Id Help Please ... Rattlesnake Rattle Fossil ?

[leslie]

Hello,

Im new to the forum and this site..I have always fossiled since I was a child, and taught my childern the same..Yesterday my daughter found this fossil at the park. We were pretty excited about it, can you help us please Identify it ? Im sorry if I am in the wrong place to post this...It was found in austin tx.

Thank YOu,

Leslie

[Harry Pristis]

This is almost certainly a fossil mold in a Cretaceous marine limestone. That would eliminate rattlesnake rattle. It appears you have a cross-section of a slender marine gastropod . . . or, less likely, a small series of starfish ossicles. Maybe someone else will think of other possibilities.

[Paleoc]

Probably an external cast of a turitella like gastropod (marine snail).

[evannorton]

I have found a few of these in Mississipian locations in Missouri - I always thought they were crinoid stem castings.

[howard_l]

I do not know the geology of the Austin, Texas area, are we certain it is Creataceous in age? If I had seen this in Paleozoic rocks I would have thought of a possable nautiloid but Orthoceras types didn't last to the Creataceous. It could be a gastropod, or a crinoid cast, a closer examination and better detail would be needed to tell for sure. If other fossils were found with in the area it might help narrow it down.