Calvert Cliffs MD bone - ID and/or prep help

[frankh8147]

Greetings!

 

Before I mess this thing up, I wanted to ask what I should do with this piece from Calvert Cliffs, MD (Miocene). It is about 13 by 9 inches and is pretty thick, about 22 pounds so I have no idea how much bone is actualy in there. When I found it, it only had about 1/3rd of the bone showing. Once I started picking away with my dental picks, more and more bone started showing up (I didn't get to the end the bone in any particular direction) but unfortunately the material is getting tougher to pick away.

 

So my questions are, does anyone know what it is right now, should I continue prepping and if so, would my dental picks and other small tools be okay to use? If we think it will end up being unidentifiable material, I may end up keeping it in the matrix - I actually think it looks pretty cool with the shells and ray tooth.

 

Thanks!

[frankh8147]

...

[Miocene_Mason]

Hard to tell, does it have multiple cracks? Then it could be turtle. If not it’s possibly cetacean and there’s probably no identifying it for sure beyond chunkosaurus. You could prep it out, that stuff is pretty hard so it will take forever with a manual scribe/pin-vice. I was going to prep a similar bone but after much deliberation I’ve decided I’m not going to. With the ray tooth I’d leave it how it is or just clean it up a bit. Though if it’s turtle I’d say something different. 

[Troodon]

Seen a few like that, it's pretty hard matrix.  Probably a cetacean but hard to say.  I think it looks cool just the way it is and would leave it as is.

[frankh8147]

Thanks guys! Getting an ID of unidentifiable bone isn't usually a good thing but in this case it's kind of a relief! I agree, it's pretty cool looking how it is. I'll play around a little with my picks and leave it in the matrix. Thanks!

[frankh8147]

34 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

Hard to tell, does it have multiple cracks? Then it could be turtle. If not it’s possibly cetacean and there’s probably no identifying it for sure beyond chunkosaurus. You could prep it out, that stuff is pretty hard so it will take forever with a manual scribe/pin-vice. I was going to prep a similar bone but after much deliberation I’ve decided I’m not going to. With the ray tooth I’d leave it how it is or just clean it up a bit. Though if it’s turtle I’d say something different. 

It does but it's also pretty beat up! Plus, it's a pretty large piece of bone in there.

[Miocene_Mason]

1 hour ago, frankh8147 said:

It does but it's also pretty beat up! Plus, it's a pretty large piece of bone in there.

Yeah, I’d leave it. One last attempt at an ID, a lot of cetacean bones have are denser near the edges, almost to the point of having lost the sponginess of bone, in order to keep itself neutrally buoyant. If you see this, there a great chance it’s cetecean. Here’s a picture of my bone in conc as an example of this:

[frankh8147]

11 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Yeah, I’d leave it. One last attempt at an ID, a lot of cetacean bones have are denser near the edges, almost to the point of having lost the sponginess of bone, in order to keep itself neutrally buoyant. If you see this, there a great chance it’s cetecean. Here’s a picture of my bone in conc as an example of this:

Yes it does! It looks pretty similar to the texture on yours.

[non-remanié]

The vast majority of bones in those incredibly hard globular concretions at that site are heavily reworked, abraded, and most likely somewhat unidentifiable.  I love inspecting the concretions but I usually leave them behind.  They can make for a neat matrix piece if one desires or does a lot of prep work I imagine.  I believe they are hardened rip ups from the base of a sandy, fossiliferous layer.