[Mycology] ID help

[Joe Skulan]

Below are some links to images of the boundary between a dinosaur bone  
(the white area on the bottom or right) and a thing rind of apatite  
(calcium phosphate) that adheres to the bone. Some mineral grains are  
visible in the rind, but the dark squiggly lines are unusual. They do  
not appear to be crystals or any other inorganic structure. Could they  
be fungal? The size and shape seem right, as does the location near a  
rich source of nutrients, but I'd like other opinions. (Dark regions  
correspond to low-density areas or vacuities. The "fungal" structures  
are hollow.) Note that in the last picture ("deflected squiggle") the  
structure appears to have intersected and turned away from the bone  
margin.


As the bone itself is composed of apatite, a mineral that is otherwise  
rare in the rocks in which the bone was embedded, I suspect that the  
bone was the source of the apatite in the rind. The question is, how  
was the apatite dissolved and re-deposited? Could this have been the  
work of fungi?

Cheers,

Joe Skulan
University of Wisconsin Geology Museum


http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/jlskulan/REXbone-matrixboundary.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/jlskulan/REXsquggles.jpg
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/jlskulan/REX_deflectedsquggle.jpg