Fossil IDs NJ Cretaceous Unknowns

[jerseygurl]

Hello Fossil Folks.. Wondering if there is enough here to make an identification. All items were found in NJ along the bays of the beautiful locale of Monmouth County.  Most everything I pick up is very sea worn, however, a lot have similar form and  are the of the same texture. Many remind me of little tree trunks, some are flat like the ends of a paddle with a little curve, and few are round like fingers.  Other finds I can easily id, like fossil clams and coprolite, but these I’m curious to know what they might consist of, or what they may have originated from.  Maybe they aren’t even fossils. What I do know is that they are unique in that I have never found anything like them in the cretaceous brooks. 

So here goes, I did my best with the pics. Another thing that makes it hard to id stuff is that most everything is the same black or brown marl color. 

Thank you!

Edited December 1, 2021 by jerseygurl

[Fossildude19]

Most of these look like modern bone chunks.

 

Try the burn test to see if they are fossilized at all.

Hold a flame to a section of the item. If it is fossil, it will not burn. If it is modern, it should smell bad, like hair burning, from the collagen in the bones.

Smell/burned area = modern. Lots of modern bones in the brooks.

 

[jerseygurl]

Thanks for the reply. I’ll do that. So just to clarify, fossil bone equals no odor at all?

These aren’t from the brook, they are from the bay. I know that putrid smell because I’ve done the test with others. Just never thought to check these because they look so different. Solid. Maybe modern marine animals. +1 for bone. At least I got that right!

[jerseygurl]

 

 

update… did the burn test to various frags I have. All have a slight odor but not that awful smell. I even put a flame to my Ichthyosaur vert and got the same odor. Now what?! For now, I’ll leave them and go back to the brook come Spring.

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by jerseygurl

[Jeffrey P]

That does look like very weathered fossil marine mammal bone fragments, at least some of them, similar to ones I've seen from the Calvert Cliffs. I've heard the Miocene deposits in New Jersey produce weathered bone fragments like those. 

[jerseygurl]

@Jeffrey P That is very interesting. Thank you.  I’ll take a look at Miocene resources.  I have an entire jar of this stuff.  Some are in better shape than others and I will redo the burn test before giving up on my little dream of discovery.  There is such a variety of things to find here. Last week a sea marble, blue and white pottery, piece of fossil fish jaw (looks similar to a ratfish), broken sawfish rostral spine, and a couple of these chunks all in the same gravel bar. Everyday I head out, I may not find a perfect fossil- but I always see something.