Fossil, Or Recent Hunters Meal

[Mango]

One of the kids I took this weekend to the Peace River, Hardee, found this bone. I am too new to fossiling to know if this is a good find, or something from recent years.

The bone is broken at one end revealing a white core. He took the bone home before I discovered I had used a little too much flash on this shot.

I tried to burn the bone. Nothing really happened, and it did not smell at all. It is the inner color that has me questioning it.

I tried tapping it with a metal trowel. Mistake. Didn't give me any sound that was positive or negative, and left chips in the bone that revealed the lighter inner color.

Whether or not it is a good find, I would like to be able to tell the young hunter what he had found. So far we are calling it a pterodactyle wing bone.

If it is a fossil, it was our find of the day.

Thanks for the help.

Mango.

[Major]

Interesting how detailed the end of the bone is, makes me feel like it's new(er)...

The white could simply be because, obviously, we have a lot of limestone, and fossils are simply imprints replaced by the minerals surrounding it..

Just trying to get the conversation going..

I'd vote fossil because you said you did the burn test and it resulted negatively..

BUT have you tried burning the intricate end?

[mommabetts]

I think it is a pre-fossil, it is not real new but it is not very old either. It doesn't look like it has started changing to rock yet. It should be heavy like a rock.

[Harry Pristis]

I think it is a pre-fossil, it is not real new but it is not very old either. It doesn't look like it has started changing to rock yet. It should be heavy like a rock.

It's a white-tail deer (Odocoileus sp.) metapodial (cannon bone). Chances are that it's fairly recent, but could conceivably be a fossil. Bone readily mineralize in the Peace River, so if it's still crumbly, it's probably not real old.

[Mango]

The bone felt slightly heavier than I would expect the feel of a fresh bone.

Burn test was done to the broken, open end with negative result. I did not try to burn other parts of the bone.

Thank you for the i.d. H.P. Deer bone makes me think recent, especially coming from the area of the river that it did..

Another clue might be that I found another small fragment that had the same dark color outer with white core. The small piece looked to be an end joint, but did not fit to the large bone.

When I chipped it, I would not describe it as crumbly. Small fragments chipped off.

I will have the young hunter keep it under his pillow to see if it develops any decaying smell.