Snake heads, vertebrae and tails, please help me identify species?

[GrannyRaeRae]

While playing outside with my grandkids I found what I thought were just fossils however discovered they’re snakes. I have quite a few pieces a lot with detailed markings but I’m not sure of species. There’s various sizes and I also found skins, tongues and teeth. Some still have stuff inside of the head. They’re also in different rock/mineral forms.  I have many more of various colors, shapes and sized. Thanks for your help 

[PR0GRAM]

Unless I’m wrong these appear to just be everyday rocks that resemble snakes due to pareidolia. They’d be really cool painted to look like snake heads though!

[GrannyRaeRae]

I’m certain they’re snakes. I’m afraid you can’t see the details very well. 

[GrannyRaeRae]

[Kane]

One of the pieces may be rugose coral, but the remainder do not appear to be snakes or fossils of any kind. Your area’s rocks are too old for snake fossils. 

[caterpillar]

I agree. Sorry but no snake. Just rock

[Ludwigia]

As my colleagues are suggesting: Pareidolia 

[Fossildude19]

I agree with the other members. Lots of rocks.

But your last post is definitely a rugose coral, sometimes called a horn coral.

 

[Troodon]

So that you can compare against what you have I've attached a couple of fossilized snake heads I pulled off the internet. 

 

The skulls are not one solid mass but made up of multiple elements which are fine and very delicate.  The scale bar on these two specimens are 1cm so they are small.

 

[digit]

As mentioned above, the rocks found at the surface in your area are way too old (by hundreds of millions of years) to be snake fossils. It is surprising the frequency that those new to fossils find rocks that suggest the shape of a snake's head. If you type 'snake' into the search box at the top of this forum you'll see you are not alone in this misunderstanding. The preservation of any soft tissue is exceedingly rare in fossils and is mostly found in insects trapped in amber or mammoth fossils frozen in permafrost. There are snake bones that do fossilize but they are usually isolated vertebrae (which a snake has very many) and rarer still pieces of the skull and jaw (exceedingly fragile bones). Snakes simply do not mineralize in full 3D shape with skin, muscle, and tongues in the way you imagine.

 

What you are seeing is quite common and is the 'pareidolia' mentioned above. It is our brain's pattern recognition systems matching vague shapes and forms to something we already know. This is what allows us to spot familiar shapes in clouds.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=pareidolia&tbm=isch

 

Also mentioned above is that one of these rocks might be showing evidence of an ancient rugose coral which may be commonly found in your area:

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=rugose+coral&tbm=isch

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[RJB]

Pareidolia

 

RB

[sixgill pete]

This is a snake vert in my collection. Compared to what you are believing to be snake material you can clearly see the difference. Your items show no bone structure at all. 

 

[MrR]

I swear I'm having deja-vu on this snake-head fossil post. Seriously, I could swear this same "question" was asked quite a while back. The blue nail polish even looks familiar.  Maybe I'm having memory pareidolia?

 

[jpc]

Hey... has anyone else thought these might be just rocks?  Well, except the last specimen which looks like a horn coral, which is to be expected in Ohio. 

Edited May 13, 2022 by jpc

[HuckMucus]

My experience with rocks, snakes and fossils leads me to think this is a rock.  I see no evidence of a snake or of a fossil.

[Mark Kmiecik]

I see three or four pieces that resemble bryozoans and the coral in your last two photos, but I agree that there is nothing that even vaguely resembles snake fossils. As others have stated, the stratigraphy in your area is WAAAYYYY too old to have snake fossils present -- at least 100 million years before snakes existed. Even then the likelihood of soft tissue like a snake tongue being preserved in the type of sediment common to your neck of the woods is somewhere between zero and never, not even in your wildest dreams. 

[fifbrindacier]

14 hours ago, GrannyRaeRae said:

  

 

Hi, i agree with the other members, the item on the two first photos above is an horn coral.