Fossil Hoof Prints?

[Xander]

New to the forum with no knowledge of paleontology. Some type of print found in a Connecticut quary 20-25 feet down. There were hundreds and father in law brought one home ~30 years ago and has been sitting in the basement.

Thanks for your help and sorry about no ruler in the photo. See coffee cup and newspaper for size reference.

[DPS Ammonite]

Interesting. This is obviously not a fossil of a horseshoe.  Metal horse shoes are not old enough to fossilize yet. I hope that this is not carved. Do you have photos of other ones so that we can see their range of forms.

 

Assuming that there is a horseshoe shaped print, I cannot explain how an animal print or an infilling of a print would have that incised area around a print.

 

Do have the name and age of the formation that they came from?

 

Anyone notice what the newspaper says near the fossil: Stone's Trustworthy?

[Miocene_Mason]

20 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

 

 

Anyone notice what the newspaper says near the fossil: Stone's Trustworthy?

It’s a sign! 

Gonna definitely need a date for this. More specific a location could help us find it if you ( @Xander) have trouble finding it. Not like any fossil I’ve seen. 

[caldigger]

This looks very carved out to me. You would not see the different strata layers on the sides of this thing if it were an imprint. The way this is presented, the shoe is embedded within the hoof, making it utterly useless.

And show me a hoof print ( with shoe mind you!) That is so crisply defined from standing against the sands of time...or fresh for that matter.

 

 

[RJB]

Holy cow,, or horse.  I dont mean to laugh but this is really funny.  Not sure if this is just a fantastic thing from mother nature or a fake, but really funny. 

 

RB

[Fossildude19]

The rock looks like metamorphic rock to me. There appears to be quartz, quartzite, or calcite running through the item.

Honestly, this looks carved to me.

A claim of "hundreds" of these is a bit hard to believe, especially with no photographic evidence.

Connecticut has 15 active quarries at the moment. There may have been more in the past.

Neat item, but I don't think it is a naturally occurring phenomena.

 

[Kane]

I agree with others -- not likely a fossil. But if there is a trail of hundreds of these, I would be interested to see some photographic evidence.

[Peat Burns]

Agree that this has clearly been carved.  Human artifact (native American or recent) and not a fossil.

[abyssunder]

Don't want to disagree with the others and I'm not sure if possible at that scale, but it looks to me like a bioerosional (carved) surface made perhaps by boring clams.

[Xander]

I really appreciate the replies. No photographic evidence, just the word of an 82 year old guy who brought this upstairs when we were visiting this weekend. I like the idea that this could be a carving. I obvousely agree that it can’t be a horseshoe print, just looks like one. Apparently 14 inches of stone fill was brought in and the job site was in Westerly Rhode Island. He is a contractor and picked 3 of them out of the fill brought in by a dump truck. Said there were hundreds of them, the they were identical. Said more can be found under the sod at the house if this is something interesting. The man has no reason to lie he said the Sansoucy quarry sounds familiar. He’s not looking to get rid of it, someone took the other 2, and is just trying to figure out what he picked up at a job site. 

Thanks again for the help.