Ichthyosaur rostrum / ribs?

[Fossilartist]

 Hi, this is a bone block from port Mulgrave in Yorkshire, is the exposed bone Ichthyosaur, and if so is it identify able which part? My uneducated guess is rostrum or ribs. Is this fossil something that could prep ok?

[jpc]

the cross section suggests rostrum is a good guess.  I have not prepped any european ichthyosaur material but I have seen quite a few pieces here that are nicely prepped.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Yup, would also say rostrum, not ribs. The U-shaped cross-section is very typical of ichthyosaur jaw, where teeth sit in grooves (hence most tend to fall out postmortem,  as appears to have been the case here).

 

As to preparing this material: it's definitely possible with the right tools, though I believe the nodules are quite hard, so proper tooling is a must. I'm taking air scribe and sand blaster. I haven't tried preparing this stuff myself yet, but in absence of these tools it may be easiest and cheapest to have a professional preparator look at it. However, @DanJeavs and @dhiggi should be able to advise you more on this, as would @LiamL.

[LiamL]

There is a good chance this could be Gyrosteus bone.

[DanJeavs]

As Liam said, it does look to be gyrosteus fish then icthy. Would need some better in focus pictures and close ups to be sure. Gyro bone is usually pretty flakey, though when in pyritic nodules like this, it can prep rather nice.