Pinkmustard Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 Hello! We went fossil hunting in North Texas about a month ago and found these oddly shaped rocks. Two of the three really have me scratching my head and wondering if we found something cool or just oddly shaped. Found in a shale creek bed, where paleontologists recently found a really neat fish specimen from the Cretaceous period (skull and vertebrae). We also found several ammonites and concretions (crab). they were fairly easy to pull up out of the changing creek bed, found while hunting for concretions and turning over large bits of shale and rock. I was curious if anyone had any idea of what they could be, if they are anything. The first one is round, with a knob, and a hole in either side that doesn't look like it goes through but looks like it could have been connected at some point. It's fairly smooth. The second is too defined to just be a random rock, but I have no idea how to go about identifying it. I thought maybe coral (but it's smooth) or maybe bone? The third was in the same area as the second and was picked up by my 5 year old as a "tooth". I'm pretty sure it's just a rock. I will post more pictures in comments #2 #1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmustard Posted December 26, 2016 Author Share Posted December 26, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmustard Posted December 26, 2016 Author Share Posted December 26, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmustard Posted December 26, 2016 Author Share Posted December 26, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmustard Posted December 26, 2016 Author Share Posted December 26, 2016 I can't upload #3 from my phone- I guess the file size is too large. I will retry later when I'm at my desktop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 Welcome to the Fossil Forum! What You have are called concretions and they are not fossils. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vieira Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 I don't see any fossil there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birddogski Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Fossil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Looks like a piece of weathered limestone. There may be fossils in it but I can not see any in this picture. Keep looking, they will show themselves to You. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisk Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Keep in mind concretions sometimes form around shells and organic debris. The one with a knob is suggestive of an cephalopod shell (the knob is a smaller concretion that merged with it). You can try breaking them open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmustard Posted December 27, 2016 Author Share Posted December 27, 2016 Thank you for the clarification. I did find a concretion that has part of a crab in it, so maybe this is something like that. I just thought the shape was really interesting. Any my suggestions on breaking then open without damaging what is inside? I've looked up YouTube videos that suggest chipping away at the outer shell With a tool, but it looks like it would be really easy to break whatever could be inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_gotta_rock Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 Before you break anything, any chance they are artifacts of some type? I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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