Jump to content

Hollow Reptile Egg Fossil


Mousehead

Recommended Posts

Hey guys!

 

I'm curious about this egg fossil I've got here – it's been preserved with its hollow shell intact and sort of crystalized.  I know there are loads of these eggs out there, but I've never seen one like this before so I'm wondering how unusual it really is.  The other egg seems to be solid when held under a bright light.  Here's what I know about it:

 

– Ophidienovum sp

– From a snake, I think

– Tertiary/Miocene

– From Mainz, Germany

– Eggs are 2cm long

 

Would love to hear your input!

top.jpg

closeup1.jpg

whole.jpg

inside.jpg

solid1.jpg

solid2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forum. :) 

 

Certainly an interesting item, but I have my doubts this is a fossil egg as opposed to a calcite(?)-filled nodule. Our fossil "eggs-perts" should be along shortly to give you a much more definitive opinion! 

 

I'm hoping it is an egg, but I usually see them with more crackled texture.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too get the geological rather than biological feel from this one. We are blessed with having some good "eggs-ports" as Kane mentioned so I await their input on this.

 

Where did you get this item? Was if something you found or purchased?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey thanks!  You people are fast.  This was something I purchased.  If it helps, for scale, the eggs are about 2cm long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look here you can see some other specimens of Ophidienovum eggs, they look pretty similar imo. What are the fossils in the matrix, gastropods?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lots of these on the net. 

Often found in matrix with little gastropods, too.

Image result for ophidienovum

I think they're real. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll start off by saying that I have no experience whatsoever with fossilized eggs though, as you'll see, this won't keep me from adding in my two cents. :P

 

Many turtle, lizard and snake eggs that I've come across are not hardened with calcium carbonate but tend to be rather thin leathery/plasticy membrane shells. I wonder if the filled egg once buried and on its way to becoming a fossil may completely decompose away leaving a biologically produced "vug" for lack of a better term which may then be filled with a calcite material (either as a hollow form or a solid)?

 

Again, completely theoretical on my part coming from a complete lack of experience with these fossils but guessing at the taphonomy that might produce such a representation of these little eggs.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These look remarkably similar to agate nodules, even the smaller "snails" in the matrix pieces.

I can not see a reptile egg retaining this shape as a fossil, because as Digit said, they are soft shelled eggs.

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

ophidian eggs:finely striated,heteropolar(elongate)

bird eggs have a slight resemblance to dinosaur eggs

Cote: from the side

Dessus:from above

turtle egg:oval,smooth

eclos: hatched

lithology: lacustrine marls,micritic carbonates,the greenish ones with mammal remains & bone debris,white marls with charophytes

and ostracods

Bouxwiller is actually a pretty famous locality,much  lik eg.Issel.

The Cenozoic geology of the Upper Rhine graben is pretty well known .

BTW:

(yes,I know it says "dinosaur",but the scheme might apply to most amniotes(if not all))

 

 

douvcalcitlptttrymjjpwillist.jpg

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could be snake eggs but I don’t know much about them. If they are then the crystallization is pretty cool!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...