Looking For Help Identifying A Herbivore Tooth Found In West Kootenay Area Of British Columbia

[ArrestedBeauty]

Hello All, 

I am not only new to this group, but I am new to fossil/rock hunting . I live somewhere , where there was much ice age melt glacial activity and I have hundreds of fossils. at the risk of sounding insane, I found this one in my pocket when I woke up one morning . Have others similar to it, but no idea how I came to be in possession of this one in particular. Any help is appreciated...

I have other angles of the same, but I am unsure of how to shrink the file size of the photo. 

 

Thank you

[Fossildude19]

Hello, and welcome to the Forum.

 

 Unfortunately, your item is a river polished quartzite/chert rock, and not a tooth. 

There is no enamel present, no root structure, no tooth morphology, and no well defined chewing surface. 

You have interesting looking rock.  

Regards, 

[caldigger]

Do all the items you find appear in your pockets in the morning?  Maybe you have a little paleontologist fairy putting them in there when you sleep.

[abyssunder]

It's just a pebble, I'm afraid...

[RickNC]

Not a tooth. 

[ArrestedBeauty]

I think I posted incorrectly. I was trying to put up a new request for identification and mistakenly replied to someone elses. for that I apologize...That being said, I am from Western Washington, and I belive it to be a plant fossil. Yes, I am aware of the likelihood of this type of rock to form fossils, but I have so many of them from the same 120 foot of waterfront, that it seems unlikely that I am so off the mark that none of them are. Here are more (what I belive to be) fossils from the same location. These ones, I am confidently guessing at being crinoids; but I have no real world knowledge/practical experience to be any more accurate.

[Fossildude19]

I have to say, I'm not seeing anything remotely crinoid looking in the white rock.  

All I am really seeing is natural cracks/splits in the rock.  It looks more like a metamorphic rock to me. 

 

Can you try to take a more high resolution picture of the rock close up, and mark what you think are crinoids?

 

[ArrestedBeauty]

I will try to enlarge the key features of the image separately. My photography skills are somewhat lacking when it comes to high contrast-close up details. 

[Fossildude19]

Crinoidal limestone usually has bits and pieces of disarticulated crinoid stems (columnals) and articulated stems. 

I am not seeing any of those features in your rock. 

 

Please look at these images, and let us know if you see anything resembling them in your item. 

Regards, 

[ArrestedBeauty]

These do...

[Fossildude19]

I don't see anything resembling crinoids in these, either.

2 and 3 (counting from the left) may have something in them, but the pictures aren't sharp enough for me to distinguish what. 

[ArrestedBeauty]

Have to upload one at a time. 

16 hours ago, caldigger said:

Do all the items you find appear in your pockets in the morning?  Maybe you have a little paleontologist fairy putting them in there when you sleep.

They do not, but I do sleep walk...quite proficiently; thank you. I also have less than "mainstream" spiritual beliefs...that being said, hard as I try to keep certain topics/key phrases from being so apparently, it is at times, difficult. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that there is always a lesson...good/bad/indifferent...in the end, said lessons' importance become apparent when the time comes to find/fulfill one's predestined purpose. I had never seen, let alone touched a fossil before I began finding these...

I also have a Coydog. They are as of yet, an unrecognized breed. Regardless, he is 50% coyote (high breed as they call it). Cerberus is my 4th hybrid . My first one was a rescue when I was in high school, but I was forced to let them take her to the pound given her seemingly inability to be trained. it happens all the time with this specific breed. They are smarter than canines, and as such, if said human is unable to correctly ask for what they want, the hybrid acts unintelligent, and high strung. After my grandfather passed away, I found 1 picture of his dog from childhood for whom he spoke of often and with great joy...Rex was a coy dog. 

 

So, yes Caldigger...things do seemingly "appear" in my pockets at times...to be clear, metaphorically speaking only.

[ArrestedBeauty]

40 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

I don't see anything resembling crinoids in these, either.

2 and 3 (counting from the left) may have something in them, but the pictures aren't sharp enough for me to distinguish what. 

Ok, epic fail so far...ugh. Will try one more time, then I will have to unearth (he he he) my dslr and then play the "file swap" game. please do not misunderstand, I don't mind. Finding the fossils (assuming that at least is correct) was the easy part....#feelingdumb...I sent wrong photo of #5.

[Fossildude19]

Sorry,... no fossils there. This looks like quartzite or chert. 

Regards,

[ArrestedBeauty]

Nope, unfortunately I will have to wait and get pics on dslr. then I can create an album to be looked through . I have at least 50 to 60 rocks that all have similar characteristics to the ones I've posted (e.g. color of host rock, shape, and a white patch on oneach of their protrusions.) The only thing that I am able to equate the shape to, is a modern poppy flower. filed in half and flattened. They all seem to also have little "ninja turtles" some of only a cm in height, look like little mutants. Sorry, best description I have. 

[tmaier]

That looks like a quartzite nodule. The spots are mineral concentrations. This type of rock is very unlikely to contain fossils because they normally form as viens and nodules in metamorphic rock of volcanic origin. You will see some intereting minerals focused in some spots, like this, and sometimes some crystal growth.

It's great that you are taking an interest in paleontology, as we all are at this site, but you should spend some time looking over what fossils look like, and what type of fossils are likely to be found in your area. The rocks you show above show very little indication of being fossils, so you need to train your eyes to pick up the clues of certain types of fossils. All beginner collectors go through the phase you are going through now (we have all been through this), and trying to spot what details make a fossil takes a while to learn.

So does anybody out there know what types of fossils she might find in her area?

If there are no fossils in your area, you might want to cultivate an interest in minerology, because the rocks you are showing seem pretty interesting from that point of view. That green color in the first rock looks interesting... malachite? I'm not expert on minerals.

To find fossils, you are looking for rock of sedimentary origin, and what you are showing are not of that type.

[ArrestedBeauty]

[tmaier]

That one looks like a volcanic rock called basalt, The white stuff is likely mineral deposits in the voids (called inclusions).

[Fossildude19]

This picture is very good, as were your last two.

Unfortunately, ... no fossils. 

 

According to this website, King County should have Oligocene aged bivalves and molluscs. 

No mention of mutant ninja turtles.  
Regards,

[ArrestedBeauty]

Thank you all for your kind and definitely informative comments. I feel the need to rest the eyes and regroup. I will be certain that what I am seeing in the rocks are clearly represented in the photos. The reason that I am so sure of the fact that just at least have fossils, is that the red in the photos bleeds out from cracks where in a lot of the things I have found, have wafer thin, brittle materials in them. 

[Fossildude19]

You might consider joining a Rock/Mineral/Fossil group in your area. 

It would put you in touch with locals who know the geology and paleontology of the area, as well as give you a access to otherwise un-collectable places, such as quarries or private lands.

Crystals and minerals take lots of different forms. This could explain a lot of what you are seeing.  

Regards, 

 

[abyssunder]

The last one, as tmaier said, has a good chance to be an Igneous_rock , like basalt is. The large crystals visible in the mass of the rock are Phenocrysts .

[fossiling]

sorry, but the likelihood for fossils in quartzite is way less than 0.0000000000001(add more zeros here) so it is not likely that you will find any fossils in your local quartzite vein, even in hundreds of years of searching.

[Kane]

This may be of some utility for finding rocks and fossils in your area: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/rockhounding#mineral-and-fossil-map

[fifbrindacier]

On 18 novembre 2016 at 3:19 PM, tmaier said:

It's great that you are taking an interest in paleontology, as we all are at this site, but you should spend some time looking over what fossils look like, and what type of fossils are likely to be found in your area. The rocks you show above show very little indication of being fossils, so you need to train your eyes to pick up the clues of certain types of fossils. All beginner collectors go through the phase you are going through now (we have all been through this), and trying to spot what details make a fossil takes a while to learn.

See here what i believed was a very nice fossil of shrimp :