Is this a bone fossil or a rock concretion?

[Concrete]

Hi, 

 

Does anybody know what this rock is? Is it a concretion, a piece of fossilized bone, or is it something else?

 

I found it while walking through a field in Huntsville, Alabama where construction crews were clearing the land for a new subdivision. This rock was found in a flood prone area of the field where they were building a pond next to a stream.  The earth was excavated 10 to 20 Ft in depth, and the rock was found in the ground dug from this dig.

 

I initially thought the rock was a concretion, but after researching, I noticed it has many of the features of fossilized bone listed online by the University of Kentucky. For instance, it has a bulge at the end, a porous spongy texture on the inside, somewhat polished outside with elongated markings parallel to it’s length, a fibrous outside texture, and an inside canal, just like the way modern bones do today except it’s rock. Also, it was found on the ground excavated from sediment, an expected place to find fossils. When I found the rock, I also found fossilized colonial coral there too!

 

It’s compelling to think it might be a fossilized bone. Additionally, it has what look like cut marks on it. Allegedly, pieces of Native American spear points were also found in this field, and I’m now wondering if it could be a fossilized deer bone with Native American knife cut marks on it!

 

A Native American could have cleaned and dressed a deer next to this stream a long time ago, and left pieces of bone there, where they laid in the sediment over the next tens of thousands of years and eventually fossilized. If true, and if the rock can be dated to a time before the Clovis culture began 13,000 years ago, then this would suggest humans had already been here before then!

 

Yet, I’m getting way ahead of myself.  It’s probably just a pseudo-fossilized bone (aka a concretion that looks like bone) 😊.

 

Any clue would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know what you think.

 

Thanks!

[oilshale]

Deer bone is probably correct, but the cut marks do not look like they were made with stone tools. The marks look more like a modern (iron) knife was used.

But I don't know enough about it.

[Concrete]

Very cool! Thanks!