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Found this in the creek behind my house in Eastern Kentucky. It's been raining (and flooding) a lot so tons of rocks are being washed out of the hills. I'm uncertain what era this could be from since I'm not exactly sure where it washed out from. The pictures I'm including show it while it was still in the rock and after I removed it. I thought it was made of metal at first, but it isn't magnetic at all, nor is it soft like lead or aluminum. After looking around online the closest thing I could find to it's shape is fish coprolite. Is this coprolite or just some strange thing in a rock?

In short, I'm trying to figure out exactly what was on the menu: fish or cephalopods. While sorting through some Oxford Clay fish coprolites, I came across this specimen. It was part of a batch purchased years ago. I must have just assumed the inclusions were fish vertebrae, but now I'm not too sure. I know some vertebrae from some fish fry can be hollow, but the texture/material of these inclusions look very different from anything I've seen (including vertebrae in Oxford Clay coprolites). Because of the color and layers, I'm thinking these may be chitinous. That said, I haven't seen enough fossilized chitinous material to be sure. The only thing I've seen are cephalopod hooks in coprolite (tiny and thin with no layers) and Arthropleura tergites (note layered because they weren't exposed to digestion?). I know back in the early 1800's, William Buckland thought some of the rings found in Blue Lias coprolites could be rings from the suckers of cephalopods, but acknowledged fish vertebrae should not be ruled out (On the Discovery of Coprolites, or Fossil Faeces, in the Lias at Lyme Regis, and in other Formations - Page 226). I have a number of specimens with that type of ring, but they are smaller and fossilization/mineralization isn't the same. So here are my questions: 1. Does anyone out there have any examples of beefy chitinous inclusions in coprolite? 2. Is there a quick test for chitin? 3. Has anyone seen vertebrae that look like these? 4. Has anyone seen fossilized rings from cephalopod suckers? Some extant squid have these, but their rings have little teeth/serrations on them. 5. Any other ideas what these could be? As always, thanks for looking! @MarcoSr, @DE&i, @Carl

I'm quite used to finding small fish vertebra from these small sized fish coprolites @GeschWhat from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough. But this one below has more of a shark vertebra appearance, or are there different variations of fish vertebrae. All vertebrae measuring between 2 and 3 millimetres. This one below is also a fish vertebra.