Myrtle Beach - steinkern, or recognizable bone?

[PSchleis]

Picked this up today on Myrtle Beach. I thought it was a steinkern, slightly different shape than others I'd collected. Then I noticed pitting - like marrow - on part of it. (See second photo.) It's a very distinctive shape, so wondering if anyone sees a recognizable bone in this, or is just a steinkern that those little hole-diggers got ahold of?

 

Thanks!

[Rockwood]

My vote goes coal clinker. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

+1 Coke.

[Rockwood]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

+1 Coke.

Hotter fire gives it the smoother texture than some coal tends to have maybe ?

Or did you mean unburned coke ?

[Mark Kmiecik]

11 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Hotter fire gives it the smoother texture than some coal tends to have maybe ?

I think weathering gives it the smoothness. More heat may account for grain orientation which should be a plus in the "polishing" process -- but that's a huge guess on my part. Back in the day in the apartment building my parents owned we used coal for heat. The difference between anthracite and bituminous coal is notable in both grain and heat production. The difference in the slag each produces is significant as well. And then you get into sub-bituminous and lignite. 

[Plax]

Looks like a phosphatized lag element. These can be anything from rip up clasts to worn vertebrate remains. 

[fossilnut]

The 1st picture gives me the impression of the beaks of a clam steinkern that has been extremely water worn and bored by various critters. These "clams" called turtle heads by the Myrtle Beach natives are very abundant finds at the beach. The black color is probably from phosphatic minerals that occurs in deposits in NC and Sc as Plax states.

[Rockwood]

14 minutes ago, Plax said:

Looks like a phosphatized lag element. These can be anything from rip up clasts to worn vertebrate remains. 

Is there a simple test that would confirm it ?

[PSchleis]

Thanks, everyone! I didn't realize coal could have a porous look. Sneaky stuff!

[Mahnmut]

32 minutes ago, PSchleis said:

Thanks, everyone! I didn't realize coal could have a porous look. Sneaky stuff!

If I got that right it´s not the coal itself, but the molten mineral content that is left over after burning coal, like slag.

Enjoy the beach!

[Plax]

14 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Is there a simple test that would confirm it ?

if you look along the strand for teeth etc you will see numerous black elements that are not readily discernible as fossils. Some are simply pebbles coated with black phosphate from being in the lag. Some are pieces of the underlying sediment that have been ripped up and rounded and then "plated" with black phosphatic mineral. Some are the roots of teeth or chunks of bone including tilly stones. All of these things were a different color or may have been a different color before being concentrated in the lag. The concentration of resistant clasts may be repeated several times with erosion and transgression of the sea. Lags don't have to be black by the way but the Peedee/Goose Creek and others in the Myrtle Beach area are black.

  Coal and coke will burn. 

[PSchleis]

1 hour ago, Plax said:

if you look along the strand for teeth etc you will see numerous black elements that are not readily discernible as fossils. Some are simply pebbles coated with black phosphate from being in the lag. Some are pieces of the underlying sediment that have been ripped up and rounded and then "plated" with black phosphatic mineral. Some are the roots of teeth or chunks of bone including tilly stones. All of these things were a different color or may have been a different color before being concentrated in the lag. The concentration of resistant clasts may be repeated several times with erosion and transgression of the sea. Lags don't have to be black by the way but the Peedee/Goose Creek and others in the Myrtle Beach area are black.

  Coal and coke will burn. 

 

That's very helpful to know. Thanks Rockwood.