Can anyone identify this item found on Hunstanton Beach

[fallen-archie]

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/02/metal-detectorist-finds-**bleep**-fossil-on-beach-in-norfolk-6355984/

[suzieseaside]

Never seen an acorn worm personally, though am aware of them and have seen other tube worms!

Thought it might be a possibility as they vary in size from a few/several cm to about 2m long

[astrologica]

After perusing the picture at length....I am of the opinion that it is not genuine. It would be relatively easy to forge something like this and pass it off as an ancient artefact. Not that I am an expert on this type of thing.....I too bow to Suzie's superior knowledge! It just looks a bit suss to me.

[astrologica]

Maybe Ann Summers could help!😛

[fallen-archie]

Ann Who?

If you google the acorn worm you will see where Suzie is coming from🤐

[fallen-archie]

And they do say that from small acorns a mighty oak doth grow.

[suzieseaside]

There are some similarities to modern day acorn worms - note the striations in this picture:

Obviously there would be some variations between species, and they have been found in the fossil record back to Cambrian times

The pic below shows a reconstruction of how a fossil Acorn worm found in Canada (I think) would have looked when living

There's a collar and striations behind:

I'm no fossil expert but my money is on that.

It could be a coprolith as some experts have suggested, or just an oddly shaped piece of chert, or other stone

But it makes me laugh to see more newspapers are reporting it as definitely an appendage from a wooly mammoth -

flipping small mammoth if so!! 

[evoman3957]

If you ask me, it's the result of what happens; when you try to circumcise somebody with a Flint Axe........when you're " rat faced " after the celebrations following a Dinosaur hunt.