Big Brook NJ fossils

[stroodl]

Hello all, 

Went fossil hunting in Big Brook NJ recently and found what appears to be a small section of vertebra and what I think is a coprolite (not sure though, never found a coprolite before). Any conformation of this would be helpful and if anyone knows what type of bone I found that would be interesting to know. Thanks!

Here's a different angle on the bone.

[Fossildude19]

Hello. 

 

Your possible coprolite looks more like a shrimp burrow - Ophiomorpha. 

Check the bone using the burn test. Bones in the creeks turn brown rather quickly, so it is probably modern. 

Hold the bone near an open flame and if it starts to smell like hair burning, it is modern.

Regards, 

 

[abyssunder]

I agree with Tim.

[erose]

Wellllll…. Probably not Ophiomorpha. Those nodes are too small for that and too irregular to be a cluster of crustacean scat (invertebrate coprolites). I'm going out on a limb here, working with a single photo, and going to suggest that those are the infills of the borings of the sponge Cliona, and based on the shape the borings were in a belemnite.

 

But as Tim said the bone needs to be tested for age. There is a great deal of tannin in that water and things stain dark rather quickly. But hey, you never know.