Fossilized Egg vs Petrified Egg? - This one is Real!

[lubster]

HamptonsDoc, jpc, digit, fossilhunter21, -Andy-, 

 

Oh wow!  Thank you for the additional comments.  I really appreciate you taking the time to post your impressions of the egg, and for all the kind words too.

 

I am still in awe over the fact that members think the egg is awesome.  I didn't know it was so special, so I am very grateful for everyone's comments on the egg.

 

I oversee a family facebook page where I post a lot of family history for our entire family to see.  I told the family about all the very nice comments and compliments I have received here on Fossil Forum.  And of course, the Golden Drool Award!!  They are delighted to hear the comments and information from this post, and I am too.

 

Thank you again for all the feedback everyone.            Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and to the forum, Kathy                                     gobble, gobble

[digit]

It is a spectacular specimen and the drool was genuine.

 

Thanks for showing us here. This rarity makes up for the steady parade of concretions we see here that the finders believe to be T-rex eggs--why is it always T-rex? Glad that the rest of the family got to know that your grandfather dug up a true gem. A lovely family heirloom--and much more portable than a grandfather clock. Hope this is proudly displayed and gets lots of comments by those you are able to show it to. Truly happy that you are making plans to see that this treasure will be curated (and hopefully studied) in the future.

 

Happy Thanksgiving in return--I'd say don't eat too much but I believe that is the point.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[MarcoSr]

Beautiful fossil bird egg!  It is really nice to see a bird egg post on TFF that is actually a real fossil bird egg.  Hopefully, what follows may help you better understand your fossil.

 

Bird egg fossils are very rare from the White River and not much is written about them.  Three fossilized bird eggs from Badlands National Park in South Dakota were described by Chandler and Wall 2001 which they believed were from Badistormis aramus, an early Limpkin.

 

My sons and I have found two bird eggs and lots of eggshells on our White River Eocene/Oligocene Nebraska M&M Ranch.

 

The first in situ picture is a complete bird egg that my son Mel found in May 2016 and is around 2 ½ inches long.  You can see in the picture that the egg has complete shell in one area and is missing the outer shell in another area.  It was fortunate that most of the missing outer shell was found in one piece with the egg.

 

 

 

 

The next picture is a complete bird egg missing the outer shell that my son Marco Jr.  found in May 2017.

 

 

 

 

The below picture shows some of the eggshell specimens that I pulled from anthill matrix collected during my May 2017 trip to the ranch.  For size reference the gem jar cups are 1 ¾ inches in diameter.  The specimens in each cup are from a different area of the ranch.  Some eggshells have the outside of the eggshell face up and some have the inside of the eggshell face up.  A few eggshells are missing that thin outer layer of eggshell.   I sent these and additional eggshell specimens (hundreds of eggshells) from two other trips to the ranch to an eggshell researcher in Canada.

 

 

 

 

The next three pictures are close-up pictures of an individual eggshell specimen (cross-section, inside, and outside) which is 5 mm by 3 mm by 1 mm thick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are distinct raised dimpled patterns on the outer eggshells from our Nebraska ranch as can be seen in the above pictures  These patterns seem to match the pattern on your egg.  Dr. Gerald Mayr, a world renown expert on Eocene birds, stated in an e-mail to me that the raised dimpled patterns on the eggshells were very uncommon in bird eggs and that he was aware of only one order of extant birds that had a similar pattern.  Unfortunately, when my hard drive crashed in 2018 I lost the e-mail and don’t remember the order.

 

The Canadian eggshell researcher, when commenting on the hundreds of eggshell specimens that I had sent to her, stated in an e-mail to me “They all appear to be from the same type of bird egg!“.  I found this really interesting because the eggshells had come from 18 different anthill sites on our 370 acre ranch and from slightly different time periods, so I was expecting multiple bird egg types.

 

Marco Sr.

[lubster]

MarcoSr,  

 

Thank you so very much for taking the time to respond to my post.  What a treasure trove of information you have given me :  )   I really appreciate the time you took to post the photos and the info about the researchers.  When I started my post, my question was whether it is fossilized or petrified because I have no clue as to such terms, which other TFF members kindly answered that question for me, and then added the words "This one is Real!" to the title.  After reading everyone's comments, I have found that what I have is a bit rare; I had NO idea.  So I really appreciate your comments about the Badlands, and the rest of the information you have written.  Very cool photos too!!  And so interesting!!

 

I googled the White River area and found it on the map, it does seem that where my grandfather found the egg is not that far off from the White River area.  What a great area around your ranch you have to go and discover ancient artifacts and to do that with your sons, how cool is that!  I also checked out the links on the bottom of your comments and am looking forward to reading information on the Phatfossil site.

 

It's been a pleasure to view your comment.  Thanks again!  Kathy