Fossil Horn of ancient Rhino

[returnofthemammoth]

Hi all,

In the 80's my uncle took a horn from an extinct ancient rhino from Indonesia. It is definately a fossil, it is like stone. And quite heavy, 3.5 kg. (The ruler is in cm)

I would like to know from what kind of rhino specie it is. Has anybody an idea? Thank you very much!

 

 

[Randyw]

I’m sorry to say this but I believe that’s just a stone. Rhinos horns are made of keratin  and don’t fossilize. The only known ancient rhino horns are ones that have been Found frozen in the permafrost. Rhinos don’t have a bony horn core like other ancient animals...

[BellamyBlake]

Sadly, it looks like stone

[LordTrilobite]

Rhino horns are made of keratin. There is no bone in a rhino horn at all. Keratin rarely fossilizes because it's much softer than bone.

 

This looks like just a rock.

[abyssunder]

Welcome to the forum! 

The missing parts may be on help, but they are not there, at least as I see in my mind.

[Familyroadtrip]

Yeah, sorry, not a horn.

[Opabinia Blues]

Indeed, it’s just a normal rock, not a fossil at all. Rhinoceros horn rarely, if ever, fossilizes.

[returnofthemammoth]

Okay thank you for your reactions!

[Mahnmut]

Hi,

Although this is clearly no Rhino, I wonder if the dark "crust" may be fragments of something fossil? Hard to see on the fotos.

The horn-shape looks quite regular but not like a fossil, rather like a polished artifact. Could be antique, could be 80ies fake Rhino, maybe containing parts of some other fossil. I have seen a monkey skull carved out of fossil coral bought as "fossil monkey skull", funnily enough by my uncle, dont  remember where in Asia (I only saw it at my uncles)

Interesting souvenier from another time anyway.

Best Regards,

J

[Shellseeker]

On 9/20/2020 at 2:00 PM, returnofthemammoth said:

I would like to know from what kind of rhino specie it is. Has anybody an idea? Thank you very much!

While the Rhinos here in Florida never had a horn, they did have some rather impressive incisors modified to be tusks...

 This from Teleoceras proterum, 10 mya, Florida Miocene

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Although I'd agree that the piece under discussion here is not a fossil horn - though I think it could be a horn core of something or another (bovine?), as there does seem to be a more porous area at the base - I just wanted to point out that while there horns of true rhinoceroses are made up of keratin (same material as hair and nails), there have been animals very much like rhinoceros in appearance. Arsinoitherium, for example had two bone horns on its snout, which were probably covered in keratin. Now, Arsinoitherium comes out of Egypt and,  therefore, would not likely be a match. But, when answering a question of a nature as OP's I think we should be careful in distinguishing between what scientifically are considered rhinoceroses and what might colloquially labelled as such...

[sjaak]

I think it’s a fossilized bone that was polished and carved into the shape of a horn. I think I can see some bone structure and also the brown outer layer fits with (cortex) bone.
I have seen this before with fossils from Indonesia. Including an “homo erectus” skull carved out of a fossil elephant femur.

 

[Harry Pristis]

The pointy end doesn't have a bone shape of any sort.  AND, the pointy end doesn't show any trabecular bone after putative significant grinding.  I submit that no bone I can think of would have thick enough cortex to allow so much grinding without breaking through to the trabecular bone.  Not elephant, not water buffalo, nothing.