Fossil or Rock?

[LostandFound]

I found this on a Point Bar on the Brazos River. It appears to be porous like bone, but as I said in a previous post, I wouldn't be shocked if you told me it wasn't a fossil. Thoughts? 

[Brevicollis]

Thats definetly a piece of bone, but its way to rolled for me to say from what it came from.

[Shellseeker]

1 hour ago, LostandFound said:

I found this on a Point Bar on the Brazos River. It appears to be porous like bone, but as I said in a previous post, I wouldn't be shocked if you told me it wasn't a fossil. Thoughts? 

 

Thoughts... It is absolutely a fossil,  most likely a mammal toe bone, called a Phalanx.  This phalanx has taken some extreme water erosion BUT it is not the only Phalanx of this mammal that has ever been found in the Brazos river.. Some hunters found perfect , pristine ones.  The biggest clues are in your last 2 photos.. That shape is distinctive... 

There are only so many fauna to be found in the Brazos and the size of the bone is another huge clue..  It is from a pretty small mammal, !!!! Reducing the possibilities of which mammals much further. 

Here is ONE possibility  !!!  The old threads on TFF are a wealth of knowledge ..  You can search them for a matching bone. I thinking there might be other possibilities.  Let me ask a few of our Texas fossil experts to speculate on other small mammals toe bones that might be found in the Brazos River..  @garyc, @Brandy Cole

 

[LostandFound]

Thank you for this level of detail. I feel as though I have come full circle from a child collecting rocks in the creeks I lived near to the rivers and tributaries I live near now as an adult. Thanks again! 

[Rockwood]

Would that be quartz in this fossil?

[garyc]

I like Shellseeker’s line of thought here. It als could be the distal end of a camel phalanx

[digit]

The areas with the spongy looking texture are the internal cancellous portion of the bone. The outer smooth (cortical) bone is the only part that preserves any shape that could be used to identify the fossil. Quite often smaller fragments like this remain mysteries unless they show a nicely diagnostic feature that pins it down. It's definitely fossil bone with a bit of the articular surface that looks a lot like one of the foot bones of some mammal. Unless someone sees this who is very familiar with the fossils that are found in the Brazos it may remain a mystery. Now that you know it is actually fossil bone, hopefully this will act as a good search image and help you on your next fossil hunt.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Shellseeker]

10 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Would that be quartz in this fossil?

That's an interesting question.  So the tiny holes in the cancellous fossil bone might fill with even more tiny grains of sand or grains of quartz?  How would one go about proving it one way or another?

[Rockwood]

4 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

How would one go about proving it one way or another?

What are the odds of sand grains of exclusively one color filling the holes? On the Brazos, I don't know, but I'd guess slim. 

[Brandy Cole]

6 hours ago, Rockwood said:

What are the odds of sand grains of exclusively one color filling the holes? On the Brazos, I don't know, but I'd guess slim. 

These little clear stones/grains filling in holes aren't unusual here. I pick them out during cleaning. 

 

I think the clear parts of this piece look more like little stones than quartz permineralization, but OP would be able to easily tell if any are loose enough to pick out. Several appear to be.

 

While I've found many pieces with small clear stones that are not fused to the bone, I've only found one piece in the Brazos that appeared to have true quartz permineralization.  I'll include it below as a contrast.