Small placoderm or fish

[fossilzz]

So I found these bones in a block of Bois Blanc fm., which dates this to around the middle Devonian. When it was found the block was in several pieces which at the time I didn't realize was associated, but upon further inspection I found the pieces fit together. Interestingly the fossils are not layered and appear at random depths throughout the block, not just in one layer. Because of this I think there may be more to be discovered in the rock. I tried prepping a smaller bone fragment out, but it turns out the bone is much softer than the matrix and the bone fragment is now many fragments. I won't "prep" any more of this to avoid further damage but I was wondering if there was anything diagnostic in here?  

[fossilzz]

[fossilzz]

Here is some of the bone that I tried to uncover and ended up breaking, I managed to glue the biggest pieces of it back together. It has an unbroken edge with ridges, and is preserved in a different way than the other material. It is smooth, almost like enamel, with no porosity. I think it could be some kind of dental element, as it kind of looks similar to a Ptychodus tooth (it can't be that though because Ptychodus is a shark). 

 

[Arizona Chris]

That looks just like the Devonian placoderm material we found in Arizona.  The body armor plates preserve well, sometimes  you can get some original bone material still attached.  We also found some of it lights up very well under a shortwave UV light.

[fossilzz]

On 6/5/2020 at 10:32 PM, Arizona Chris said:

That looks just like the Devonian placoderm material we found in Arizona.  The body armor plates preserve well, sometimes  you can get some original bone material still attached.  We also found some of it lights up very well under a shortwave UV light.

  

Nice finds, I'll have too see If I have a UV light around somewhere. 

[fossilzz]

I don't know if this helps, but this was found nearby, it appears to have a black unexposed side and on the other side has weathered out white, which seems consistent with the other bone material, it also has a really unique texture and a thin crust in the cross section, which I have noticed before on placoderm armour. The only thing that makes me not quite sure is that there ins no apparent bone marrow.

[dinosaur man]

On 5/31/2020 at 8:12 PM, fossilzz said:

So I found these bones in a block of Bois Blanc fm., which dates this to around the middle Devonian. When it was found the block was in several pieces which at the time I didn't realize was associated, but upon further inspection I found the pieces fit together. Interestingly the fossils are not layered and appear at random depths throughout the block, not just in one layer. Because of this I think there may be more to be discovered in the rock. I tried prepping a smaller bone fragment out, but it turns out the bone is much softer than the matrix and the bone fragment is now many fragments. I won't "prep" any more of this to avoid further damage but I was wondering if there was anything diagnostic in here?  

Wow!  What’s the locality?  I collect in this formation a lot and no Placaderms have been found.  @Kane  

[Misha]

Wow, All of this stuff is so cool!!

 

[Fossildude19]

I don't know how I missed this topic, but you have found some great Devonian fish bits!

Thanks for posting them. 

[Fossildude19]

On 6/5/2020 at 7:27 PM, fossilzz said:

Here is some of the bone that I tried to uncover and ended up breaking, I managed to glue the biggest pieces of it back together. It has an unbroken edge with ridges, and is preserved in a different way than the other material. It is smooth, almost like enamel, with no porosity. I think it could be some kind of dental element, as it kind of looks similar to a Ptychodus tooth (it can't be that though because Ptychodus is a shark).

 

 

This looks like the root end of a fish tooth.

Some sort of Rhizodont, perhaps.

On 6/6/2020 at 9:10 AM, fossilzz said:

I don't know if this helps, but this was found nearby, it appears to have a black unexposed side and on the other side has weathered out white, which seems consistent with the other bone material, it also has a really unique texture and a thin crust in the cross section, which I have noticed before on placoderm armour. The only thing that makes me not quite sure is that there ins no apparent bone marrow.

 

 

 

This item looks a bit like a Holoptychius type of fish scale.