Found On The Peace River, Florida. Was Going To Throw It Back But It Looked Interesting...

[shark22]

So I need help ID'ing this tooth (doesn't look like a meg tooth) AND this weird conical shaped thing. Someone told me that if it has Schreger lines it is tusk. You can't see them by this crappy iphone picture but, trust me, they are present. Any help would be great!

Edited April 25, 2015 by shark22

[fossilized6s]

It looks like shark egg case jerky. Can you take lighter pics?

[shark22]

best i can do

[Sacha]

It looks like the solidified central whirl from a gastropod doesn't it?

[old bones]

Here is one of the first post lightened somewhat.

[fossilized6s]

It looks like the solidified central whirl from a gastropod doesn't it?

Yup, that's what im thinking too.

[digit]

Yup. I thought internal mold of a gastropod (even before the lighter photos). Oh, and the tooth is a really sweet upper mako.

Cheers.

-Ken

[shark22]

Dam, I thought it would have been something more exciting lol Oh well!

Edited April 25, 2015 by shark22

[Shellseeker]

Yup. I thought internal mold of a gastropod (even before the lighter photos). Oh, and the tooth is a really sweet upper mako.

Cheers.

-Ken

While it is the only other possibility. I do not think this is an endocast. The Peace also has calcified shells, clams, gastropods, similar to those that used to come out of Ruck's Pit.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Shellseeker

[Auspex]

All I can say is that it is probably calcitic, and may be organic.

[Sacha]

Hardness and the vinegar test will verify that this material is generally silica. The Hawthorn clays apparently provided that mineral for the conversion in the same way that coral is agatized in the north and west of the state. I have cut and polished a number of chert nodules found in the river and have examples of corals, clams and mussels all which are now psuedomorphs.

[abyssunder]

It looks like the solidified central whirl from a gastropod doesn't it?

I agree.

[Diceros]

I think Sacha's right - the original aragonite of the columnella of some large marine snail seems to be replaced (permineralized) here with silica. There's silica-rich volcanic ash in the e. Miocene Hawthorn Grp., which could have been leached by the groundwater and replaced the aragonite. A lot of people think you can get silica into groundwater by having it soak through quartz sand, but that's the most stable form of silica, and almost insoluable. The silica in volcanic ash is in the form of tiny bubble shards made of amorphous opal - the most soluable form of silica.

I always used to wonder why the Tampa corals weren't completely replaced with silica, rather than just the outer rim. I suspect the ash came from all the way on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico, in the Trans-Pecos Volcanic field of W. Texas and N Mexico. I don't think enough ash drifted east to Tampa to do the job. I used to work in Louisiana, and there's an eight-foot thick layer of e. Miocene ash in central La. (it's why there's so much silicified wood in central La.), so a couple of feet should have made it to Tampa. There's a site called Chalk Hill in central La., because the hill is chalky white. The odd thing is that there's not an ounce of carbonate in the whole hill - it's mostly volcanic ash de-vitrified of silica and altered to white montmorillonite clay.