Help Identifying a Fossil

Guffrey

Not necessarily the exact specimen, as it appears to be pieces of something. More along the lines of what material it is, as I have heard this changes how you clean it. And speaking of that, any advice on cleaning would be most helpful. I tried the toothbrush, but that doesn't do much. I have had some success scraping away dirt with a blunt knife, but I'm afraid I may be leaving marks on the fossil underneath. Or, maybe this isn't even a fossil, in which case my grandma is a dirty liar. Thanks!

Found in northeast Oklahoma if it makes any difference.

FeatherBlade

That one protrusion looks vaguely like a barnacle.

Is there a university or museum nearby that you could take it to?

JebusUD

For cleaning, use a soft brush, gently. Even a toothbrush can leave marks if you push too hard. Cleaning these things is more about patience than anything else.

MetroidZoid

Guffrey wrote: »

All I can tell is that it's (A) a collection of somethings, probably similar somethings. Shells? Invertebrates? And the two major 'marks' on the left side look like impressions, while the object on the far right looks like an actual thing turned to rock.

Like the things on the left being footprints, and the thing on the right being a foot. Which it's not, but I'm just trying to make sense here.

baudattitude

From one angle - the bottom picture - it looks an awful lot like a hunk of turtle shell, and that part of North America is covered in fossil turtles, so that's my guess but I'm probably wrong.

Take it to your local college, ask for the geology department. Someone there will make the "leaverite" joke and then probably be able to tell you what it's made of. Smile patiently at the leaverite joke, as it is the only one they know.