Bone or Rock?

Images here: Bone or Rock — ImgBB

Is this a fossil, a very old bone, or just a funny-looking rock?

Just realized that I should have put something in to show scale. The rock is about 1-1/2 inches long.

I’ll bet @MrDibble knows.

Not an expert at all, but I’m leaning toward rock. If it were a bone I would WAG that it should be hollow or there should be a distinct difference in color and/or texture where the bone becomes marrow. But admittedly, I’m completely talking out of my ass.

Check out the photos on this page: Would Like Help Identifying Possible Bone Fossils | Dinosaur Home

We need a close macro shot of surfaces. To look for haversian canals.

Also, thread title sounds like it belongs in Cafe Society.

Got a larger pic of what “looks” like it might be marrow here.

Photo is out of focus, but it hasn’t changed my leaning towards “rock”. (It could tip the other way with better photos, though.)

Here is a closeup of a fossil bone fragment I found on a beach.

I’d go for rock - some chunk of seamed quartz.

I can see why you’d be tempted to consider it to be bone though.

Thanks, everybody. I’m just gonna consider it a rock and run it through the polisher.

I’d say rock as well.
In the one close-up, the finely-textured area is clearly crystalline. And the smooth areas (that you might think were the articulation points of this was e.g the head of a femur) also have a more massive crystalline texture, and also includes the finer-textured parts where no ball joint would have them. Veins aren’t out of the question in fossils, but usually the fossil would be very deformed as well.

I have several pieces just like these! And have wondered the same, since collecting them.

Where did you collect these? (I picked mine up off a beach on a South Pacific island.)

I am wildly interested to know what it looks like coming out of the polisher, please post a photo!

Did the OP dig that up in his basement? :roll_eyes:

Thanks. I was hoping it would be an old bone or maybe an antler. But funny-looking rock seems to be the consensus, and this confirms it.

The guy who originally owned this house was crazy for his rock beds. My girlfriend surprised me one day with a rock polisher, so we’ve been collecting the prettier rocks and polishing them.

Dunno where the guy sourced his rocks. Probably a local supplier here in NW Missouri. I’ll definitely post a pic, but it’ll take a few weeks for the polisher to do its thing. I wish I’d thought to collect rocks when I was running all over the world in the military.

Possibly petrified bone? I’ve seen petrified trees. The organic material is fully replaced by mineral, so it becomes fully rock, not the original organic whatever-it-was – yet the grain and details of the original material are fully preserved in the mineralized structure.

There is no sign that rock has the grain and details of bone.

An old book I’ve had since I was a kid – Let’s Find Fossils on the Beach – said that one way of telling fossil shells from modern ones (where the shell material hasn’t been replaced by stone) is to hold it over a flame for a few seconds. Modern material will give off an odor “like burning hair.”

I’ll bet it will work with bone, as well.

Disclaimer: Despite years of trying, I’ve never found a fossil on the beach.

You could also drip dilute HCl on it. If the carbonate shell material has been replaced, usually it’s with silica. Carbonate fizzes under acid, silica doesn’t.

In fact, a related technique is how replaced shell fossils are freed from some limestone matrices. This also works on bones, because the phosphates in the bones also don’t dissolve. But you do need confidence in the compositions of everything involved.

I’m not holding out much hope for the little guy. Halfway through the polishing process, and it’s lost a third of its length already.

OOoh, still interesting though!

Thanks for posting this, I appreciate it very much!

I still think it would be interesting to drip some acid on it. If you can get some HCl (pool acid, or cleaning muriatic acid), that’s best, but even acetic acid or lemon juice should work in a pinch.

They have pills for that now.