How do I tell if something is rock or bone?

[Wolf89]

I have some really worn pieces that look like bone, but some people say they are just rock. Anyway to get a positive ID?

[Miocene_Mason]

If you have some pictures we could help.

Bones have a very distinctive “spongy” texture with a hard exterior. Once you see a lot of them, you can tell pretty quickly whether or not an object is a bone. Well, there are some wierd bones that can throw you off but for the most part.

[caldigger]

Agree with the above statement. 

Pictures would definitely help though.

[Wolf89]

15 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

If you have some pictures we could help.

Bones have a very distinctive “spongy” texture with a hard exterior. Once you see a lot of them, you can tell pretty quickly whether or not an object is a bone. Well, there are some wierd bones that can throw you off but for the most part.

There is a beach near me with THOUSANDS of these just sitting there. That'd be amazing if they were all bone.

 

[Wolf89]

2 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Agree with the above statement. 

Pictures would definitely help though.

these help?

[Miocene_Mason]

18 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

This is slag.

 

23 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

This one and the one below is bone I think.

[Miocene_Mason]

24 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

COULD be earbone

[Wolf89]

does the lick test actually work?

42 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

If you have some pictures we could help.

Bones have a very distinctive “spongy” texture with a hard exterior. Once you see a lot of them, you can tell pretty quickly whether or not an object is a bone. Well, there are some wierd bones that can throw you off but for the most part.

 

[Wolf89]

There are hundreds if not thousands of these on a beach by me, any idea what this means?

[ynot]

17 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

does the lick test actually work?

 

Not on bone fossils.

 

Pictures 2 and 4 could be bone. (need more pictures to be sure). The rest are rock (possibly volcanic).

 

6 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

There are hundreds if not thousands of these on a beach by me, any idea what this means?

Means there is a close by exposure of that type of rock.

[Miocene_Mason]

15 minutes ago, Wolf52893 said:

does the lick test actually work?

There is some debate on this, and I think the answer is sometimes. Mainly, this checks if the rock is porous. If the spongy bone is filled with a mineral, it won’t work. Also, ceteceans have thick outer bone walls So basically, if it passes it’s porous (bones and some non-bone rocks are porous) and of it doesn’t, it’s not (most rocks and some bones aren’t). So it’s shakey at best.

[Miocene_Mason]

6 minutes ago, ynot said:

possibly volcanic

If indeed from NC, I’d assume not. Here is a picture of slag from the internet for reference:

[Rockwood]

4 hours ago, Wolf52893 said:

There are hundreds if not thousands of these on a beach by me, any idea what this means?

Vesicular basalt found on a NC beach sounds like a ships ballast to me.