Bone fragment?

[ErikAndere]

So I have had this on my desk for a couple years and finally got around to bothering a local paleontologist about it, because it's a bit unique for the location. I have never knowingly handled guaranteed fossilized bone before but other hobbyists who have handled it have said it is. Now, they've also said a lot of other things that I know aren't bone were bone, so... we'll see what I hear back! At any rate, what do you all think? Am I asking a silly question? 

 

My end of the Clarno formation is not known for mammal fossils but we're within reasonable distance, in Oregon terms, of the mammal digs. I picked it up as float in a creek bed thinking it was an antler tip. I have handled enough extant bone and antler to be reasonably certain it isn't that! (No I didn't lick it.) It might seem silly to get excited about an unidentifiable little chip in a creek, but when "there aren't any fossil bones out there" might be disproven... well, it's fun. 

 

 

[fifbrindacier]

Hi, welcome from France. I'm sure this is bone but i wonder if it is a fossil as you say it was floating. You can try the test of the flame test to see if it burns and smell or not.

 

Sophie.

[ErikAndere]

6 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

Hi, welcome from France. I'm sure this is bone but i wonder if it is a fossil as you say it was floating. You can try the test of the flame test to see if it burns and smell or not.

 

Sophie.

 

Ah, by 'float' I mean it was found without any other fragments, loose and detached from its context. It's a rarer use of the word! It is not raw bone. 

[val horn]

i think a flame test is worthwhile.  It certainly is bone, and if enough experts say there is no bone in the formation then I would wan t to be very sure that it is a fossil and not just a piece of two hundred year old cattle bone.    What the fragment is from  is beyond me.    If it is really flat I might consider turtle, but the one picture in your hand looks like a piece of long bone .

[GeschWhat]

It looks like a bone fragment to me as well. I would do the flame test to see if it is actually fossilized. I wonder how long it would take a bone fragment to fossilize in a mineral-rich stream. 

[ErikAndere]

Thanks for the feedback! I will hold off on a flame test until I hear if the local paleontologist wants it mailed over. I can tell you it's between Mohs 3 and 5.5, (scratches calcite, does not scratch glass) and that it sinks instantly in water and does not appear absorbent. It is quite likely not 30-40 million years old, but it handles like it's mineralized. Antler bleaches white in one year and fragments in 3-4 years, cow bones will fracture to a light-weight porous mess in 5 years. Very high silica and calcium in the groundwater here, high enough to build rocks inside one's hot water heater, so it being buried and mineralized on a much shorter timescale isn't out of the question. 

[fifbrindacier]

I'm sorry, when i write Mohs on the net i see sites upon a technic of chemosurgery for skin Cancer, developed by Frederic E. Mohs, does your Mohs have something to do with that ?

Besides, if your bone is fossil, the flame won't damage it, so, you don't have to wait for the paleontologist to do the test. Bones naturally heavy sink easily and if it is in water since a long time, it could look mineralized when handled. You can do the flame test on a remote part of it so you'll be fixed on it being fossil or no.

If this test is negative you'll be sure it's a fossil and so, the professional point of view could focused on its identification.

[Kane]

7 minutes ago, fifbrindacier said:

I'm sorry, when i write Mohs on the net i see sites upon a technic of chemosurgery for skin Cancer, developed by Frederic E. Mohs, does your Mohs have something to do with that ?

 

https://geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml

[Sjfriend]

7 minutes ago, fifbrindacier said:

I'm sorry, when i write Mohs on the net i see sites upon a technic of chemosurgery for skin Cancer, developed by Frederic E. Mohs, does your Mohs have something to do with that ?

Try search for "Mohs scale of mineral hardness" It us a universal scale used to test minerals. 

[Sjfriend]

@Kanebeat me my 30 seconds lol

[Kane]

2 minutes ago, Sjfriend said:

@Kanebeat me my 30 seconds lol

 

[fifbrindacier]

Thank you both, i understand better what those Mohs are about. What is funny is that the chemosurgery technic was developed by Frederic E. Mohs and the hardness scale for minerals by Friedrich Mohs !