Parrot Fish Or Porcupine Fish Mouth Plate?

[aussiefossils]

Bay find 5cm wide... Parrot fish or porcupine mouth plate? Also is this fairly recent?

Id please

[Al Dente]

It looks like a porcupine fish mouth plate or a closely related fish. Parrot fish have a divided jaw, this is a single fused jaw. I would guess this is modern but I'm not positive.

[tmaier]

Also is this fairly recent?

It looks pretty fresh.

If you don't mind possibly damaging the specimen a bit, you could do the lighter test. Bone contains a very tough protein called collagen, and when it burns it puts out a very acrid smell. As the specimen becomes fossilized, the collagen decomposes and is replaced. So... to do the lighter test you hold the flame of a lighter on some part of the specimen for a few seconds. If it puts out a strong oder of burnt collagen, then it is not fossilized and is fairly recent.

To test what burnt collagen smells like, cut off a bit of your hair and burn that. Hair contain a lot of collagen. That is the smell you are looking for. Now your nose is "calibrated" for doing the test.