It seems complicated

[jeannie55]

While hunting for fossils on the bank of the Grand River east of Tulsa, I found a large piece is limestone. Other than the limestone, I had no particular interest in the rock, but I thought the limestone rock would be a nice medium to practice prepping. However, once I began scratching a little here and there, I began finding fossils. Both sides and the edges of the sides are very fossil rich. Using dental picks and q tips, I began removing the matrix. On all surface areas, I began exposing various fossils, many that I’m unfamiliar with but I do recognize as fossils. Here’s the thing, some are tan, hard fossils, some are gray like shale, some are crystal like or crystal, and today I found one that feels like latex. Is this common? One rock with various, for lack of the scientific discourse, textures?  I think there may even be a metal thing in there. I wanted to send pictures using the microscopic camera but I cannot get the thing to work. My granddaughter has been trying to teach me but you know I am far from a digital native and remember having trouble with those little instamatic cameras. The latex feeling fossils aren’t toxic are they? I’m sure this is common knowledge in your fields but for me it’s very new and complicated. Google doesn’t help either. Thank you all in advance for offering some explanations, and I really appreciate the time you folks take to teach us folks without science backgrounds the basics and often complicated knowledge of your discipline. I’ve attached an image I took with my phone before I began prepping. 

[Ludwigia]

I'm afraid that your photo is much too blurry to be able to make anything out. Can you please post higher resolution ones and point out exactly where the supposed fossils are? Or maybe you could ask your granddaughter to give you a helping hand?

[FranzBernhard]

Unfortunately, not much can be seen on your pic. I can not discern any fossil with certainty, sorry.

 

11 minutes ago, jeannie55 said:

One rock with various, for lack of the scientific discourse, textures?

It depends on rock type, but this is not uncommon. Most rocks are e.g. composed of different minerals with different properties. It also depends on the scale you are observing (size of individual grains, hand specimen, big outcrop, as examples for different scales).

 

14 minutes ago, jeannie55 said:

and today I found one that feels like latex.

Some minerals can be bend or are very flexible and soften in water, some of them are generically called "mountain leather".

Mountain leather (link to mindat page)

 

17 minutes ago, jeannie55 said:

 I think there may even be a metal thing in there.

Could be iron sulfide (pyrite or macasite), very common in many rocks.

 

Franz Bernhard

[Top Trilo]

22 minutes ago, jeannie55 said:

I’ve attached an image I took with my phone before I began prepping. 

We cant say much without a pic of the fossils youve found but I hope you can get them confirmed and ID'd

[jeannie55]

Thank you for clearing the texture issue up for me.  I’ll post pictures when my granddaughter gets here.