It is a fossil oyster.  Most of the oysters with this general
morphology are gryphaeid oysters such as Gryphaea itself, and are
Jurassic or Cretaceous in age.  However, there are occasional other
oysters of a similar appearance.  Is it possible to tell where the
rocks in the garden border came from?  Are they local, and if so,
where is local?

The "devil's claw" name is not specifically related to ideas about the
Flood or fossils being planted by the Devil, but rather given to a
mysterious large claw-like thing, not corresponding to any familiar
living animal.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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