Venice Beach Fossil Identification

[SarahG]

After a recent trip to Venice Beach, FL this little guy has me stumped. Any ideas?

[digit]

Can we see this piece from a number of angles to get an idea what it looks like from all sides?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[SarahG]

Here’s a few more angles - it’s mirror image on the sides. The lighter color is on the top, sloping to a small arc on both ends. Thanks!

[digit]

Isn't that a neat little thing?

 

I can see why you picked it up--I would have too. Interesting curved layering on this one. The texture could possibly be cancellous bone material but I've also seen matrix look like that. It's not ringing any bells as any particular fossil that I know of which makes me think geological (something tumbled into a pleasing shape) rather than biological. We'll see if any other Florida members have encountered something like this. Maybe @jcb will have an opinion?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[caldigger]

I would say geological. I have found so many oddity rocks that the great Pacific has tumbled into freakish shapes.

[Mark Kmiecik]

I'm leaning towards geological also. I've seen literally thousands of rocks along the shorelines of the Great Lakes that have been formed by wind and wave into truly unbelievable shapes, some looking more like fossils than the fossils normally found there.

[Plantguy]

Nice find Sarah. I would have also brought that home to look at more closely with a magnifying glass.

I havent seen too many banded rocks from Florida in my wanderings...when I've seen banding like this its turned out to be more often fossil wood or bone. I wont rule out something geologic though based on these limited photos and the fact that things from the beach have all kinds of crazy origins.

 

I do think I see some additional banding and internal wavy patterns/bone textures in the darker area (see red arrows) so I'm going to says its more likely bone as Ken mentioned as a possibility. Maybe you'll see something like those in yours. Here are some dugong bone fragment photos I have to compare to...not saying yours is dugong but wanted to show some bone examples....you can see the variety of colors caused by different mineralizations/preservation. 

 

Regards, Chris 

[digit]

Yup. A tumbled fragment of a larger long bone could explain the curved banded surface. Most (but not all) geological banded rocks tend to have their layers flat not curved. Because I've not found any pieces that closely match this oddity, I won't commit to biological or geological. If you can find someone who has seen a lot of beach-tumbled fossil bone fragments, they may recognize it in an instant. When you've seen similar items (possibly larger fragments or less well worn) it is easy to make the connection to a well worn item like this.

 

If it is in fact a worn and shaped fragment of fossil bone, you'll never be able to say with certainty which bone from what species this might be. I'd still keep it in your collection even if it never receives a proper ID. It's just a cool looking piece--I have a few interesting geological and unidentifiable biological pieces from the Peace River.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken