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Showing results for tags 'Coprolite'.
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that's 3.5 inches long x 1.25 inches wide.. and sort of sparkly. Has what appears to be tiny quartz crystals just under the thin outer layer and some sort of green ones as well, some of which look like little donuts. Then again... when you look at the ends, you can see the agate showing where the possibly pointy bits have broken off. Which of course means this isn't a unicorn coprolite, but rather a tubular agate, or better yet, a tubular geode. @GeschWhat
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Hi, I have no clue on this one. I was out on private land near Jordan MT. I found this rock which is unlike any other in the area. I spent two days on the property and found nothing else even remotely close to this. The land owner has had several Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus taken from his land. He didn't know what this was either. I thought it might be coprolite but I don't see any chunks of material. It looks like the core is darker with this lighter brown outside. It's relatively dense compared to most of the rocks I was picking up. It's about 7" long and 3.75" wide at base. I am thinking about cutting it. I'd be most appreciative if someone could help. Thanks!! Frank
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How can you tell if a coprolite comes from a reptile or a mammal or just a different mineral formation in general?
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As I was putting together labels with photos containing microscopic images of inclusions in coprolites, I came across something that I may have misidentified as a fish tail and vertebrae in a very small coprolite. After looking at it again, the tail looks more like a shrimp or crawfish tail than that of a fish. What I thought were fish vertebrae, look more like crustacean arm joints/elements. Can anyone please confirm this for me? Thanks a bunch! Formation: Oxford Clay (Jurassic - Callovian) Location: Orton Pit, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England
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A visitor brought this item up front and I'm pulling the room to see if anyone has a definite ID on this piece. It's almost like coal, definitely seems like a carbonized something. Doesn't have the calcite to indicate plant, perhaps a fish coprolite? Thanks in advance.
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I’m wondering if this could be a coprolite? I found it in a creek in middle Tennessee.
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I apologize for the multiple posts. But so many interesting things I want to buy, and literature in our language is not always enough, as well as people who specialize in dinosaurs. We have a lot of specialists in unvertebrates, marine reptiles and the ice period fauna. But with beds of other countries is not very. Is it really a dinosaur caprolit? The seller writes that you can see the bony inclusions.
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Rather than writing information about coprolite identification on multiple threads, I thought I would post information about coprolite identification here so it can be referenced in ID threads (I'm getting lazy, I know). I was also thinking it might be fun for others to post coprolites in their own collections so others can use them for comparison. So here we go: IDENTIFYING COPROLITES: Not all rocks that look like poop have a fecal origin. Here are a few things to consider when trying to make this determination: 1. Location, Location, Location – If you haven’t guessed, the first and most important thing to consider is the location your rock was found. Don’t expect to find a coprolite unless you find it in geologic area/layer where other fossils are found. If you find things like bones, teeth and fish scales, or prehistoric tracks, you may just be in in luck. 2. Shape – While fecal matter can be rather freeform when exposed to the elements or when digestion issues arise, most coprolites are shaped like poo. As with modern extrusions, fossilized feces can be shaped like pellets, spirals, scrolls, logs, piles, etc. Their shape is dependent on shape of their producers intestinal and anal structure. Look for things like compaction folds and pinch marks. 3. Texture - Most coprolites are fine grained. If your specimen appears granular under magnification, it is most likely not a coprolite. There are some exceptions, such as marine creatures that feed on bottom sediments or coral. That is why knowing the location and geology of the area where it was discovered is so important. 4. Inclusions – Many times, coprolites will have visible inclusions. Things like fish scales, bone fragments, and teeth may not get fully digested, and can be visible on the surface. Some animals ingest stones for ballast or digestive purposes. These are known as gastroliths, and if present, are generally smooth. 5. Composition – Because herbivore scat tends to break a part and decompose rapidly, it rarely survives the fossilization process. So most fossil poo that is found is from carnivores. The reason for this is that their poo is usually high in calcium phosphate, the same mineral found in our bones. This mineral can appear in many forms. It can be hard and dense or soft and porous. If the potential coprolite appears soft and porous, there is a quick test that is often used in the field. If you touch to stone to the tip of your tongue and it sticks, chances are, it is high in calcium phosphate and could be a coprolite. If you are not that brave, you can also touch it with wet fingers to see if it feels sticky, but this is not nearly as fun. If the calcium phosphate takes a harder, denser form the “lick test” won’t work. In some instances, chemical analysis is required to definitively identify the mineral composition. @Carl do you have anything you want to add?
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Another one i found while hunting native American artifacts. Thanks for helping railguy
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Fossil fish defecating?
Seguidora-de-Isis posted a topic in Is It Real? How to Recognize Fossil Fabrications
Hello my friends! Good Morning! I'd like to know, please, if this fish died doing, what I'm thinking he was doing ... Is it really a coprolite? The coprolite is his? I thank you for all the answers!
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I wonder what is it ? If coprolite or something else. Thank you for any help
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Is my coprolite real?
Daniel Mendez posted a topic in Is It Real? How to Recognize Fossil Fabrications
Hello, yesterday they gave me a coprolite, I never had any, so I do not know if it's real. regards
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I was out hunting near Spring Valley, Minnesota with @Bev and @minnbuckeye the last couple of days. As always, I was looking for coprolites. Mike came across this first piece, sitting loose in a piece of weathered matrix. While we were splitting rocks, we found a virgin layer of the source matrix. When we got back to Bev's fossil barn (everyone should have one), I took a peak under the microscope at two of the loose, irregular objects but couldn't really see much because of the powdery iron oxide coating. When I lightly rinsed them, they revealed these microscopic (calcareous) jack-shaped objects. Similar inclusions were in both objects loose objects. You can see from the broken spine on the inclusion in the lower right that they are hollow. In the other loose piece and those still embedded in the matrix, I can also see random straw-like spines of the same material. I'm not sure if these are coprolites, algal masses or something else. I have seen coprolites covered in powdery iron oxide before. Eventually I would like to free more of these from the matrix so that I can sacrifice one to get a look at the interior. Can anyone identify the little jack-shaped inclusions? The spines may have been quite a bit longer. The only things I can think of are forams or perhaps diatoms. Bev and Mike - What was the name of that cliff again? Decorah Shale? @Carl
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Is this coprolite? Found in GMR - Pitt County, NC. Initially thought it might be a tooth from a shell crushing mosasaur (globidens). Very worn piece - could not get a good photo with my camera.
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I found this earlier this year, can't figure out what it is. The more I look at it the more I think coprolite. Let me know what you think.
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I just received this amazing piece of Burmese amber yesterday. The seller thought the long strands were pine needles, but I think they are segmented coprolites from an insect/larva similar to that of the modern sawfly larva. While, I'm pretty good at spotting fossilized fecal matter, I'm not so good at bugs. I'm hoping someone here can help me ID the insects and mite so that I can confirm this dates to the Cretaceous. 1. Can anyone tell me what this one is? It was identified by the seller as a sand fly. I'm hoping the terminal appendages (hopefully I'm using the correct terminology) might be diagnostic. 2. Next is this little flying insect (the wings are really hard to see), that was identified by the seller as a wasp. It looks more like a flying ant to me, but I know next to nothing about bugs. 3. This one looks like a mite to me, but was not mentioned by the seller. 4. The boxy shape of this one looks like a smaller version of what I've seen identified as "bark beetle" in Dominican amber. However, I haven't been able to find anything similar Burmese amber.
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I picked this little nugget up quite a few years ago, during my early infatuation with coprolites. All I know about it is that it was found near Price, Utah. I have siderite "formations" from around the world. This is the only one I've seen that looks like it has an inclusion (or should I say the cast of an inclusion). There has long been a debate as to whether siderite rocks such as these are coprolites, casts of voids (fecal and otherwise, or iron-rich mud extrusions (what I like to call "Earth poop"). My questions are: 1. Does anyone happen to recognize what formation this might have come from? 2. Does anyone recognize the tubular structures? The only thing that comes to mind for me are worm tubes, but I don't know if there are any marine environments represented near Price, UT. As always, thanks for your help! @Carl
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From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
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I have found this pyrite piece With a very strange shape,is it only pyrite or ? coprolite?or?
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I went on a 6 1/2 mile kayak adventure with a couple of friends on the North Sulphur River. We started off the day at 7AM by seeing 2 bald eagles and almost getting one truck stuck in the mud. We managed to get the truck out and started our adventure. As soon as I got down by the bridge I found one of my best artifacts to date and a nice piece of mastodon tooth enamel. We got a mile or so in and something made me ask my friend if he had the keys to his truck that was parked 6 1/2 miles downstream? Lol he had left them in the other truck without thinking. He went back and got his keys and the adventure begin. We saw very little footprints the entire trip. We didn't find many artifacts but I filled up a 1 gallon ziplock with mosasaur bones and other random fossils. One of my friends found his first shark vert, mosasaur vert and point so he was really excited. I gave my new hunter friend all my lower quality items and didn't bother taking pics of them. The water was low in some places so we had to drag the kayaks a lot but it was fun. We were finding so much stuff that we realized we would never make it the other vehicle before night if we did not quit hunting and paddle. It was so hard passing by untouched bars lol. We managed to make it back to the bridge by 7PM which was 12 hours later. Getting the kayaks up the steep bridge at the second location took all 3 men and a long rope. I got home at 9:30 PM. I'm sore but found some great fossils and artifacts. My phone died early in the trip so I missed out on some great pics. For some reason I can only post a few pics at a time since the latest update.
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Found this nice coprolite with a tiny shark tooth visible. Found last week in the North Sulfur River. The pictures don't do it justice unfortunately...
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Hi Folks, I found this suspiciously looking piece of something yesterday. Anyway with all the knowledge on this board I will throw this piece of something out there for you all to identify. It is quite a large specimen about 5” + 3” and over a pound in weight. Also I should add I found this specimen on Brownies beach in Chesapeake Beach Maryland. Thanks Cliff Dweller
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Here is another coprolite. Wondering if the class of organism that defecated it can be determined. I found it in a particularly desolate (in terms of fossils) exposure of Pierre Shale (late cretaceous) in NW Nebraska. It was the only fossil I found in 2 hours of hunting. Pic to left shows close-up with fish bone inclusions. @GeschWhat
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