Snake's Head

[kimikuj]

Hi y'all!

 

Found this in Northern Phoenix area and was hoping for a potential ID. It is about 5-6in long, 3in wide, and 1.5-2in tall. Took it for a cool rock until I began seeing patterns within the pits and thought maybe it is a cool fossil instead? 

 

Also, not until I began taking photos of it did I notice it resembles a snake's head. Obviously it is most likely not that, but does really look just like one from the right angle. I can't even seem to get my brain to unsee it now that I saw it. lol!! 

 

Thanks for any thoughts or ideas you may have on this one!

Edited April 9 by kimikuj

[Randyw]

Definitely not a snake head. There no bone texture, no bilateral symmetry, etc etc. it looks like just a cool rock

[ClearLake]

That is an interesting rock and easy to see how one can imagine a snake or lizard head in it.  But, as you suspected, it is not a snake head.  There are a couple of items in it that I could imagine might have been a recognizable fossil at one time but are now very altered.  Or, more likely, they all could just be interesting mineral formations.

Edited April 9 by ClearLake
spelling

[kimikuj]

Yes, I know this. As I said in my post, it just looks like a snake in a few of the pictures. That is by no means what made me think fossil, that was just something I noticed after and it humored me. It is the patterns within the pits that look like possible fossils to me, but I'm no professional so just thought I'd ask!

[kimikuj]

@ClearLake Right! Imagining a snake.... I was thinking, for instance, in the "nostril" I see what looks like maybe a crinnoid and within the left "eye socket" what looks maybe urchinish? 

 

Of course I could be way off, and agree with the fact it is quite weather worn. Also, may have helped if I had cleaned it prior to posting. Hindsight🤔

 

Regardless, thanks for your input! It is much appreciated!!

Edited April 9 by kimikuj
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[Fin Lover]

39 minutes ago, kimikuj said:

Yes, I know this. As I said in my post, it just looks like a snake in a few of the pictures. That is by no means what made me think fossil, that was just something I noticed after and it humored me.

Unfortunately, we do get a lot of people who think they have a "petrified snake head", so I think it's just a habit the way we answer these.  

[FossilNerd]

I see what you mean by it resembling a snakes head. I actually thought turtle when I saw it. 

 

As you say though, it’s not a snake (or a turtle). I’m more inclined to think the same as ClearLake. I’m not seeing anything identifiable as a fossil. 
 

The stuff you see in the “nostril” and “left eye” might be fossil fragments, but I agree with you in that they are too weather worn to say for sure.

[Ludwigia]

Although we all agree that this is not a snake head, it certainly is a very interesting mineral specimen and a keeper as a conversation piece in my opinion.

[Mark Kmiecik]

It's not a snake head simply because of the shape -- all wrong for snake. Google snake head and look at all the photos of real snakes then Google snake skull and that's what a fossil snake head will look like because skin and muscle and eyeballs are eaten by insects and bacteria and don't get preserved 99.99% of the time, and in the extremely rare case when they do they are very, very dessicated. Worse that prunes! Light years beyond raisin.

[ynot]

It is a piece of decomposing agate (possibly with some matrix)

[Mahnmut]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I agree with all of you including the OP this is no snakes or other head.

It has some attributes though that are much closer to a real fossil skull than many other "snakes heads" that get posted here, first of all it got holes. Not eyeballs.

As most snakes' skulls are rather filigree constructs, rather a collection of rods and teeth than a closed capsule, there are other kinds of reptile that come to mind, turtles as mentioned  and others...

Here are some real fossil skulls that resemble your find to some degree: https://www.karoo-information.co.za/routes/article/1185/the-famous-fossil-trail-at-the-karoo-national-park

Still, I agree, this is coincidence, and the appearance that some parts of the "skull" are fossil invertebrates doesnt speak for skull either if we do not assume a "pirates of the caribbean"-setting, which I do not.

Best regards,

J