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Let's Rock => Identifications of Materials => Topic started by: kent on November 01, 2021, 09:44:30 AM
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Anyone familiar with petrified dino and whale bone enough to be able to tell them apart ?
Word has it that house next door to mine had a lapidary living there before we arrived 20 years ago. The new owner offer me the chance to look through the piles of rocks in the backyard, which I gladly did. I have found jade, crazy lace and a fairly large piece of petrified bone. A friend suggest it looks like whale bone she has seen harvested in the Santa Barbara area of California. I just have never worked it as it is friggen expensive. Any ideas ??
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My off of the top of my head response is that it would be difficult to distinguish them on the basis of appearance. Both are often spongey, and the cell-like porosity can vary depending on specific bone, position in bone, and age of animal. This is ignoring the diversity of kinds of whales and dinosaurs. If I had to bet I'd call your specimen a dinosaur but anyone should (I say should) give you a qualified/hedged answer
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For the same reasons I hesitated in an answer. The color is very much the common color of most Whale bone. The other is the tumbled shape of the bone. Although some Dino is found in river and can be tumbled it is much more likely that Whale bone is tumbled by the nature of it erosion from the beaches and cliffs oceanside. My guess would be Whale Bone based on those 2 criteria.
The one thing AND I AM NO EXPERT that I have noticed with Dino vs whale is that most all of the Dino I have and that is a fair amount and the whale bone is the cells themselves. I am sure I will be shown examples that break the rules, BUT. What I noticed is that the Whale bone I have from here in CA. the cells seem to go from very minuscule to very large in the same bone. What I see more in Dino is a consistency of size of cell within a given piece. Maybe a Marine Biologist might know if Whale naturally have different bone structure due to diving depths and blood flow in a cold water species?
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Thank you both for taking the time to answer.
Steve, I had not even thought of its tumbled appearance but certainly the shape needs to be taking into account. I have three smaller pieces and each one is smooth all around, like they were tumbled.
So perhaps I start calling these pieces whale......works for me !
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That looks like whale bone and very nice whale bone. I find it can have a bit of a different feel on the wheel but I like it enough I just bought a huge amount.
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Has the look of whale bone, some of the experts on the FB Gembone group would be able to id it instantly
David