Please help identifying this rock/bone/fossil for my 6 year old :)

[iow_usa]

Hey there, 

 

My family and I were vacationing on the Isle of Wight, specifically an area called Totland Bay. We stumbled upon the rock in the images below, and my 6 year old daughter (who is obsessed with fossils and dinosaurs) is extremely hopeful it is some form of bone fossil (she has even bigger hopes it's a dinosaur bone...).

 

The island is known for a dense amount of of dinosaur fossils so she's extremely excited by this prospect.

 

It actually dropped on the walk back and so I have a picture on the inside, from what I can see there is some kind inner line that follows the contours of the shape of the rock/fossil and then tiny dots outside this (its hard to see in the picture but they are definitely there). It also feels lighter than it perhaps should do, but I guess thats a little subjective. Based on some googling it fits the traits of a bone?

 

Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer some feedback!

 

 

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Unfortunately, this is just an oddly shaped metamorphic rock.  

There is no bone texture as you would expect from bone. 

 

Keep looking, though.  

Regards,

[Troodon]

Welcome to the forum.

The Island is indeed noted for its dinosaur fossils.  Unfortunately you were in the wrong part of the Island.   Dinosaur fossils are part of the Wealden Group and found in the red area noted below.  The blue X is Totland Bay which is on the other side of the Island.   I'm sure you still had a great holiday.

 

[RJB]

Yep, looks like a rock. 

 

RB

[JohnBrewer]

Sorry to say I agree with everyone else.

 

The Isle of Wight is a great place to hunt and there's lots to find there. I try to go there once a year for a day or two. There are some great beaches with a wide range things to look for. One beach in particular, a pain to get to, but guaranteed for finds (bits of turtle/crocodile) is Boulder.  Atherfield has a nice family beach and bone amongst other things can be found on the shore. 

 

@TXV24 lives on The Isle of Wight I think and could give the best advice. 

[TXV24]

Hi, 

 

Welcome to the forum @iow_usa, and hopefully you had a good time on the Island! Totland Bay, as a locality, is Eocene in age, with the Headon Hill formation exposed in the cliffs along the bay. Whereas (to ditto what @Troodon said) Dinosaur fossils are found along the west coast and Yaverland, where the Wealden Group is exposed. Any bones that would be found at Totland Bay would likely be from Late Eocene mammals, turtles, and crocodiles washed from the nearby cliffs. Unfortunately what you've found looks to be a worn chert pebble originating from the Cretaceous Upper Greensand not fossilised bone. 

 

 It's not just a boring rock though, it's made from the remains of plankton that precipitated onto the sea floor during the Mid-Cretaceous when much of southern England was under a shallow shelf sea, so it's quite interesting geologically (hopefully your daughter won't be too disappointed). The Upper Greensand was heavily eroded in the region during the Eocene, when the Isle Of Wight and parts of Dorset were forced upwards by tectonic forces, so it was presumably eroded out around that time. 

 

Hopefully this can be helpful!