# Know what this is?



## MIfishslayer91 (Dec 24, 2013)

I found this in the little manistee river last July with my wife while we were on our honeymoon. I saw the same thing at this store called the rock shop the day before we found it and it was some kind of fossil but dont remember what.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Looks like fossilized coral. Somewhat common, left over from the days when Michigan was at the bottom of a shallow sea. Maybe 200-400 million years ago. My memory might be off on those years.
L & O


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

It is a variation of Petoskey Stone.


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

Pretty cool!
I hate to be a downer, but I think its a porous chunk of limestone. The holes are too varied in size and I'm not seeing any septa. 
What you probably saw at the rock shop was a favosite coral. Porous limestone and favosie look pretty similar.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

You might be correct. Limestone is made of sea creatures from millions of years ago too, so still in the same ballpark. Easy enough to check for limestone. Put a chunk in some vinegar.....if it fizzes, it's limestone and if not it's fossilized coral. I bet we all did that in H.S. chemistry.

L & O


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

Here's one for ya Anish, I don't think I ever got the answer on this


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

That is rock and not metal ? Was that cut in half or rock that broke that cleanly ? Wave action will smooth rock over thousands of years. Any chance it being an Indian tool ? Was it found with the coral rocks ?

L & O


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

There's a glitch, maybe this will work
























The long lobe missing on the one side looks eroded away


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## Anish (Mar 6, 2009)

Liver and Onions said:


> That is rock and not metal ? Was that cut in half or rock that broke that cleanly ? Wave action will smooth rock over thousands of years. Any chance it being an Indian tool ? Was it found with the coral rocks ?
> 
> L & O


A tool is what came to mind for me too. Or even a partially carved tool. Is it heavy?
The last picture of the fossil coral is a hexagonaria. It looks like h. percarinata. A Petoskey stone.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

How come I can't see the first photos...

It is a rock, like very dense sandstone. It came in a load of stone from a pit between Higgins and Houghton lake(glacial moraine) as did the petoskeys (It's loaded with them). Could have been carried south by glaciers. The break is clean. Probably when it was loaded or dumped from the dump truck. It is layered, like bone...as you can see in the break


















I have been told by a science teacher that possible fossilized vertebrae. It has also been suggested that it is a paleo club head or a type of bird stone....which is a weight from atlatl type weapon, which have been found in this area but smaller. Which could also be possible, as it's the high ground between the lakes, which the natives would have used.

The teacher wanted me to send it to a guys at the Michigan history museum....I suspect it would be a one way trip.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

I have a lot of fossils from this area, also have a black obsidian knapped arrow head from my garden, that's in the wrong part of the country, imagine how that got here. 

Higgins and Houghton were on a portage from the ausable to Muskegon
Rivers to cross the state in those days. We have mounds in the area also. That rock rains a mystery though.

The fellow who thought it was some type of bird stone is a collector, and made a offer on it.


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## Petronius (Oct 13, 2010)

swampbuck said:


> I have a lot of fossils from this area, also have a black obsidian knapped arrow head from my garden, that's in the wrong part of the country, imagine how that got here.
> 
> Higgins and Houghton were on a portage from the ausable to Muskegon
> Rivers to cross the state in those days. We have mounds in the area also. That rock rains a mystery though.
> ...


I think what you have is an ancient Indian noggin buster, an early assault weapon.

The mound builders had a trading network that ranged down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and both east and west. Cooper from Michigan has been found in the south and artifacts from the southwest in Michigan, along with shell from the Gulf. 

It is strange though that very little to nothing has been found in the mounds, encirclements or pits in Aetna Twp, Missaukee Co. They are in between the Ausable and Muskegon rivers that you mentioned.


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