Bone? Wood? Rock? Central Texas Creek Find

[Jackito]

I found this item in a creek in central Texas. The creek is known for artifacts and cretaceous (austin chalk, ozan) material in the gravel bars. I don't hunt this creek much so I'm not too familiar with the finds it produces.

 

I found this item on a gravel bar after heavy rains. I picked up this item because it has an unusual shape. I was hoping it was a tusk or horn piece but it was giving me petrified wood vibes. I've never found any tusk, horn, or petrified wood so I was open to the possibility that the item is just a suggestive piece of rock. Naturally I wrote it off as a rock and I decide to take a slice out of it with a small rock saw. I then wet sanded the slice with fine grain sandpaper. 

 

The material is very tacky, sort of sticky. I licked it and it really stuck to my tongue (ouch). The material also absorbs water very quickly. It's heavy, dense, and sounds like porcelain/ceramic tile when set down. It's not fragile.

 

I took several picture using my phone and a small digital microscope. Any idea what this could be?

 

Thanks in advance!

[GPayton]

Definitely a chunk from the outside of some sort of long bone. I would guess Pleistocene in age since it looks a lot like Pleistocene bones I've found in the Beaumont formation near Houston, but it could also be Cretaceous marine reptile although that would be significantly rarer. The sandstone-esque matrix that has filled in some of the cracks looks identical to what I've seen in some of the Pleistocene bones I've come across. 

[MarcoSr]

You might check out this recent TFF thread.

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.