Fossilized Finger? Probably Not..

[Trilobiting]

While I was browsing for some fossils on eBay, this one caught my eye. The seller described it as a "fossilized human finger". Probably not a finger, is it a concretion? Hopefully, nobody gets tricked into buying it, skin is rarely ever fossilized. Otherwise, it'd be bone.

[Oxytropidoceras]

I would say that it is a sandstone pipe-like concretion. Possibly, it might be formed around a fossilized borrow. For examples, go look at "Sandstone Pipes" and "Geopic of the week: Sandstone pipe" at https://arkansasgeological.wordpress.com/tag/sandstone-pipe/ .

What I find remarkable is the amazing diversity of rocks (meteorwrongs), a number of which do not even remotely look like a meteorite, that are sold as "meteorites" on Ebay. To see how crazy people's imagination can get, go see "A Photogallery of MeteorWrongs" at http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/meteorwrongs.htm .

Your, Paul H.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Oxytropidoceras

[bone2stone]

[Auspex]

Seeing the familiar in odd natural objects is a propensity common to all humans. Some jump to a conclusion without regard to likelihood or physical laws. Critical thinking is the antidote.

[Oxytropidoceras]

Auspex wrote:

"Seeing the familiar in odd natural objects is a propensity common to all humans. Some jump to a conclusion without regard to likelihood or physical laws. Critical thinking is the antidote."

Quite true. Go see “Mimetoliths” by R. V. Dietrich at http://stoneplus.cst.cmich.edu/mimetoliths/ and http://condor.cmich.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p1610-01coll1/id/3445 and “ Pareidolia” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia.

Yours,

Paul H.