Did Sylvester eat Tweety? Another Coprolite Quandary

[GeschWhat]

I have had a bunch of broken bits of Oligocene mammal coprolites sitting in a cup for years. I got them before I had a proper microscope. I decided to pick through another one last night. This one had what I thought could be a rodent incisor. So I started excavating with my X-acto blade. As I uncovered the bone, I realized it was not a tooth. I started noticing these very fine crescent shaped objects (which I unfortunately did not photograph). So I decided to give the poo a little vinegar bath overnight. As I lightly removed an unremarkable bit of fossilized fecal mass this morning, it split away revealing what might be a feather. I wet a bit of downy feather and photographed it for comparison. What do you all think?  @Carl, didn't you have a coprolite with a feather inclusion? If so, did it look like this? The bone that I exposed is very furrowed and hollow. Of course this may not mean anything other than it is partially digested. Could it be a bird bone? 

@Auspex

 

Here is the before and after photo of the coprolite fragment.

 

Here is a magnified image of the a wet modern feather and the possible undigested feather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GeschWhat]

Here is a magnified image of the bone.

 

 

[Carl]

Hmmm... Super hard to tell from those photos. The feathers I've seen in coprolites are almost entirely molds with maybe a trace of carbon in them. More pix?

[Rockwood]

He who collects coyote droppings here. I think the wolf ate Bambi. 

[GeschWhat]

12 hours ago, Carl said:

More pix?

It took me forever to get the photos I got. Here is a decent one taken at 20X magnificaiton. I'll post another at 40X next. I will see if I can get a better photo, but I'm taking them through my scope with my cell phone. I will try to bet some photos of the bone from different angles, too. Although, without an end, I suppose it is hard to tell what it's from.

 

10 hours ago, Rockwood said:

He who collects coyote droppings here. I think the wolf ate Bambi. 

I'm more of a cat person; I scoop cat boxes. The surface bone suggest it ate a smaller animal. It could perhaps be fur. I was hoping someone could tell something from the bone. 

[GeschWhat]

Here is a 40X. If not feathers, fur?

[GeschWhat]

Okay, @Carl. Here is another close-up of the feather/fur area. You can tell in this photo that they are hollow "tubes." Off the the right, you can see unbroken ends.  I also uncovered another longish hollow bone. It s really hard to remove the material around the bone because it there is so much calcite adjacent to them. They are like little geodes. I don't know if these were gas pockets or perhaps areas where there was soft tissue or fat that was replaced during mineralization. Any thoughts? 

 

I found another exposed bone on the otherside that I am working on. Hopefully it will be something more identifiable.

[Rockwood]

5 hours ago, GeschWhat said:

Here is a 40X. If not feathers, fur?

Poorly calcified bone from an immature animal. And/or showing a bit of digestion.

[Rockwood]

59 minutes ago, GeschWhat said:

You can tell in this photo that they are hollow "tubes."

Oops! I missed that. It does suggest hair. Bamby's hair would very tube like.

[Carl]

Sorry to vanish for so long! Sadly, I have no thoughts on those tubes.