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I was about to throw out a broken 2 inch shell when I noticed a dark object lodged inside. It is about 1/2 inch square. dark black/brown, opaque and hard. I had hoped it was amber but too hard. Won't scratch with a dental pick and sinks in salted water. Shell came from piles to be used to pave parking lot @ Bradenton Beach, FL (See Bradenton beach Fossil shells) I am reasonably certain that there is no mixing of any recent material. Have any SMR Pinecrest collectors ever seen this material? Any help in ID or other steps I could take to identify it would be appreciated. will attach pictures. Thanks

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DSCN4596.JPG

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Somewhat agree with Tony. It looks metallic, almost like hematite, but that could be a feature of glare from the camera.

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frags of teeth get beat up like this in transgressive lags and pebbles in those lags are often covered in phosphatic mineral. It looks like a laggy tooth frag of something. If there was coarse sand and gravel associated with the find that would explain it.

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It looks glassy and I see conchoidal fractures on it, also the specimen looks to be tumbled by waves and polished by sand+water. I think is not a fossil.

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I agree with Abyssunder that it looks glassy and it appears to have a conchoidal fracture. I don't think it is a fossil either. I cleaned out a number of shells that I found with this one, all had small sandy material in them. None had any larger pieces like this one. Since it was in the pile of fossil material it did not appear to have any modern material contaminating it such as glass. That is why I am wondering if any of the TFF who have hunted SMR have every seen this kind of material in any of the shells and if so what is it? Plax I don't fully understand your laggy tooth frag. It seems to be the same material throughout-no covering material. I found no teeth at all in this material including no frags and no gravel-only some broken shell material.  I know it is hard from pictures (i'm not the best photog) but its more glassy than metallic. I appreciate the comments, Makes me think. Thanks to all. Hope someone else has found this kind of "rock" in SMR material.

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how about the phosphatized umbo region only of a large oyster for instance? I think there are too many hints of structure that is non mineral for this to just be a pebble.

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Plax could you explain further "too many hints of structure"? Thanks for your interest.

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