Jump to content

Thinking I found a fossil? Colorado


northnjhiker

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone.  I found this extruding from a hillside on Green Mountain near Golden, CO. It is in the Green Mtn Conglomerates formation. Lots of little petrified wood around.

 

Color or is white with some slight red marks. There are small pores but different than what I see with a lot of pet wood. Any help would be great. 

https://imgur.com/tpVtjNR

https://imgur.com/tfv8lO3

https://imgur.com/qFxG2c7

https://imgur.com/FKz5Mr0

https://imgur.com/wwYlheE

 

geology info:

https://imgur.com/tiAh2ok

 

 

Edited by northnjhiker
Change title
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could you post the images here? As the site is archived, it is important that third party links for photo IDs not be included as those have a tendency to expire, removing the context of the thread for future readers.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posting pictures here for posterity, when the imgur links expire. 

 

To me, it looks like a mineral vein running through the rock. Quartz or calcite.

 

qFxG2c7.jpg  tfv8lO3.jpg

 

FKz5Mr0.jpg  wwYlheE.jpg

 

tpVtjNR.jpg  tiAh2ok.jpg

  • I found this Informative 3

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for reposting. I thought the vein might be quartz filling an old crack in the bone. Like it does with gaps in petrified wood. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, northnjhiker said:

Thanks for reposting. I thought the vein might be quartz filling an old crack in the bone. Like it does with gaps in petrified wood. 

Nothing in those pictures to suggest that the piece is bone, I also don't think quartz can be found along with bones at least in the way you are saying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see any evidence of bone or wood in the photos. Of course it's not the same as seeing it in person, so I can't be 100% sure, but from what I can see I'm inclined to say it is purely geological in origin.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree it's a wide mineral filled vein in a rock, not a fossil. See the spider web veins running next to it? Here's a good example of quartz veins in rocks.

quartz veins.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to say I disagree with the opinions that it is a rock. I’m a pretty seasoned geologist and this is not a rock. Can you guys give any sort of info in what rock you think it is? And reasons and visual clues? Thanks 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a landscaper, and it looks like a rock to me. :)

I'd say it was near the oven that that gneiss was baked in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Rockwood said:

Oh and it lacks the cubes, rays, and circular structures to be wood.

Buddy what does that even mean? I said it wasn’t wood. And gneiss has a lot of small sand grains, often mica, metamorphosed into a very hard rock. This is crumbly. It also has no mica or meta- sand grains. How did you come to your conclusions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder, given the smooth surface, striations and direction, if this might be a slickenside. I'll tag @ynot on this. 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, northnjhiker said:

Buddy what does that even mean?

To me it means it has no diagnostic features of it being petrified wood.

It simply looks like metamorphic rock to me. I didn't say it was gneiss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like a fine grained sandstone or siltstone, with a mineral vein in it.

I do not see any indication of bone (or other fossil) here.

  • I found this Informative 3

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

From the photos posted, definitely looks geological to me rather than biological.

  • I found this Informative 1

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about science books.........

Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a mineral vein running through a rock. No fossil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, northnjhiker said:

I’m a pretty seasoned geologist and this is not a rock.

A seasoned geologist knows that most fossils are rock. This sentence contradicts the claim it makes. It's in itself a non-sequitur.

  • I found this Informative 3

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, northnjhiker said:

I have to say I disagree with the opinions that it is a rock. I’m a pretty seasoned geologist and this is not a rock. Can you guys give any sort of info in what rock you think it is? And reasons and visual clues? Thanks 

Can you please give us more details to support your statement that this is not a rock. All we have to go on are a few photos.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen heavily mineralized bone with mineral veins in it. The only easy way to tell it was a bone was that it was an identifiable bone element from a known vertebrate fossil site. Busted up this would just look like a rock. This looks like probable bone to me. It doesn't look like any of the rocks described from the site and certainly not sandstone or siltstone. We all opine based on our experience. Perhaps we have someone on here with experience with Triassic or Jurassic bones? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@northnjhiker

Better images of the cleaned, interior broken surfaces (posted here) would be useful to a better understanding.   

 

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Plax said:

I've seen heavily mineralized bone with mineral veins in it. The only easy way to tell it was a bone was that it was an identifiable bone element from a known vertebrate fossil site. Busted up this would just look like a rock. This looks like probable bone to me. It doesn't look like any of the rocks described from the site and certainly not sandstone or siltstone. We all opine based on our experience. Perhaps we have someone on here with experience with Triassic or Jurassic bones? 

Do you have any photos of mineralized bone with mineral veins in it to show us? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@northnjhiker can you take some zoomed in shots so we can look at it more closely? Also, do you have any petrified wood samples from the same area to make a comparison? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/16/2019 at 7:21 PM, Bronzviking said:

Do you have any photos of mineralized bone with mineral veins in it to show us? Thanks.

google "agatized dinosaur bone". Several picks there with mineral veins. I think that the OP has it right though that it is a mineral filled crack in a bone. the OP has already stated that he  knows pet wood and it's listed from the site. the literature cited also lists dinosaur bone as being found there.

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/16/2019 at 7:50 AM, Plax said:

We all opine based on our experience.

I for one am glad to have your experience around in times like this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...