Please help. Identify

[dank]

I found this in some creek rock, it looked like a head so I kept it.. I'm no photographer, but you get the idea. If you can zoom in on the mouth. You can see fangs. What has me convinced, in the back of the head, you can see it's spine. When magnified. You can really Make it out. Any help is appreciated 

[Fossildude19]

Sorry, not a head.
Just a rock  - a head look alike stone.

 

No bone texture, no skull morphology, no bilateral symmetry. All of that = No Fossil.

[Fin Lover]

Sorry, I agree with rock.

[Randyw]

Yep. It’s a j.a.r. (Just a rock)

[jpc]

I agree with the others.  rock.  : (

[dank]

I appreciate the opinions . But I kinda disagree. I'm no photographer by any means. The very first picture shows a head.  The 2 eyes are symmetric, the mouth goes all the way over, but I what gets me, on the back. A and it's hard to see in pic.  A part of its Spine is stickibg out. Ive got in Closer. And it's a Spine. 

Also if you lick this thing. You can feel it on your toungue. 

[digit]

Pareidolia is a fascinating phenomenon where our pattern-matching circuitry in our brains seeks to interpret visual information into patterns we recognize. It is what allows us to see fantastic shapes in clouds or rock formations. Just because something has vague features that resemble something familiar does not indicate that it is what it appears to be. Faces or dragons (or bunny rabbits) that seem to appear in cloud formations are surely not what they appear to look like. Your rock is an example of pareidolia. Trust me, we can all see what you are seeing. It is a rock that looks like something but it is most certainly not what you are being led to believe it is. We have many members here who have a lot of knowledge and experience with fossils (a lot of those fossils being skulls) and we have also collected in the field and understand that rocks can often take curious shapes that make them look like something familiar. We even have a topic devoted to humorous "fakers" that we find while out hunting for real fossils.

 

 

You can learn more about this curious phenomenon here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

 

https://owlcation.com/stem/Pareidolia-Explained

 

You can see many examples of objects that trigger our pareidolia to look like something familiar.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=pareidolia&tbm=isch

 

 

Presumably, you came here to learn more about the rock you found. If you are seeking confirmation for your assumption that it is a skull, then I'm sorry but we cannot confirm what we know to be false. If you came here with an open mind to learn what are fossils and what are pseudo-fossils then the above information should be of help.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Fossildude19]

1 hour ago, dank said:

I appreciate the opinions . But I kinda disagree. I'm no photographer by any means. The very first picture shows a head.  The 2 eyes are symmetric, the mouth goes all the way over, but I what gets me, on the back. A and it's hard to see in pic.  A part of its Spine is stickibg out. Ive got in Closer. And it's a Spine. 

Also if you lick this thing. You can feel it on your toungue. 

Your photography is fine, in my opinion.  It truly does show us a rock.

 

Licking rocks only proves they are porous. It is not really any kind of accurate test for identifying fossils.  

 

The lack of bone texture or actual skull morphology means this is a rock.
You are more than welcome to disagree, but, ... you won't find any agreement with your assessment here. 

JPC is a professional paleontologist.  He disagrees with you.

Many of us have many years of experience collecting fossils in the field, and know a fossil when we see one.

 

Since you remain unconvinced,  you should take your find to a local Natural History Museum or University, and speak to a Paleontologist, to find out what you have .

I wouldn't keep my hopes up, if I were you, though.

Best of luck to you.

 

[jpc]

Thanks for the plug, Tim.

I'll just say it again, and then I am done... sorry dank, this is but a lovely river cobble.  I am not sure what sort of rock it is but it is not a fossil.  It may look fossily, or head-and-necky, but it is a rock.  Consider this... if you see a rabbit shaped cloud, is it a rabbit? 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

There is nothing there that even vaguely resembles an atlas or axis vertebra. The fangs point in different directions, and if this is supposed to be a mammal, there should only be one on each side of the upper and lower jaw. The eyes are not "symmetric" and the whole thing is not bilaterally symmetrical, which it should be. None of the sutures normally present between the bones that make up the skull are visible, and they should be as the skin will normally rot away and be eaten by insects and bacteria revealing bare bone.