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Fossilized Egg?


docno

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I found this egg while digging around here in New Orleans. Any expert opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

David

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Guest N.AL.hunter

I just have a gut feeling that something is amiss here. Can't put my finger on it, but it feels like some sort of setup or con! So, based only on my gut feeling, I am going to say it is not a real fossil... but I hope I am wrong and you found a fantastic specimen.

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I promise, it's not a hoax. I work on documentaries here in New Orleans, so I know the fancy production value makes it suspect. But I really did find it digging around the yard. It sparkles like quartz on the bottom exposed area, is this possible in a fossil? Thanks again for your time and consideration!

I just have a gut feeling that something is amiss here. Can't put my finger on it, but it feels like some sort of setup or con! So, based only on my gut feeling, I am going to say it is not a real fossil... but I hope I am wrong and you found a fantastic specimen.
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Doesn't look like any egg fossil I've ever seen. I've never seen one that has absolutely no cracks or crushing. The membrane wouldn't fossilize in any preservation. If you found it in New Orleans, I'm not aware of any terrestrial fossils that come from there.

My guess, it's an artifact of some kind. A polished/shaped piece of quartz.

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Guest solius symbiosus

Though I have no experience with verts, If it is non-manmade, I would guess that it is a very well rounded quartz pebble. I see a lot of similar shapes in the Pennsylvanian sandstones of Appalachia; though, not that large.

Can you post some pics that show detail?

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Perhaps this is one of those alabaster/marble eggs you can buy? That would explain two things: The shinny interior where the weathering has been flaked/chipped off (looks like quartz), and the powdery exterior, which is the oxidized alabaster/marble.

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Fossil eggshell (of which I have a number of specimens) has a distinctive texture, which is lacking in your item. I vote for it being an old ornamental alabaster "egg", possibly a relic from an Easter hunt gone awry.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I hope these files aren't too large, but here are 2 pics that show the best closeup detail of the bottom. Thanks.

Though I have no experience with verts, If it is non-manmade, I would guess that it is a very well rounded quartz pebble. I see a lot of similar shapes in the Pennsylvanian sandstones of Appalachia; though, not that large.

Can you post some pics that show detail?

post-730-1219871625_thumb.jpg

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It does not appear to be of organic origin. Here's what fossil eggs look like:

post-423-1219872178_thumb.jpg

post-423-1219872212_thumb.jpg

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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The following is just my opinion,if I seem too strong in my wording,my appologies.It is not my intent to offend.

This is not a egg,the first thing I thought of when I saw it is Moonstone.Some Moonstone has a outer matrix like what you have shown here.The under colour tipped me off.There are also agates that look like that,most notably Snakeskin Agate.

It is missing too many charateristics to be an egg.I see no dimples or anything on the outer surface to suggest it is an egg.If your convinced its an egg,your next step would most likely to take it to LSU and have someone there in the paleontology dept, look at it.

We are all merely curators for the next generation.

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That may be it. I'll take it in and have someone else look at it. Thanks all for your help!

Fossil eggshell (of which I have a number of specimens) has a distinctive texture, which is lacking in your item. I vote for it being an old ornamental alabaster "egg", possibly a relic from an Easter hunt gone awry.
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That is an excellent explanation. Did they really used to make quartz eggs with a different exterior?.. I can't find anything online about it. Thanks

Perhaps this is one of those alabaster/marble eggs you can buy? That would explain two things: The shinny interior where the weathering has been flaked/chipped off (looks like quartz), and the powdery exterior, which is the oxidized alabaster/marble.
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Doesn't look like any egg fossil I've ever seen. I've never seen one that has absolutely no cracks or crushing. The membrane wouldn't fossilize in any preservation. If you found it in New Orleans, I'm not aware of any terrestrial fossils that come from there.

My guess, it's an artifact of some kind. A polished/shaped piece of quartz.

Although I agree that it does not look like a true fossil egg, egg membranes can and do indeed fossilize. See FRANKIE D. JACKSON, ALBERTO GARRIDO, JAMES G. SCHMITT, LUIS M. CHIAPPE, LOWELL DINGUS, and DAVID B. LOOPE, 2004. ABNORMAL, MULTILAYERED TITANOSAUR (DINOSAURIA: SAUROPODA) EGGS FROM IN SITU CLUTCHES AT THE AUCA MAHUEVO LOCALITY, NEUQUÉN PROVINCE, ARGENTINA. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(4):913–922

There is also potential for egg membranes to be preserved in amber. A single probable hummingbird egg (no membrane preservation was mentioned) was recently discovered in Dominican amber and although rare for sure, since this can occur, membranes could certainly be preserved in this way. See GEORGE POINAR JR, CLAIRE VOISIN, and JEAN-FRANC¸ OIS VOISIN, 2007. BIRD EGGSHELL IN DOMINICAN AMBER. Palaeontology, Vol. 50, Part 6, 2007, pp. 1381–1383

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Guest N.AL.hunter
That is an excellent explanation. Did they really used to make quartz eggs with a different exterior?.. I can't find anything online about it. Thanks

I didn't mean that the man-made eggs has an interior of quartz.. it just appears to be "quartz like" when freshly broken. Alabaster can look 'quartz like' or crystalline when freshly broken and not weathered yet to form the powdery exterior. Same with marble. Some marble can be very crystalline looking when freshly broken, but develops a powdery exterior due to oxidation and reaction with moisture.

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Although I agree that it does not look like a true fossil egg, egg membranes can and do indeed fossilize. See FRANKIE D. JACKSON, ALBERTO GARRIDO, JAMES G. SCHMITT, LUIS M. CHIAPPE, LOWELL DINGUS, and DAVID B. LOOPE, 2004. ABNORMAL, MULTILAYERED TITANOSAUR (DINOSAURIA: SAUROPODA) EGGS FROM IN SITU CLUTCHES AT THE AUCA MAHUEVO LOCALITY, NEUQUÉN PROVINCE, ARGENTINA. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(4):913–922

There is also potential for egg membranes to be preserved in amber. A single probable hummingbird egg (no membrane preservation was mentioned) was recently discovered in Dominican amber and although rare for sure, since this can occur, membranes could certainly be preserved in this way. See GEORGE POINAR JR, CLAIRE VOISIN, and JEAN-FRANC¸ OIS VOISIN, 2007. BIRD EGGSHELL IN DOMINICAN AMBER. Palaeontology, Vol. 50, Part 6, 2007, pp. 1381–1383

Interesting! Thanks for the info.

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Gotcha, very interesting.

I didn't mean that the man-made eggs has an interior of quartz.. it just appears to be "quartz like" when freshly broken. Alabaster can look 'quartz like' or crystalline when freshly broken and not weathered yet to form the powdery exterior. Same with marble. Some marble can be very crystalline looking when freshly broken, but develops a powdery exterior due to oxidation and reaction with moisture.
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It does not appear to be of organic origin. Here's what fossil eggs look like:

wow auspex i havent seen that black one, what are the details about it?

thanks for sharing.....im very envious!

"Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"


We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.

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wow auspex i havent seen that black one, what are the details about it?

thanks for sharing.....im very envious!

Don't be envious; that one is my greatest regret. It belongs to another paleoornithologist; I missed owning it by one day :( , which just kills me! It is from the Fox Hills Fm. in S. Dakota (that's right, Cretaceous). It is undescribed. That's OK though; I just bought eleven smallish feathers from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China (the "feathered dinosaur" site). :D They are genuine, and as far as I can tell without putting them under a microscope, they are bird. As soon as they get here, I'll post them.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I am not sure about this egg without testing it or at least looking at it very close. With that said, when I was a mere boy living on a farm here in Texas, we had chickens, they were used for eggs and meat, but mostly eggs. To get them to nest we used glass eggs that were coated with porcelain to fool them in to doing this. This looks just like what we used. That was over 50 years ago.

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I am not sure about this egg without testing it or at least looking at it very close. With that said, when I was a mere boy living on a farm here in Texas, we had chickens, they were used for eggs and meat, but mostly eggs. To get them to nest we used glass eggs that were coated with porcelain to fool them in to doing this. This looks just like what we used. That was over 50 years ago.

Mystery solved!!!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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The problem is that it is 1/3 the size of a chicken egg. This it the only issue with it being a wayward egg from a turn of the century easter hunt or a dummy laying egg. I think it's just a perfectly shaped, pretty, rock. Any other thoughts? Thanks for all your input!

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Interesting quandry to be sure! I'm reasonably certain that it is not a fossilized egg because the surface texture just isn't right. Even the leathery 'reptilian' eggs have a distinctive texture as do bird eggs. What is IS, on the other hand, I can't even guess. Interesting regardless!

Here's a picture of an Oligocene bird egg from the White River badlands that I collected a few years ago. Check the surface texture for comparison:

gallery_330_105_75362.jpg

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

Fruitbat's PDF Library

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Cool. Thanks!

Interesting quandry to be sure! I'm reasonably certain that it is not a fossilized egg because the surface texture just isn't right. Even the leathery 'reptilian' eggs have a distinctive texture as do bird eggs. What is IS, on the other hand, I can't even guess. Interesting regardless!

Here's a picture of an Oligocene bird egg from the White River badlands that I collected a few years ago. Check the surface texture for comparison:

gallery_330_105_75362.jpg

-Joe

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Here's a picture of an Oligocene bird egg from the White River badlands that I collected a few years ago. Check the surface texture for comparison:

Dang, Joe, you're killin' me! All I have from the W.R. Badlands are a half dozen shell frags from the anthills. Every time I see that egg of yours, I drool all over the laptop!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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The problem is that it is 1/3 the size of a chicken egg. This it the only issue with it being a wayward egg from a turn of the century easter hunt or a dummy laying egg. I think it's just a perfectly shaped, pretty, rock. Any other thoughts? Thanks for all your input!

Docno, does it have the weight of a stone its size? If so, it is probably a man-made "pretty rock" and like others have said, quartz is your best suspect. Given that you found it in New Orleans, it is most likely a man-made aritfact of the city's rich history and not a fossil.

I found this man-made egg last weekend.

post-420-1220721394_thumb.jpg

post-420-1220721403_thumb.jpg

I'm sure it could have stirred some debate, but there's no doubt it's man-made.

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

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