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Reptile head?


Matthew Graham

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Found in landscaping rocks around my home.  my son (10 years old) is very interested in it, so I'm trying to help him identify what it is. 

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First of all,welcome to the forum. Strange, I would say scute (strong bone section used as armor in crocodiles and other things) or turtle shell piece but the sides bend down. I'm stumped. Also strange to find a fossil in landscaping rock, though not unheard of. Best of luck iding the fossil, I'm sure some experts with chime in.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Thank you for the kind welcome. The shape of it seemed to me to be very similar to that of a snake head (I raised snakes professionally for over 20 years) but the scales look wrong for a snake... they look more tortoise like. The hole on the side looks very much like where an eye would have been because the scales naturally bend around it. I guess it could also be a nostril opening but the placement back from what looks to be the snout seems too far back. 

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It is a siderite concretion or some similar iron mineral concretion. These will sometimes have lumpy exteriors that resemble scales.

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Just now, Al Dente said:

It is a siderite concretion or some similar iron mineral concretion. These will sometimes have lumpy exteriors that resemble scales.

I agree, that despite its superficial reptile-like appearance, it is actually not a fossil, but a concretion. Interesting find nonetheless. I still save few of my concretion specimens. Oh and by the way welcome to the Fossil Forum.

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17 minutes ago, Matthew Graham said:

So not a fossil at all?

Sadly, no, but an interesting rock . I would have picked it up, too. :)

 

Read more about concretions here.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Welcome to TFF.Nice object,I collect pseudo fossils too,they make nice decorations in the garden and house,yours is

 

one I would have kept.

Yvie

 

 

i

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Kane, thank you for that link... very helpful. Sorry for my laymen understanding but is the conclusion that it's not a fossil primarily because of the type of rock it is... I.e. That kind of rock is not what a fossil would be made of?  I'm trying to give my son a good explanation. 

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That is the so-called "crocodile-skin" pattern.

 

post-420-0-46324700-1378084114.thumb.jpg.5c574fc5d59d4e05429f1eb59c86a827.jpg

picture from here

 

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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22 minutes ago, Matthew Graham said:

Kane, thank you for that link... very helpful. Sorry for my laymen understanding but is the conclusion that it's not a fossil primarily because of the type of rock it is... I.e. That kind of rock is not what a fossil would be made of?  I'm trying to give my son a good explanation. 

I'll give it a whirl... :)

 

One common way concretions form is when sedimentary rocks like shale, limestone, sandstone, etc., erode, releasing minerals like iron (which deposit as iron oxide), carbonates (deposited as calcium carbonate), and silicates. These minerals can collect around a nucleus that can be almost anything: a sand grain, a pebble, or even bits of organic material. This process generally occurs underwater. Layer after layer, these may build up. There are other ways concretions form, too.

 

The difference between concretions and fossils (and some concretions may contain fossils if the conditions were right) is that fossils may be covered in a great deal of sediment and pressure over a long period of time. The original organism decays, but usually the harder parts (like shells, teeth, bones, and exoskeletons) remain only to be replaced by minerals. But, not always! If we consider insects that become encased in amber, that is an entirely different process! 

 

Again, this is not the whole story! There is so much more to know, and perhaps this is one of those great opportunities to invite your son to learn more about fossils by a trip to the library, watching documentaries, going to the museum, and perhaps even going on fossil collecting adventures. If this is of interest to him, and to you, this can be a lifelong journey you take together. :) 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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33 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

That is the so-called "crocodile-skin" pattern.

 

post-420-0-46324700-1378084114.thumb.jpg.5c574fc5d59d4e05429f1eb59c86a827.jpg

picture from here

 

Abyssunder thank you for sharing that example... the thing that really caught my I with the one my son found is the cemetery of what looked to me to be scales or reptile skin. They don't appear random at all but very cemetrical like you would see on the head of a reptile.  Thank you again for helping me figure this out... I'm excited to share all of this with my son!

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