Porcupinefish Crushing Plate
Diodon species
Also known as Diodon Mouth Plate, Burrfish Beak
Markings and exact colorations may vary.
A beak-shaped jaw plate whose grinding face looks like a stack of coins.
- Typical size
- 0.5–1.5 in
- How often it turns up
- Uncommon
- Collecting
- Restricted
- Handling
- Safe to handle
A vertebrate fossil that is not a shark or ray tooth: collecting it on Florida state land or water, including beaches below the high-tide line, requires a Florida Museum Fossil Permit, and significant finds must be reported. Collecting is banned in Florida state parks and national seashores.
How to tell it apart
- Beak-like shape
- Grinding surface of stacked, layered plates
- Dark brown to black when fossil
Where to find these in Florida
Beaches rated very good or excellent for fossils. Each page shows today’s score, the best window and access details.
- Caspersen Beach · Venice
- Englewood Beach (Chadwick Park) · Englewood
- Stump Pass Beach State Park · Englewood
- Turner Beach · Captiva
- Turtle Beach · Siesta Key
Found one?
Photograph it and BeachNut ranks the likely matches with a confidence read, then logs it to your collection with the beach and date.
Browsing beaches and the full field guide is free. A free account logs unlimited finds and gives you three photo identifications a day.
Commonly confused with
Eagle Ray Dental PlateMyliobatis and Aetobatus species
Ray plates are flat bars side by side; porcupinefish plates are beak-shaped with stacked coin-like layers.
More fossils in the field guide
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