OK, I need some help on a fossil I uncovered today. Details: north-central OK, Permian (mid to lower), Wellington fm, in a slab of mud/sand stone with claystone inclusions and acid reactive. Lots of plant material and partial tetrapod skull in this large slab.
With all that out of the way, I hope someone here can give me an ID on this tiny bugger. Its roughly 4mm across. I'm really at a loss for what this is. The only thing that comes to mind is that it might be a vertebra. The two processes (extension) are curved, giving it the appearance of an elephant skull. You can see there is a fresh break at the centrum. Before it broke, is was nicely rounded and whole.
So experts, what your opinion here? Vert? reptile? amphib? fish? not a vert?
One last thing. Both this, and the skull frag, have a weird deep red coating on the surface. In a way if annoying as its a little harder to get through than the rest of the matrix, but then again I know when I'm getting very close to bone because of the color.