Any ideas what this is?

[JG13]

Western Nevada desert. Is this a rock, fossil or what? About 60 lbs, 15” x 10”x 7” thick.

 

[val horn]

It looks like a rock to me and not a fossil.  the small inclusions are worth photographing more closely, but my first impression is geological.

[debivort]

Geological was also my guess.

[JG13]

 I’ll go with strange looking geological rock.  Thank you! 

[Ludwigia]

Looks like a finely layered piece of sandstone which is wind-polished on one side.

[JG13]

This rock was in the very middle of a remote dirt 2-track road with only the top exposed, so it was probably run over by tires along with wind-polishing, very heavy and solid. I hunt a lot of rocks and hadn’t seen one like this before.

[FossilDAWG]

@JG13, welcome to the Fossil Forum!  To me your specimen looks like limestone with some chert nodules.  If you put a few drops of vinegar on the rock (not on the chert blobs) it should bubble if the rock is limestone.

 

Don

[JG13]

Hello Don, I’m sorry I didn’t see this comment earlier. I put some vinegar on the specimen and none of the surface area bubbled at all. Some friends thought it was maybe an old tortise shell fossil, but I still haven’t found anyone that really knows. It just sits on the back deck.

John

[Kane]

Morphologically, I would rule out tortoise. I would say this is a non-fossil geologic item.