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Bone mass ID help please


Dr Van Nostrand

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Good morning,

 

While beach walking yesterday, we found this mass.  It is mineral, dense and hard.   
 

Perhaps you can offer a suggestion as to what it is.  
 

thank you

 

regards. D
 

location:

Atlantic ocean

Florida 

Brevard county

 

C4CC9541-4B7D-43B1-8004-C040B20F4E8A.jpeg

297DAB25-3E59-4F28-AECA-0371C4D9AD1E.jpeg

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Welcome to TFF from Austria!

 

Not a fossil, I think.

 

Yes, mineral, rock, ore, industrial intermediate product or industrial waste product.

 

How dense? Heavier than a usual rock (granite, limestone)?

How hard? Scratch test?
Whats the color of the powder? Streak test?

Franz Bernhard

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Density roughly that of limestone.  Lighter than granite.  

 

scratch leaves streak on paint

 

black powder released on scratch or chiseled 
 

fairly hard material

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Possibly a phosphate nodule with black manganese crystals precipitated on the surface (if the streak it's leaving is blackish).

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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1 minute ago, Dr Van Nostrand said:

look like teeth

 

36 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Teeth maybe

 

36 minutes ago, digit said:

phosphate nodule

Wow! A phosphatized coprolite? Sometimes its nice to be corrected!!

Franz Bernhard

 

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9 minutes ago, Dr Van Nostrand said:

Well thanks for the ID.  I feel like a dork thinking it was bone.  What era?

 

regards. D

Hang on. We really need to work on this more.

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In Florida, depending on what formation it came from you are looking at the general rage of Miocene through Pleistocene. There is some tiny amounts of Oligocene and more Eocene Ocala limestone further north in the state but the lower half is generally Miocene or younger.

 

If you are possibly spotting inclusions of something like teeth this could suggest a coprolite but gator poops are pretty much chalky dissolved carbonate material with zero detail of the original bones.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Maybe it's something covered in goethite (bog iron).  Or, maybe it's just a bit of scrap iron with a puffed out crust of iron oxide (rust).  At any rate, "D", you're safe giving it a whack on the sidewalk to find out.  That is, it's not a fossil.

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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