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Bone piece from Penn Dixie


JimTh

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I had a chance to visit Penn-Dixie today and one of my first finds stumped me.  It has the signature porous inside of a bone. It’s black. It has radiating lines down one side. Folks running the place thought it was likely a piece a placoderm armor, making it a rare find. 

Apologies for the pictures. Once again I find myself in a hotel with my phone. Thickness is a bit over a quarter inch. Length is around 1.75”.  Couldn’t make the phone focus well on the marrow. 

Does placoderm armor have marrow?

 

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Placoderm makes sense. Not many other creatures with bone of that age. Other possibility is that it is a contaminant brought by a fossil hunter. Sometimes you forget a piece of Dougong rib in your fossil hunting pants and it falls out when you bend over to pick up a Brachiopod:P

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I think scylla is right; that it is a piece of turtle shell or some other bone from a different location and time period that was accidentally dropped by another fossil hunter.  Sometimes fossils from other sites end up in the bottom of a backpack and inadvertently get dropped at other sites.  Was it found loose on the surface or embedded in matrix?

 

Fish armor from Penn Dixie and similar shales is usually bluish in color. 

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Looks like pieces of bone I have from NC. Right down to the tiny stones embedded in it.

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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25 minutes ago, daves64 said:

tiny stones embedded in it

Stones embedded in bone ? How does that happen ?

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@Rockwood Water action embedding small stones in the open pocket areas (former spongy bone sections). The one's I have were found in a stream. Little tiny water polished agates & other stones.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/92820-bone-or/&tab=comments#comment-1021747

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Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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@caldigger  pic attached. 

 

I agree it looks like it could’ve been found at Calvert Cliffs.   If it was original to Penn-Dixie, the marrow would be filled with shale, right?

It was a surface find. 

 

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@daves64

Wouldn't that be more accurately described as lodged within the exposed structure of ?

In any case, I don't see that here.

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I think Peat Burns is correct about it looking like turtle shell. The end view shows quartz sand grains embedded in the pores of the cancellous bone, so it is not originally from Penn Dixie and I don't think it looks like wood.

 

But on the bright side, it is an archeological artefact now showing that either people came carrying fossils from at least hundreds of miles away to this site or that there were extensive fossil trading networks in the area. Unless a swallow carried it.:wacko:

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14 minutes ago, Scylla said:

quartz sand grains

Still not seeing them. Soluble mineral deposits, maybe. They wouldn't necessarily indicate bone in any way though.

It just doesn't quite look like bone to me.

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dumping non-native fossils was sort of a custom in the 70s and 80s. This was done in parking areas though so that no one mistook them for native fossils. Swatara Gap in PA for instance used to have pretty nice fossils from far away sites in upstate New York. I took this as someone sharing their seconds. May still be done today but haven't been out much lately.

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On 6/20/2019 at 6:35 AM, Rockwood said:

Still not seeing them. Soluble mineral deposits, maybe. They wouldn't necessarily indicate bone in any way though.

It just doesn't quite look like bone to me.

Lol, sand grains are not evidence of it being bone, they are evidence of it coming from a different location. One with lots of sand.

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I’ll try to get some magnification on it tomorrow and determine if it’s sand or not.  Can anyone answer the marrow question? Did placoderm armor have it?

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5 hours ago, JimTh said:

Can anyone answer the marrow question? Did placoderm armor have it?

I believe so, but it isn't bubble shaped.

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6 hours ago, Scylla said:

Lol, sand grains are not evidence of it being bone, they are evidence of it coming from a different location. One with lots of sand.

If they aren't present they aren't evidence, period. 

It's the solubles that would be useless to the identification. They fill carbonized wood, vesicular basalt, or any gas bubble that comes along quite nicely. 

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Ok, I’m back with some more pictures. Got a pretty clear shot of one edge and used my little 60x magnifier on the side.  The 60x photos do look like they have sand. 

 

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Lol. One of the educators at the site actually texted me photos of this piece when you found it asking me if it was placoderm. I said no, I didn't think so. I didn't really consider a transplant. I don't think it's placoderm. It doesn't have the right features, and just doesn't match with the preservation. Also looks to have spent some time in the close company of water. Also, sand.

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Jay A. Wollin

Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve

Hamburg, New York, USA

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The fill does look to be small fragments, so it must be sand. :shakehead: I guess it's time to admit it must be imported turtle shell. 

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On 6/20/2019 at 5:14 AM, Scylla said:

 

 

But on the bright side, it is an archeological artefact now showing that either people came carrying fossils from at least hundreds of miles away to this site or that there were extensive fossil trading networks in the area. Unless a swallow carried it.:wacko:

It could have been carried by an African swallow...

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29 minutes ago, garyc said:

It could have been carried by an African swallow...

What? I don't know that!

 

 

Gets thrown off bridge.

Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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