🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Fossilized horn or tusk?

bbheigle0605

Sr. Member
Feb 9, 2013
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Good afternoon,

I found this along side a rock dike in the Mississippi River this afternoon. The river is at record lows which means fossil hunters are running to the rock dikes in search of fossils. This was my fist time going and I found this. I broke it of course which I’m sick about it! Took 45 mins to get it out between 2 very large rocks. Thank you in advance!

Beth
 

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To me the structure of the material looks like a type of bone, rather than horn or ivory. Pithy center and exterior with fairly coarse grain. No idea what sort of critter you could be dealing with though.
 

Upvote 3
I thought tooth first then sloth maybe like mentioned but I think it is most likely the core of a Buffalo horn. Very cool what ever it is
 

Upvote 0
My first thought was a fossilized walrus tusk. :icon_scratch:

Here is an example of a fossilized juvenile walrus tusk that was found at the Aurora mine in North Carolina. The Aurora mine is the largest integrated phosphate mining and chemical plant in the world. This fragment exhibits an attractive glossy patina and polish from wear/use. This piece is solid and heavily mineralized; the tip is fully intact.

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Upvote 3
Walrus is interesting wasn’t even in the range of animals I was thinking, good idea to include pictures though here’s some of bison horn cores… really with what’s left I’m not sure there’s much of a way to distinguish… unless a tusk doesn’t have any spongey internal structure, I don’t know
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