Cetacea

Cetacea

Two cetacean bones were recovered at Litlibær (Table 17) both in context [13846] which is

described as disturbed natural, old land surface. Cetacean bones are hard to identify without

a good reference collection but very few institutions have large collections of cetacean bones

due to their size. The two bones from Litlibær both come from a small cetacean and fit well

with harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) specimen M125 from the Icelandic ZooArch

reference collection.

Table 17: Small cetacean bones found at Litlibær.

Þjms number Context Bone End Count Frag Texture Fusion 2012-22-1573 13846 Thoracic vertebra Whole 1 10 2 Unfused 2012-22-1559 13846 Scapula Proximal 1 10 2

Figure 18: The small cetacean scapula from Litlibær. Scale 2 cm. Photo: Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir.