Petrified dinosaur head

[Mcfitman]

This specimen was found near the town of Mammoth,  Arizona. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Mcfitman
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[Misha]

Sorry, but this is just a rock

[dinosaur man]

Just geologic, sorry 

[Randyw]

Agree with the others it’s just a rock. There’s no sign of bone or bone texture. But it is a cool looking rock from the right angle! But welcome to the forum! Keep looking!

[Creek - Don]

That will make a nice garden / yard piece though. 

 

 

[Mcfitman]

Thanks everyone for responding so quickly!

[Solis]

Well, i say that looks like it was alive at some point. Rock for sure now.

[Fossildude19]

On 3/7/2022 at 1:56 AM, Solis said:

Well, i say that looks like it was alive at some point. Rock for sure now.

 

Looks like, perhaps. Never was, for sure.

[Auspex]

One of the better pieces of nature's artwork I've seen in a while; If it was mine, I'd consider enhancing it with a little paint and put it near the front door... ;^)

[Tiffany e selig]

You are right sure it's a rock now. But was living at one time. Just like every other "rock" on this planet.  I've studied these things for a long time and have come to the conclusion that there are no such things as rocks. The way we perceive them. I am 3rd generation. Mining family and there is nothing Ive found in the field to suggest gold comes from outer space. Or any other nonsensical snarge I learned in school. I spend almost every day in the field going on 6 years. I'm currently writing a paper on this subject hopefully it will be finished by summer. But yes you have something there. I'm not a paleontologist but perhaps you could Google lenz it. Or just look for petrified lizard or dinosaur head  online. I have found several. And most recently I believe a raptor head. They are or were very prevalent or indigenous in my area. The reason so many heads are found is because that is the part of the dinosaur that preserves the best. The neck is usually a lot thinner and brakes over time and get separated from the rest of the body.

[Tiffany e selig]

Also if you look on the bottom where the neck would have been you will see what looks like could have been a neck bone. I joined this forum so I could get information on my findings. Though not so sure now if anyone on here can help me. 

[jpc]

Or, contrary to the post above...it is just a rock.  It may look a bit like a skull, but as someone else said, it has no bone texture or patterns or shape.  

[Fossildude19]

23 minutes ago, Tiffany e selig said:

Though not so sure now if anyone on here can help me. 

Probably not, if you are of the opinion that the OP's  item is a dinosaur skull.    

 

Google Lenz stinks at identifying fossil, by the way.

[Troodon]

Not aware of any Mesozoic outcrops by Mammoth, AZ if its the one by State road 77 north of Oracle.

Cool looking rock.  Skulls are not solid blobs but made up bone of many fragile elements where you should be able to see sutures separating them.  Very rare to find dinosaur skulls becauseof this fragility.  Teeth are the most preserved item in dinosaurs.

[Mahnmut]

14 hours ago, Tiffany e selig said:

 suggest gold comes from outer space. Or any other nonsensical snarge I learned in school.

Well, as far as I learned, all the elements formed in outer space - the heavier ones in stars or novae- before coming together as what we now call earth, except for some meteorites that arrived later. So no proper geologist will tell you that gold is more spacey than any other part of earth.

And contrary to you statements about skulls, those are quite rare finds as you can verify on any modern beach. When there are bones at all, vertebrae are much more common. Usually there is one fragile skull per animal, some long bones and lots of ribs and vertebrae to begin with. Teeth are robust and have better chances to become fossils.

That we get much more cases of "is this a skull" on the forum than "is this a rib" is due to the fact that human perception is very eager on anything remotely facelike.

I fear you will not like this answer, as it contradicts your conviction, but it reflects my best knowledge after learning geology and anatomy for quite some years more than school.

Best Regards,

J

[patelinho7]

I think the term “petrified” should be eliminated from paleontological vocabulary. Seems to lead too many new learners astray  

[Troodon]

3 hours ago, Mahnmut said:

Well, as far as I learned, all the elements formed in outer space - the heavier ones in stars or novae- before coming together as what we now call earth, except for some meteorites that arrived later. So no proper geologist will tell you that gold is more spacey than any other part of earth.

And contrary to you statements about skulls, those are quite rare finds as you can verify on any modern beach. When there are bones at all, vertebrae are much more common. Usually there is one fragile skull per animal, some long bones and lots of ribs and vertebrae to begin with. Teeth are robust and have better chances to become fossils.

That we get much more cases of "is this a skull" on the forum than "is this a rib" is due to the fact that human perception is very eager on anything remotely facelike.

I fear you will not like this answer, as it contradicts your conviction, but it reflects my best knowledge after learning geology and anatomy for quite some years more than school.

Best Regards,

J

 

To add from the noted astronomer Carl Sagan: "we're made of star stuff"

 

When Carl Sagan said that “we're made of star stuff,” he wasn't being metaphoric. He was simply noting—in his uniquely precise and poetic way—that the raw materials that constitute our physical bodies were forged in the bellies of distant, long-extinguished stars.Sep 10, 2012

 

 

[Auspex]

1 hour ago, Troodon said:

...the raw materials that constitute our physical bodies were forged in the bellies of distant, long-extinguished stars.

And still are!

 

[Tiffany e selig]

Ok has anyone on here ever heard of Mary Shipton's Cave in the UK? It boasts a waterfall that  contains minerals they can actually petrify anything within 3 to 6 months. Living or dead inanimate items also. I had long wondered how long it took for something to petrify and I'm hearing all this billions and millions or whatever years I am sorry I don't feel like getting technical about exactly how long because I don't know. Different places are different and contain different minerals which react in different ways to things dying in their presence. I live in Nevada in the desert and who knows what happened out here in this desert. But we are one of the highest mineralized states in the Union and most of every fossil that I find is actually stone or Rock. I have found some things that look like bones but they're probably animals that passed away more recently. I argued with a friend of mine over the petrification of wood in the area because he explained to me that we have not been above water long enough for things to petrify but he obviously doesn't know anything about what I'm talking about. Because there's a whole side of an amount that has nothing but petrified wood on it all over the whole side of it the other side doesn't have it but one side does. The reason for this being the minerals that are contained on what one side of the mountain. Also the whole area is a fossil field. There are very few rocks to speak of. The only rock that I have seen that cannot be identified as some sort of fossil have been put through a rock quarry by humans and crushed beyond recognition. I have found mud fossils I have found heads of iguanodons both juvenile and adult. I have found raptor heads and claws. I have found another one I'm not sure I'm still trying to identify it but I'm not sure like I said if I can get any help from here because people do not understand what I am talking about. I suggest that you look into Dr Kent hovind Dr Dino he has some pretty interesting things to say about petrification and soon after that I discovered Mary shipton's cave which answered a lot of questions for me. There is a lot of mining that goes on out here and there are tons of different kinds of minerals that could possibly turn these things to rock. The dinosaurs don't have a choice in this matter they didnt get to choose bone or Rock. They were bound to the minerals where they fell. 

[Tiffany e selig]

On 3/11/2023 at 2:57 AM, Mahnmut said:

Well, as far as I learned, all the elements formed in outer space - the heavier ones in stars or novae- before coming together as what we now call earth, except for some meteorites that arrived later. So no proper geologist will tell you that gold is more spacey than any other part of earth.

And contrary to you statements about skulls, those are quite rare finds as you can verify on any modern beach. When there are bones at all, vertebrae are much more common. Usually there is one fragile skull per animal, some long bones and lots of ribs and vertebrae to begin with. Teeth are robust and have better chances to become fossils.

That we get much more cases of "is this a skull" on the forum than "is this a rib" is due to the fact that human perception is very eager on anything remotely facelike.

I fear you will not like this answer, as it contradicts your conviction, but it reflects my best knowledge after learning geology and anatomy for quite some years more than school.

Best Regards,

J

Hi j and I don't mind your reply but back in the dinosaur world things like ribs and vertebrae and stuff like that are not found as often as skulls are because they are eaten by other dinosaurs. And there are other things that happened to make other parts of the body hard to find.   The claws and teeth are definitely an easy find. During an Extinction food was harder and harder to come by. Dinosaurs did a lot of killing of each other that's why finding whole skeletons is such a rarity.  That's my opinion. Almost every publication on dinosaurs doesn't matter what age it is starts with scientists believe so that doesn't convince me very much about anything that is said by the scientific world. Just because they believe something doesn't make it true. Therefore I am allowed to make my own decisions on what I believe right? An educated guess in my mind isn't always right when they are taught the wrong things. I'm sorry I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything honestly. I have just discovered things out in the field that raises questions for me. When I refer back to what I learned in school I'm often left with more questions than answers. And that coupled with other people guessing or just believing  in something and admitting they aren't sure at the same time really leaves me with no alternative other than to build my own conclusions. What makes my guess any less valid? 

[Danielb]

Not to be rude but science says It’s just a rock.

Edited March 27 by Danielb

[Fin Lover]

You are definitely entitled to your own beliefs, but you will not get much help on this forum if you aren't interested in what science has to say.

[digit]

1 hour ago, Tiffany e selig said:

I have found heads of iguanodons both juvenile and adult. I have found raptor heads and claws. I have found another one I'm not sure I'm still trying to identify it but I'm not sure like I said if I can get any help from here because people do not understand what I am talking about.

You have found rocks that are possibly suggestively shaped to you and you are jumping to the conclusion that these are the fossilized animals you mention above.

 

On 3/10/2023 at 3:18 PM, Tiffany e selig said:

I'm not a paleontologist but perhaps you could Google lenz it.

No. You are not a paleontologist but we have many professional paleontologists here on the forum. I work (volunteer) with many paleontologists and interact and learn from them daily. Paleontologists have to deal with the phenomenon of pareidolia on a near daily basis as whose who do not understand paleontology and the process of animal/plant remains being preserved (through mineralization and other methods) to become the fossil remains that we deal with. Often those who do not understand the ways that fossils are preserved make assumptions that do not align with physics or logic and we are often told that we do not 'think outside the box' and are trapped by our scientific understanding of the fossilization process. We do not need to expand our understanding of fossils to accommodate look-alike objects that those with little understanding vehemently believe to be unique or rare examples of some novel method of preservation presently unknown to science. We are a science-based forum and prefer to deal with actual fossils and do our best to educate those who come here with misunderstandings of how fossilization works. You can choose to stay and learn about fossils or you can believe you know more than the sum total of the forum's membership and seek your confirmation elsewhere. The choice is entirely your own but reactivating (again) a topic that has been settled for nearly 4 years will not gain any new traction here.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

 

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_you_experience_pareidolia_it_could_help_you_be_creative

 

https://www.livescience.com/25448-pareidolia.html

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=pareidolia&udm=2

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

6 hours ago, Tiffany e selig said:

Ok has anyone on here ever heard of Mary Shipton's Cave in the UK? It boasts a waterfall that  contains minerals they can actually petrify anything within 3 to 6 months. 

Petrified doesn’t mean fossilized. Like many places in the world, in France we also have petrifying fountains, and by putting objects there we can "petrify" them in as little as 2 or 3 weeks, it is not even a question of months. These are often fountains or water sources very loaded with minerals, most of the time calcium carbonate (calcite: CaCO ). In this case, the objects are just covered with a mineral layer, but their own material is not modified, contrary to what fossilization would change.

 

6 hours ago, Tiffany e selig said:

The only rock that I have seen that cannot be identified as some sort of fossil have been put through a rock quarry by humans and crushed beyond recognition.

What about granite, eruptive rocks etc... Are they not purely rocks? No fossil can be found there (except in lava released at sea that can include marine animals during its effusion).

 

6 hours ago, Tiffany e selig said:

I have found mud fossils I have found heads of iguanodons both juvenile and adult. I have found raptor heads and claws. I have found another one.

If your findings are so rare, why didn’t you entrust them to a professional paleontologist to study and make a scientific publication ?

 

I also think that nobody will help you more here because we are based on science and we have a lot of paleontologists whose profession it is, and a lot of very enlightened amateur paleontologists with more than 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years of experience. For my part I study paleontology, geology and also mineralogy for 40 years...

 

You have the right to think what you want, but not to raise your unfounded intuitions to the level of truth. I would not intervene any more because I know how it will end !

 

Coco

Edited March 27 by Coco

[Ludwigia]

Even though you probably won't believe it anyway, I'll give you a bit of scientifically proven information. The overwhelming majority of the rocks in the Las Vegas area were laid down in either paleozoic, precambrian or cenozoic ages, times in which dinosaurs either did not already exist, or had already gone extinct. So just based on these facts, you're barking up the wrong tree with your unfounded dinosaur fossil claims.