Do you see what I see.... FINALLY!

[InfoHungryMom]

I loved this rock, and I really wanted to find the fossils hiding in it.  It looked like a carved mother and child, or tied bunches of wheat, until I played with it in vinegar.

 

There are lots of things I would love to share visually FINALLY!!!  There is one, microscopic, fascinating hole with something that looks like a “gear” within it.

 

Thanks-

 

Karen

 

[Kane]

Although a bit on the fuzzy side, the "gear" looking piece may be a crinoid ossicle. 

[InfoHungryMom]

[ynot]

This looks like a rock that has had a little metamorphing going on. The pressure and heat that are involved in this often distort the fossils that are in it, which makes it hard to determine what was there.

The "gear" does look like a crinoid bit, as Tim said.

The star shaped piece could be the part of a crinoid calyx.

But it is hard to be sure with the state of preservation in these fossils.

[InfoHungryMom]

Two questions (or so...!)

 

1.  Is the “state of preparation” from my overly (or under) working on it, or was it not a great specimen “from the get go”?

 

2.  Kane- would a boom arm, a barrow lens, and/or a great (OMAX!) microscope make a difference here

[InfoHungryMom]

And this was the rock before vinegar-

[Aurelius]

I think that, IF the small circular object is a fossil (and I'm not convinced), it was never well preserved to begin with.

[KimTexan]

I don’t think it was well preserved to begin with either. That is why I commented in one post about finding better hunting locations that have better preserved fossils. If you’re this excited about these fossils you’ll be ecstatic over ones that you don’t have to work so hard to view or try to ID.

 

The gear looking thing does have similarities to a crinoid fragment, but you would need to remove matrix from the center and edges to help verify that.

If you use acid again you’ll likely eat away fine details. It seems some fine details have eroded or been removed by acid. Not sure which.

I use vinegar occasionally, but sparingly.

[InfoHungryMom]

So save the vinegar for pickling?  

[ynot]

4 hours ago, InfoHungryMom said:

 Is the “state of preparation”

I said preservation not preparation.

It could have been detrimental to place it in acid or it could have been in bad shape to start with.

[InfoHungryMom]

PLEASE LOOK AGAIN-  

OMG- I was showing you the old pictures....  and if you can offer additional info, awesome!

 

Thank you both again, Kim and Kane, for the excellent specimen/image suggestions

[InfoHungryMom]

Thank you for the clarification.  As you know, this is an amazing new world for me.  I have never looked for fossils or minerals-  I didn’t even recognize it as a possible interest!  And- I HAVE chatted with @fossilnut and left messages for the Natural History Society of Maryland (and the rock club that meets there!). Getting there!  However, I do want to learn with my existing rocks and specimens...  

[ynot]

3 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

I do want to learn with my existing rocks and specimens...  

Please keep in mind that some fossils are impossible to identify beyond that.

If You have a sliver of wood (out of context), can You tell if it came from a table, fence, chair or a baseball bat?

[Aurelius]

 

39 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

Thank you for the clarification.  As you know, this is an amazing new world for me.  I have never looked for fossils or minerals-  I didn’t even recognize it as a possible interest!  And- I HAVE chatted with @fossilnut and left messages for the Natural History Society of Maryland (and the rock club that meets there!). Getting there!  However, I do want to learn with my existing rocks and specimens...  

 

The thing is though, there are probably places within reasonable distance from you where really impressive fossils can be found very easily. Surely you'd find that a bit more satisfying than poring over rocks and examining every single feature on the remote chance that it contains a degraded fossil?