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Another fossilized bone fragment?


MelanieD

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Had a king tide combined with a storm front resulting some significant beach erosion and movement here in SoCal.  Rockhounding today scored some pretty agates and this unique piece!  It resembles others I’ve encountered on the beach (you might see one or more of them in previous posts).

 

So, the question is…is this fossilized bone?  Part of it looks like it, but another part doesn’t, so much…

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Yes, this is bone. The denser looking material is cortical bone, the more patterned area is cancellous bone. 

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Awesome.  How cool to get a good example of each!!  It’s so worn, but it’s BIG.  Hip?  How do I determine what type of animal it’s from?

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Also, it appears as though the bone has a quartz filled crack, which I also find interesting.  

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It'll likely be impossible to determine what kind of animal it came from but whale is most likely based on the size, texture, location, paleoenvironment, and fauna.

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22 hours ago, MelanieD said:

Also, it appears as though the bone has a quartz filled crack, which I also find interesting.  

It likely is a silicate mineral filling a crack. Fossil bone that is durable often is silicified. In other instances, the bone has to be stabilized with a glue before it can be handled due to the presence of cracks. 

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