B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Found these in the woods in st. Clair County Alabama. they were in a coal deposit I dug up. very small deposit. filled a five gallon bucket with coal. they vary in size. I hope they are eggs. some have fragments of shell on them and some do not. any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Those are not eggs, but rather ironstone concretions. The thick 'shell' is the typical crust which encompasses them. Besides that, the geology of your area as far as I can tell is Paleozoic and Precambrian, times when most of life was still under water, so you wouldn't expect to find eggs there. 4 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 It's likely that a certain (usually small) percentage contain fossils. Concretion sometimes forms around them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 11 minutes ago, Ludwigia said: Those are not eggs, but rather ironstone concretions. The thick 'shell' is the typical crust which encompasses them. Besides that, the geology of your area as far as I can tell is Paleozoic and Precambrian, times when most of life was still under water, so you wouldn't expect to find eggs there. thanks for the reply. the shell is not thick at all. it is also textured and flakes off very easily. the shell I'm referring to is the thin black layer. also, is it common to find a pile of iron concretions in a small coal deposit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 3 minutes ago, B33zyD said: thanks for the reply. the shell is not thick at all. it is also textured and flakes off very easily. the shell I'm referring to is the thin black layer. also, is it common to find a pile of iron concretions in a small coal deposit? The "shell" is probably a weathered surface layer. Yes these are quite common in many coal deposits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 11 minutes ago, Rockwood said: cool thanks for the info. quick question, how rare is it to find a complete body fossil of a spider ( or spider like creature) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 Decomposing organic material uses up available oxygen creating the reducing environment where iron minerals form. 2 minutes ago, B33zyD said: cool thanks for the info. quick question, how rare is it to find a complete body fossil of a spider ( or spider like creature) Rare, but they do exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 14 minutes ago, Rockwood said: yes sir. I have one. it's at my shop. I will get a Pic of it today. one last thing.... would iron concretions be drawn to a magnet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 9 minutes ago, B33zyD said: would iron concretions be drawn to a magnet? Only if you drop it on one. No 10 minutes ago, B33zyD said: I will get a Pic of it today 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 FYI. Fossilized spiders are generally preserved 2-dimensionally, having their soft parts pressed flat due to the sedimentation process. The only exception is when they are preserved in amber. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 this is definitely. 3 dimensional. u can even see four eye sockets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 They are known to occur in irony condretions like these from coal beds in Illinois, so we would love to see the spider. But even there, they are super rare. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 11, 2021 Author Share Posted May 11, 2021 I couldn't find it at the shop today. I think one of the girls that work there might have thrown it out. she said she didn't but it's just a rock to a lot of people. anyway I found these pics in my old phone didn't look like a spider really. the eyes maybe but idk. yall know what it is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 11, 2021 Author Share Posted May 11, 2021 didn't look like a spider really. the eyes maybe but idk. yall know what it is? whatever it is there appear to be more of them under the outer layer. I could see their legs in the Crack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 11, 2021 Author Share Posted May 11, 2021 On 5/10/2021 at 4:51 AM, Rockwood said: Only if you drop it on one. No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Sorry. This is good evidence of the fact that rugose horn corals are bilaterally symmetrical. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 18 hours ago, B33zyD said: I couldn't find it at the shop today. I think one of the girls that work there might have thrown it out. she said she didn't but it's just a rock to a lot of people. anyway I found these pics in my old phone I guess maybe it's just as well it wasn't a rare fossil. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 12, 2021 Author Share Posted May 12, 2021 11 hours ago, Rockwood said: Sorry. This is good evidence of the fact that rugose horn corals are bilaterally symmetrical. I'm sorry I just don't see it being a horn coral. all the ones I see are dished in at the middle and none of them have eye sockets.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 12, 2021 Author Share Posted May 12, 2021 ok maybe it is some kind of coral. upon further inspection I do see what looks like a type of coral. sorry. a couple of those pics are of said coral when it was wet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Perhaps I should explain that it is a mold fossil. What you see is the end of the hole, essentially, where the actual coral had been. It is not uncommon for marine fossils to be associated with coal deposits. Sea level rise, (transgression), is a cause of inundation of coastal swamps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B33zyD Posted May 12, 2021 Author Share Posted May 12, 2021 doesn't look like one of these to you? or one of its ancestors looks like one on the bottom and part of one on top of the other Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 23 minutes ago, B33zyD said: doesn't look like one of these to you? or one of its ancestors Well that is sort of the problem in a way. To be fossilized in this way would be unprecedented I believe. I think the radial symmetry would be more complete than seen were the coral better preserved, and a spiders presence within an apparent cavity would be hard to explain taphonomically being a relatively soft bodied creature. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 1 hour ago, B33zyD said: doesn't look like one of these to you? or one of its ancestors .... looks like one on the bottom and part of one on top of the other It truly does not look like a spider anymore than a "stick man figure" looks like you. Your coral 'mold' is similar to This piece and examples found by @Kentuckiana Mike in his blog. 1 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 3 hours ago, JohnJ said: It truly does not look like a spider anymore than a "stick man figure" looks like you. To an artist that would sound like poppycock I believe. My landscape specialty is fantasy animal like shapes however. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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