Whale ear, something else or just rock?

[PSchleis]

Found this on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Made me think possibly of a whale ear? But it really doesn’t look like the same material as other fossils I find here so maybe just a rock. But had to ask because it has some unique features....

[Shellseeker]

Certainly shaped like a whale/dolphin earbone.

Lets see what @BoesseThinks about it.

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

1 hour ago, PSchleis said:

But had to ask because it has some unique features....

It actually looks like a broken and encrusted shell/conch. Imagine looking from the inside out .. so the reverse of this image. I'm not sure exactly the orientation (broken bits) but yeah, a gastropod of some sort.  You can see some of the potential (?) shell remining at the very center of your image.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Brett

[PaleoNoel]

Agreed, I think it's a partial gastropod steinkern embedded in the original matrix.

[Boesse]

This one *really* had me for a minute! The overall shape is approximately right, and hilariously, that coil is the right place for the cochlea - which is hollow and occasionally if bone is lost can have a hard sediment infill - but it's coiled in the wrong way! It's a nodule with a gastropod steinkern.

[PSchleis]

Thank you for the ID and the lesson!