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Dinosaur Egg? Or Just An Odd Rock?


Mattison

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it looks like some sort of concretion in which the surface was covered with a semi-translucent mineral. it appears as if the mineral below the surface mineral may have undergone expansion due to water absorption or something and cracked the surface of the less-porous exterior mineral. i'm not seeing anything resembling eggshell at all.

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I agree with tracer here, seems to be concretion like to me.

Other details like locality, age of the formation, size of the specimen... these would all help with the ID process.

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Need more info... geographic location to start and type/age of rocks if you know it.

-Dave

__________________________________________________

Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

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OK, I found it on 3/4/10 (yesterday). I live in a high desert area of the White Mountains in Arizona. (North East Arizona approx 1/2 way up the State and approx. 20 miles West of NM State line) It is approx. 6"long and approx. 3-3 1/2" wide on one end and approx 4-4 1/2" wide on the broken end. Not sure of the weight as I do not have a scale.

I had put max pic size when I posted this so I am adding more here. Guess I should have cleaned it up a bit prior to taking the pics. The white color is the bottom from how I found it.

post-1836-12678001611062_thumb.jpg

Thanks for the input!

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I've never seen a dino egg with a smooth surface. The one's I've seen all have a pebbly surface. Otherwise, that really looks like an egg!

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It looks very similar to a Hadrosaur egg, did you find it yourself?

Yes, I found it yesterday 3/4/10 and live in NE AZ High Desert area approx. 20 miles west of NM

Thank you

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Take a magnifying glass over the "shell" and see if you notice anything odd. A dino egg should have some pores in the shell, but I can't tell for your pictures.

The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always.

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Mattison,

Here is an excellent link for your local geology (you lucky person, wish they had something this for TX). Can you zoom in and tell which general formation your find came from?

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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it looks like some sort of concretion in which the surface was covered with a semi-translucent mineral. it appears as if the mineral below the surface mineral may have undergone expansion due to water absorption or something and cracked the surface of the less-porous exterior mineral. i'm not seeing anything resembling eggshell at all.

I agree for the concretion (nodule) of sandstone,there are several pieces of Mica minerals.The cracks are for the thermal excursion that in the desert is very high.However try to show some pics of the surface,thanks.

->>>>> :)<

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I agree with the fact that all eggs have pores in it, just because the embryo needs oxygen.

This looks like a concretion of some type...

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Take a magnifying glass over the "shell" and see if you notice anything odd. A dino egg should have some pores in the shell, but I can't tell for your pictures.

I had to look at a Chicken egg first but I guess a Gator egg would be a closer match (didn't have onr of those) and looked until my eyes crosses......I am just not sure what i am seeing.

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Take a magnifying glass over the "shell" and see if you notice anything odd. A dino egg should have some pores in the shell, but I can't tell for your pictures.

I will try to get closer pictures, crop for a closer look and post them tomorrow (3/7/10)

Thank you

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Hey Mattison,,, Im no 'eggspert' but after all the rocks posted on here where the owners of those rocks thought they maybe had a fossil egg but turned out to be a rock, this rock really does look like an egg!

RB

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I will try to get closer pictures, crop for a closer look and post them tomorrow (3/7/10)

Thank you

OK, went on a quick hunt in the area that I found this egg/rock. I could not find another rock in this area with this leather look and cracked like this one BUT, I did 2 of similar size. One with a few cracks and pores but is just a rock as far as I can see. The other looks like it has/had some kind of cover 'skin' on it but still looks like a rock to me but what do I know? Here are a few picks. (Opps! this pic is taking up 1.25 MB so will have to post in seperate)

post-1836-12679787107766_thumb.jpg

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Take a magnifying glass over the "shell" and see if you notice anything odd. A dino egg should have some pores in the shell, but I can't tell for your pictures.

Here are 2 close up shots and then cropped, looks kind of like leather to me but not sure of pores.

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Mattison,

Here is an excellent link for your local geology (you lucky person, wish they had something this for TX). Can you zoom in and tell which general formation your find came from?

Mattison, if you use the link above to determine the geologic formation, then it will be easier for others to give you more information about your rocks. ;)

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Best guess as the map doesn't show miles is TRc, Tsy or QTb. I could narrow that down if the map showed the miles but these 3 run along the County road that I live on.

You could go into that map and look for St Johns, as I mentioned, that is approx. 1/2 way up the State and approx. 25 miles west of the NM State line (south of I-40 along the 191). I live east of St Johns approx. 6 1/2 miles.

Hope this helps. Thanks!

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mattison - back around june i posted a link for you regarding which fossils have been found in which formations in the various counties. it appears that you have formations with marine fossils, and some with terrestrial fossils in your area. you need to learn what the formations in your area look like and what fossils can be expected to be found in them, and then you can tell whether there's any possibility of certain types of fossils in the strata.

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Hi Mattison,very very neat whatever it is! I blew up your photo a bit on the left and compared it to a photo on the right of the Hadrosaur egg that I have just for the fun of it. There is definitely some interesting texture going on in your specimen. Not sure if they are the pores Phoenixflood and the others are referring to. I'll leave the ID up to those more knowledgeable. Very interesting specimen! Thanks for sharing with us. Regards,Chris

post-1240-12680061995683_thumb.jpg post-1240-12680062228124_thumb.jpg

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Hi Mattison,very very neat whatever it is! I blew up your photo a bit on the left and compared it to a photo on the right of the Hadrosaur egg that I have just for the fun of it. There is definitely some interesting texture going on in your specimen. Not sure if they are the pores Phoenixflood and the others are referring to. I'll leave the ID up to those more knowledgeable. Very interesting specimen! Thanks for sharing with us. Regards,Chris

post-1240-12680061995683_thumb.jpg post-1240-12680062228124_thumb.jpg

Wow, your blown up picture does show more than mine does. Wish I knew how to do that kind of stuff. There are so many cracks in this that it was hard to pick up as much as your picture is showing even with a magnifying glass.

Thanks everyone!

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mattison - back around june i posted a link for you regarding which fossils have been found in which formations in the various counties. it appears that you have formations with marine fossils, and some with terrestrial fossils in your area. you need to learn what the formations in your area look like and what fossils can be expected to be found in them, and then you can tell whether there's any possibility of certain types of fossils in the strata.

Yes, I have found a few rocks with shell imprints in them but those were found over by the Little Colorado River on my 54 acres there. This egg/rock in question was found approx. 4 miles north and 4 1/2 miles east of the River property on our 36 acre place. P.S. I am an amature but like looking for and finding cool rocks and if lucky enough, fossils.

Thank you for all of your help and imput.

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Back before I registered here, I thought a large section of a gastropod I found was part of a turtle egg, so I researched the subject a bit.

One of the things I remember reading is that the thickness of the outer "shell" is critical. I don't remember specifics, but it has to be thin. I think it was either under about 2mm, or under about 1mm.

The outer shell on your images looks much thicker than that. I also cannot see anything representative of pores.

Pores form patterns. They might not be exact patterns... but there won't be large differences in pore concentration over the surface (no unusually large or unusually dense areas). They will be pretty evenly spread out.

In the image I attached, I modified the images that Plantguy posted to show anomaly patterns in the images. In Plantguy's image, there were regular patterns of pores, which show up as white dots in the image (on the right side), with no gaps at all. For your fossil (the one of the left), there are irregular imperfections on a mostly 'perfect' surface. Notice in the attached image that there are several empty spaces in the image (which means pure, imperfection/pore-less areas).

Taken as a whole, I highly doubt that what you have is (well, was) an egg. Posting a close-up of the other side of the egg would help.

That doesn't mean that it isn't an egg, though. This is just my opinion. That is, the opinion of a complete novice, mind you ;)

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