Megalodon coprolite?

[Sarah06]

This weighs 14.11 ounces and has a leathery texture.  It was found at Westmoreland State Park, VA. It's 3 3/4" and 2 5/8" at it's widest point. It is  about 1.5" thick.

[jpc]

shark turds are usually spiral shaped.  So, I would say this is something else.

 

[Sarah06]

I have seen photos of ones online for sale that are very similar though.

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

3 minutes ago, Sarah06 said:

I have seen photos of ones online for sale that are very similar though.

Unfortunately you will see many online sellers that label rocks or other geological oddities as any number of things. But in many cases they are just rocks and nothing more.  @GeschWhat

 

This is a great read explaining the difficulties in identifying/misidentifying coprolites. 

https://www.chsfossiladventures.com/single-post/2018/01/26/Step-aside-Megalodon-this-fossil-is-raising-quite-a-stink

 

Cheers,

Brett

[Sarah06]

Thank you Brett. 

[Sarah06]

Thanks jpc

[Sarah06]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/let.12380

 

I'm going to have it x-rayed soon.

 

[Sarah06]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/let.12380

 

https://poozeum.com/south-carolina

 

I'm going to have it x-rayed soon.

 

[jpc]

ask yourself this before you x-ray it.  Do modern shark poops contain bone?  If not, the x-ray might be useless.  

[JohnJ]

3 hours ago, Sarah06 said:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/let.12380

 

I'm going to have it x-rayed soon.

 

 

Why not ask the opinion of one of the authors that discovered some of the fossils in the article?  @MarcoSr

[Top Trilo]

Also I don't believe you can assign a species such as megalodon to a shark coprolite. There are other shark species that were close to megalodon size and coprolites come in a wide range of sizes.

[Sarah06]

Thanks everyone.

 

[cck]

A concretion from the cliffs... lots of curiosities there

[MarcoSr]

23 hours ago, jpc said:

shark turds are usually spiral shaped.  So, I would say this is something else.

 

 

15 hours ago, JohnJ said:

 

Why not ask the opinion of one of the authors that discovered some of the fossils in the article?  @MarcoSr

 

23 hours ago, Sarah06 said:

This weighs 14.11 ounces and has a leathery texture.  It was found at Westmoreland State Park, VA. It's 3 3/4" and 2 5/8" at it's widest point. It is  about 1.5" thick.

 

See the picture below.  The feature highlighted by the red line could be the end of the wrapping of a shark scroll valve coprolite.  The texture could be a coprolite or a concretion.  Scroll coprolites usually have an indentation/hole on at least one end.  Is there an indentation/hole where the red arrow points?  If yes that would be another feature of a scroll coprolite.

 

 

 

 

However, scroll coprolites are usually more cylindrical than your specimen.  See the below example of a shark scroll valve coprolite.  However, the shape of your specimen could have been distorted before fossilization.  I don't see any evidence of a spiral line/indentation on the specimen surface which would rule out another type of shark spiral valve coprolite.

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

 

[Sarah06]

Marco Sr. yes there is an indentation there, exactly where you pointed. Thank you.

[GeschWhat]

Sorry I'm late to respond. I noticed the same thing that @MarcoSr did, and agree it could be a scroll coprolite or possibly an abraded heteropolar microspiral. I have seen the latter with that somewhat conical shape from the U.K (photo below). I don't think X-rays will do you much good. If it is a coprolite, it is probably too dense to show the spiral structure (I've had coprolites x-rayed). A CT scan would likely work, but they are expensive.

 

Can you post a photo of both ends and other sides? I'd be really interested to see if it is a scroll or microspiral coprolite. 

 

As other forum members have mentioned, you can't go by what is being sold online. I would say about 95% of what is being sold as coprolites are just pretty rocks.  Almost all that are sold as "megalodon" coprolites are likely crocodilian (as described in the link provided by @Brett Breakin' Rocks which was a great read). You will notice the Poozeum link you provided does not identify a coprolite producer. Only two of those (the first and last) have a spiral (scroll) structure. It would be pretty safe to say those were produced by a fish with a scroll type of spiral valve. The others are likely crocodilian based on their shape and composition.

[Sarah06]

Thank you so much.  I appreciate your input. I contacted the curator of Paleontology at Calvert Marine Museum and he thinks it's an iron concretion, sadly. 

[Sarah06]

I meant to say that he said that he thought it was likely an ironstone concretion.