Snake fossil?

[Ozarkia]

I found this in a rubble pile in my back yard today - South West Missouri. I am definitely a noob but I haven't found anything like this before. Could it be a small snake fossil?

[Kane]

Hard to make it out in the dark crevice, but it may possibly be a fenestellate bryozoan.

[Rockwood]

Or the remnants of a modern snake skin that was shed.

[Ludwigia]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was something man-made. The surrounding stone looks like it could be cement rest or even some sort of slag.

[Kane]

3 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

It wouldn't surprise me if it was something man-made. The surrounding stone looks like it could be cement rest or even some sort of slag.

Hm. Now that you mention it, you may be on to something. That "snakeskin" might just be some kind of plastic or similar mesh sticking out of construction material. The edge looks too straight, as if machine-cut, and the "pores" a little too uniform. 

[Ozarkia]

Thank you! The "fossil" doesn't feel man-made and there are other fossils, like crinoid stems (those I am sure about!), in the larger rock (I just zoomed in on the one I was interested in) so I'm pretty sure its not cement.

[Ozarkia]

Thanks, Kane! The pattern does seems to match what I found on google images for fenestellate bryozoan. The long narrow shape made me think snake but probably that was just an illusion!

[Kane]

I would love to see a picture of the entire rock, and other parts of it where the crinoid bits would be -- just to make sure.  If there are crinoids, then we can probably rule out snake, as those would be marine. Perhaps some other treasures lurk on the rest of the rock! 

[Rockwood]

5 minutes ago, Ozarkia said:

The long narrow shape

Could be taphonomic. Sometimes only a thin horizon is preserved.

[Ozarkia]

Here is the whole rock. A wider angle with the largest crinoid (assuming I am right!) in the foreground. Thanks!

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

1 minute ago, Ozarkia said:

Here is the whole rock. A wider angle with the largest crinoid (assuming I am right!) in the foreground. Thanks!

That looks to be a crinoid stem which definitely indicates that this is not modern. There seems to be a lot of other fossils included in there as well. Here is a pic of my own similar bryzoan colonies.

[Rockwood]

That's it (fenestrate). The angle of perspective was just a bit too shallow.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

3 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

That's it (fenestrate). The angle of perspective was just a bit too shallow.

Looks like it was a cross section through the thinnest side of the fan.

For reference here's what they look like front on.

Link

[Auspex]

Visualize a broken 'strip' of this fenestrate bryozoan:

[Walt]

2 hours ago, Auspex said:

Visualize a broken 'strip' of this fenestrate bryozoan:

Do the hole patterns in the fenestrate bryozoans differ by animal or species?  A close up view of pic #1 shows a different shape to my untrained eye. Too.....honeycombed for lack of a better word.

[Herb]

looks like bryozoa to me also

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

21 minutes ago, Walt said:

Do the hole patterns in the fenestrate bryozoans differ by animal or species?  A close up view of pic #1 shows a different shape to my untrained eye. Too.....honeycombed for lack of a better word.

Yes, they differ by species. The size of the openings and branches help determine the genus and species of fenestrate bryzoans. 

Source

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for posting the other pictures. Having seen them, I now agree with fenestrate bryozoa.