New Members Caterpiller Posted April 22, 2011 New Members Share Posted April 22, 2011 I picked this up along the south shore of Lake Ontario in western NY state. Is it a fossilized bone or just discolored from wave action? I have found other bones but always light in color, never like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarheel59 Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Sure looks like one. Probally Bison perhaps, will let the midwestern gang answer as to ID. Is it heavy?? Feel like rock?? The color is what minerals it was buried in. Being that it was in water for a while I would say it is fossilized. Nice find. Thanks for sharing too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 It has a very attractive patina, but "fossilized" is a hard-to-define term. Most of the time, the question is asked with "petrified" in mind, as in turned to stone; this can take a looong time. "Mineralized" is a more generic condition, where dissolved minerals in the ground water are deposited in a bone's pores, leaving it harder and heavier; the time for this to occur is quite variable (depending on the mineral content of the ground water). Much of the material of a bone is mineral to begin with, so it is the slow degradation and loss of collagen (proteins) from the bone's structure and its replacement by minerals that makes a bone more "rocklike". You can test for the presence of collagen by applying a red-hot needle to the bone (in an inconspicuous place); if it smells like burning hair, you have found protein. Regardless of the outcome, that bone is a keeper! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 it's a horse metapodial, and it does look fairly old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members Caterpiller Posted April 23, 2011 Author New Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 Sure looks like one. Probally Bison perhaps, will let the midwestern gang answer as to ID. Is it heavy?? Feel like rock?? The color is what minerals it was buried in. Being that it was in water for a while I would say it is fossilized. Nice find. Thanks for sharing too Thanks for the info. Yes, it is fairly heavy. The stones along the shore are mostly limestone and the color of the bone is dark gray with white flecks. We've had a lot of wave action after the winter, so who knows where it originated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members Caterpiller Posted April 23, 2011 Author New Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 It has a very attractive patina, but "fossilized" is a hard-to-define term. Most of the time, the question is asked with "petrified" in mind, as in turned to stone; this can take a looong time. "Mineralized" is a more generic condition, where dissolved minerals in the ground water are deposited in a bone's pores, leaving it harder and heavier; the time for this to occur is quite variable (depending on the mineral content of the ground water). Much of the material of a bone is mineral to begin with, so it is the slow degradation and loss of collagen (proteins) from the bone's structure and its replacement by minerals that makes a bone more "rocklike". You can test for the presence of collagen by applying a red-hot needle to the bone (in an inconspicuous place); if it smells like burning hair, you have found protein. Regardless of the outcome, that bone is a keeper! Thank you. I tried the needle test and didn't detect the burning hair odor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrehistoricFlorida Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Tracer is correct, it is a horse metapodial. Based on the pictures, it looks well mineralized. www.PrehistoricFlorida.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Thank you. I tried the needle test and didn't detect the burning hair odor. The bone is from an Equus horse. It is a metapodial or "cannon bone." http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paco Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Cool bone. Cool ruler, too (love old tools and equipment...)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petoskeygal Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Great find! Most all of the petrified bones we have will "ring" when they are tapped with another hard object. This includes pieces of petrified wood chunks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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