Robertcerfer Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Gor this in a lot an am skeptical that it's an egg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullsnake Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 I'm kind of seeing encrusting bryozoan, or maybe even sponge. Short of that I'd say concretion. What is the size, and do you know where it came from? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robertcerfer Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 It's an inch and a half in length and just under one inch in thickness. The lot said Patagonia but I'm am not so sure to believe it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Leptopius duponti; a fossil weevil cocoon from South Australia. LINK "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
painshill Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Auspex has it, but it’s not possible to definitively say it’s Leptopius from Australia since there are a number of related species which make cocoons like that. In Australia they come mainly from the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia but are abundant along 300 miles of the South Australian coast up to the West Australian Border, and for about 40 miles inland. We know in some cases that they are from Leptopius because occasional cocoons have been found with identifiable pupal remains still inside. Most of the cocoons from Australia are in the region of 100,000 years old, but some are much more recent and so heavily “lithified” that they have a fossil appearance. The Australians call them “bunny slippers”, “fairy shoes” or “fairy clogs” and they are frequently erroneously sold as “fossil wasp nests”. Here’s one of mine: The adult beetle spends its life in trees (generally acacia or wattle), eating foliage. It lays eggs in the tree and when they hatch, the grubs come down the trunk and burrow underground where they feed in the roots of the tree. At maturity, they secrete a sticky substance that causes sand and fine gravel to stick to them and this hardens to form a protective camouflaged case in which they can safely pupate. After a few months, the adult beetle emerges after making a hole in the case and the cycle starts again. Leptopius duponti The majority of the cases are probably Leptopius duponti, but other large members of the genus are doubtless also responsible and some are believed to be from cockchafers (Scarabaeidae) and other beetles that habitually pupate in the ground. But similar items do occur elsewhere and have been reported from the Gobi Desert. Here’s another, which is from early Eocene deposits on the Edge of the Uintah Basin at the extreme NW of Colorado (sorry about the poor picture, which was quickly taken for cataloguing purposes): Similar scarabid items have been reported from Patagonia [Genise, J.F., and Bown, T.M. 1994. New Miocene scarabeid and hymenopterous nests and Early Miocene (Santacrucian) paleoenvironments, Patagonian, Argentina. Ichnos, 3: 107 - 1 17], so I wouldn’t rule out the attribution being correct. Roger I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who [Rudyard Kipling] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taogan Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 I agree with the beetle cocoon identification, but Painshill has a good point, this type of case for a pupating beetle larva could be from anywhere. I have some from Spain. Many beetles still pupate this way, the Pachnoda beetles from southern Africa that I keep as pets make similar cases as do many other species. If it was sold as Patagonian then there is a good chance that it really is from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 I really am blown away at the depth and breadth of the knowledge on this forum--amazing! -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Whatever Genus or species it is, its Purdy dang cool. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 I really am blown away at the depth and breadth of the knowledge on this forum--amazing! -Ken Agreed. I've never even heard of such a thing. My eyes have always been open the beauty in this World. But now that im learning more about things that most do not see or know it's like my eyes were never fully open. Amazing. ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 WoW, seriously. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
podstawek Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Sorry for digging out a 2-year old thread, but this thread actually helped me identify a few "rocks" I found in Fuerteventura desert strip, so I thought I would post the picture for future reference, as my specimens look slightly different. Place: Fuertenventura island, a strip of desert south of Corralejo. When found: January 2017 These were found lying loose in desert sand. Size: 1.5-3 cm long, 1-1.5 cm in diameter. Openings are very round, as if drilled. The material is very hard, as if solidified long ago, but could probably be crushed using just hand force (I haven't tried). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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