The spin anomaly debunked

[eric44]

I don’t think this is a spin but just a piece of porous lava. There are many other pieces of solidified porous lava around it that have the same aspect -> see the (PIA01907) from which it was taken. But I agree that taken out of the context of the general picture it might vaguely look like a spin.
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA01907.jpg

[Marsrocks]

Eric,

I am looking at this one in similar ways to you, but with the opposite impression.

I agree that there is a tremendous amount of porous lava rock in this area - (scoriaceous basalt and vesicular basalt). For this reason, I would have personally skipped looking at this one altogether for the very reasons you suggest. It blends very well into the many other known rocks that you have shown examples.  And I prefer looking for objects that stand out from the local rocks, as the best anomalies.

After taking a closer look, though I am not sure that this one should be so quickly dismissed.

In basaltic rock, we tend to see interior rounding effects from the bubbles that create the texture of the rock. Because of all the bubbling, square, and flat shapes would be very difficult to form in the rock. Taking a closer look, there are some rectangular facets in the rock, so this is inconsistent with texture we should see in a porous lava rock:





There are also separations that occur that go across the rock dividing it, which is inconsistent with the texture we should expect.




Admittedly, there is only a tiny area that is consistent with a spinal shape (much of the rest is too ill defined).



But if it is a spine, we would expect a hollow area to run through it (for blood vessels, nerves, and soft tissues), and we do see this as a strong likelihood, as there appears to be hollowness at the point where the object appears broken:



With a spine, we may also expect to see bilateral symmetries at each end:

allaboutbackandneckpain.com/understand/anatomy.asp

At the small end, what we see is roughly symmetrical:



At the other end, beyond the broken area, it is more difficult perhaps to see this, but there is a somewhat flatter shape with an unusual, yet bilaterally symmetrical shape to it (notice, it is turned, in the opposite direction to the natural curve of the object):



Obviously, this is not to conclusively say this is a spine or that I can rule it out as being one of many lava rocks, but to me, it does have a number of interesting indications about it which are suggestive of a spine.

So, I think it makes for an interesting object to study when looking for objects most closely suggestive of bones/fossils:


marsanomalies.proboards.com/thread/263/life-mars-rip-skull-bones?page=1

[eric44]

Yes I agree that some parts seem to compatible with a 'spine' interpretation but as you said the other parts of this object are totally incompatible with a viable spine structure which refutes any interpretation of a biological origin and confirms that the similitudes with a spine are coincidences.