Spotted Eagle Ray mouth plate. These rays don’t have individual teeth like sharks or bony fish. Instead, they have broad dental plates made up of tightly fused, boomerang-shaped sections that form a powerful crushing surface inside the mouth. 

 Because of their distinctive shape, these pieces are easy to identify even when they’ve been tumbled by waves or worn smooth by sand. 

 Spotted Eagle Rays use their mouth plates to crush hard-shelled prey such as clams, oysters, crabs, and snails. They bite down with tremendous force, pulverizing the shell, then spit out the broken pieces and swallow only the soft tissue inside. 

 Their feeding style is so efficient that divers often hear the cracking sound underwater before they even see the ray. 

 The plates sometimes wash up still fused together, showing the curved, interlocking pattern of the original dental structure. More often, though, they’re found as single, separated segments that have broken apart over time. 

 These individual pieces can be smooth, ridged, or slightly curved depending on where they came from on the plate. 

 Every piece I’ve found has been fossilized, which isn’t surprising - these plates are dense and mineralize well. Fossilized sections can range in color from tan to dark brown or even black, depending on the minerals in the sediment they absorbed over thousands of years. 

 Because they’re less common than shark teeth or fish vertebrae, finding one always feels like discovering a small treasure from the Gulf’s deeper past. 

 Once you know what to look for, the shoreline becomes a living museum. Vertebrae, barbs, and mouth plates may be tiny, but each one connects you to the incredible marine life just offshore. 

 Keep your eyes open - the next tide might bring in something extraordinary.