justrocks Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Hey everybody, self taught newbie here I'm afraid so go easy! I've been fascinated by the geology at my workplace as it was so different to where I grew up and elsewhere I was familiar with. For a long time I picked up coloured cherts and metalliferous lumps of quartz. Vague ideas to polish up/tumble some but never really did much with them, just dressed flower beds with them etc. A couple of weeks ago I found a piece of lepidodendron root which was so obviously a bit of fossilised plant and easy even for me to Id it made me look again at some funky stones I'd collected/seen. Cut to the chase, here's some pics: the last is a close up of a piece swown in the first, i sliced it open thinking it was a strange bit of very old tree. its not like any tree ive seen, certainly not like the nice root slices ive seen. thx for yr time and take it easy all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I think that these are rocks and minerals. If you give more explicit information about the provenance some of the experts on here could probably help you better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Don't be scared...its only science! Lol Paul ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Ha I bet you guys say that a lot. I'm kinda hoping yr right though. Plex, what do you base yr opinion on? Can you link me to similar shaped rocks? I've worked with the land all my life and these have puzzled me for years. Never seen anything the same. Please forgive my ignorance and feel free to correct anything I'm wrong about, am new to the field and self taught. Found on an small igneous intrusion within a sedimentary plain. Site was mile or so inland but has been coastal in prehistory. Site was mined for lead alloys way back when and metal is clearly visible in many rocks. Most exposed cliffs are homogeneous and igneous/metamorphic. These guys were found on and around what look to me like sedimentary layers. Friable with bis of shell/coral visible. The white banding through some rocks dissolves after being exposed. Probably in about a year. Sorry about pics, ill put better ones up Paul, I have a good knowledge of the scientific method and the truths it gives us. It was the eyes and teeth which made me pause. 'Were falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 it was slicing through a rock and finding this that brought on the cold sweats though. Can anybody show me a mineral which has hollow inclusions like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 I don't have any pictures to share but the crystaline structure of the object pretty much precludes it being a fossil. If you can take a clear photo that will enlarge perhaps its identity will be more obvious. Igneous intrusions often have valuable minerals associated with them. Am sure we have a few folks here with mineral expertise on the Fossil Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Hey guys only a month late sorry here`s a better image, not focused on same piece but its in the background. ill get some up of a spherical mass very similar to the one i chopped up. thx again, zig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Hey hope everyone is good. Managed not to destroy this one yet, have tentatively id`d it as a corprolite. Can anyone tell me how to rule it out? Stay well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 I apologize if you said, and I missed it, but where are all these from? Geographically, and geologically. You mentioned a lycopod root; was it in the same strata? "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...
justrocks Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Hey auspex, I`m on the east coast of scotland, pretty near the sea. I`m afraid i don`t remember where i found the funky sphere or others like it. Ive spend years collecting strange rocks in and around my home and only recently realised some of them might be fossils. They are all from an area spanning a couple of square miles for sure. The stigmaria on my other thread i found on the surface of a recently ploughed field behind my house. The geological survey maps i've looked at have the surrounding area labelled as the same strata. I need to pay hard cash for more detailed ones lol. What's puzzling me now is the archeological paper recently published detailing a neolithic settlement right next to where i have found what i think are tempskya trunks. (i`ll get some pictures up!) Not impossible I know, considering the small size of the igneous intrusion - but surely not likely? take care all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Hey hope everyone is good. poss.corp.2.jpg Managed not to destroy this one yet, have tentatively id`d it as a corprolite. Can anyone tell me how to rule it out? Stay well Actually I think rock is sort of the default ID until it's proven coprolite. Bits of bone or recognizable plant material are good indicators. The external shape, with the exception of a few well known forms, is usually not reliable. In this case I think the sharp angular structures within it are a strike against. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Thx for reply rockwood, I didn`t find it like this, its been through an hcl bath Do you know how can i identify, or indeed rule out, bone? I have a little x300 microscope and a bunch of broken up bits which might help matters. The bits i`ve cleaned up look very like the polished up pieces often seen for sale as jewellry. Ive also got what I think are bones which i found very close to my quillwort root. just need to check if they are silicified, they look quite too recent but who knows? thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 To me, it most resembles weathered puddingstone. 1 "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...
justrocks Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 hi again, thanks for yr time as ever. thats a good name for a stone lol. According to the ever reliable font of wisdom, what`s termed pudding stone is characterised by rounded pebbles. My funky stone has nothing round in it. Upon closer inspection it has ridged striations on its `base`. Reminds me of a member of equicetaceae or what we call horstail, one of the most `primitive` vascular plants. Really regretting dousing it in acid. i`ve seen those ridges on some others in my collection. not definitive by any means i admit, but i still cant rule out petrified poo not at home atm unfortunately so i cant look at the other suspects. thanks again and stay well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Puddingstone comes with all manner of clastic forms. Fossil plants, however, do not. "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...
Ludwigia Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Photo in post #7 may be mica. Just a wild guess, since the photo, although better, still doesn't show much detail. Does it peel off easily or is it hard as steel? Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 hey folks, thanks for looking. Auspex you are absolutely right it looks very clastic, especially in those pics. I had long assumed that that rock, and the others like it i have, were formed by geological processes and deposited here by glacier. Only recently after finding other fossils nearby and cutting a few open did i consider a more biological origin. I`m thinking a carnivorously derived coprolite would have little plant material within but i might get lucky i suppose. Do you know what characters to look for in broken up and mineralised bone? So far i have a sponge/honeycomb internal structure and what looks like what might have once been articulated joints. Book/paper recommendations all good too. Nope not mica im afraid ludwigia, i would recognise its distinctive structure immediately. That pic has got some weird flash thing going on, (taken in my greenhouse, far too late at night lol) i`ll try and find a better one. The `puddingstones`, of which that is a small fragment are pretty similarly composed. They are mainly composed of solid, white to grey `bone like` chunks and fragments bound in a more friable reddish brown substrate. The chunks grade from siliceous to calcareous with the silicaceous parts taking a nice polish and the chalky being attractively marked. There are also other minerals in there including lamellar veins of metal and various jaspers/cherts/chalcedonys. Definitely some crazy metamorphic mineralisation going on round these parts, way back when. Heres another view of that chunk in post 7: thx all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 A few more shots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justrocks Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 (edited) Sorry for the pic dump if its considered poor form - no single photo can capture everything thanks all and stay well Edited May 29, 2015 by justrocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 (edited) This looks like the kind of rock that needs a good visual examination. As for coprolite... Comprolites are not easily identified. As someone else mentioned, it is best labeled a rock until you gave good solid proof of its coprolite-ness. Some of the pieces in the photo in past number 14 do look like the ends of horsetails, but the pic is fuzzy enough to not make a certain decision. Still a rock full of plants does not a coprolite make. Edited May 29, 2015 by jpc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 In this endeavor indicators against, such as strait line geometry, tend to outweigh positive indicators. You may want to try a term that I noticed on here recently dubiocoprolite I think it was. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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