KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 (edited) Hey everyone!! So I posted last week (sorry had the wrong link there for a minute!) - but my mom found some interesting things in our creek and it was suggested they might be nautiloid fragments! So obviously we went back to look for more. We found a ton of rocks that are similar. I think a lot of what we found might just be concretions but here are a few that seemed interesting to me and I'd love another opinion on! They all have some sort of hole/dimple which I'm not sure is something that occurs in concretions? If it helps - they were all found in the creek bed in Groveland, Livingston County, NY and a geologist friend said she believes the rock on the creek bed appears to be shale slate. I'm at work without a ruler right now, so I had to use the Mary Anning post card I have on my desk for scale haha. It is 6 inches (15.24 cm). I promise I'll get a ruler soon if I'm gonna keep asking for help!! Thanks in advance!! Edited July 9, 2019 by KelseyM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranzBernhard Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 "Where is the ID-flowchart??!!" Strange!! I have absolutely no idea, what these could be. Have never seen anything like this before (But I have not seen very much...). But I would also like to know! Btw, I am getting a little artifact vibe! And thanks for the multiple views with lettering, very helpfull! Were they found stuck in the bedrock or loose in the creek? And I don´t think concretions, too. Franz Bernhard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 7 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said: Were the found stuck in the bedrock or loose in the creek? They were stuck in the rock! I brought my hammer and chisel to break them loose. You can kind of see in this picture there's one right in the center, and right above it is where I had just broken one loose. There are lots we left behind because I realized it was going to be an awfully heavy bag full of just rocks to carry back home if it turned out they weren't anything special! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 21 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said: Have never seen anything like this before We found this worm burrow too Although it's over 8 inches long so I think the name is not quite fitting unless worms used to be ginormous ...did worms used to be ginormous?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 They appear to be concretions. They are common in many of the Devonian shales in NY. Sometimes, they have fossils in them. Most of the time, they don't however. 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER 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 More sharing options...
Jeffrey P Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I agree- concretions, though the last one could possibly be a trace fossil (burrow?) of some sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 2 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said: They appear to be concretions. They are common in many of the Devonian shales in NY. Sometimes, they have fossils in them. Most of the time, they don't however. Thanks! That's what I had thought, but the holes in the center were odd to me and I hadn't seen them before on ones I knew for sure were concretions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranzBernhard Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Thanks for the extra infos, @KelseyM! Ok, sure not artifacts than ! @Fossildude19, thanks for the hint! They look indeed like somewhat extreme Moqui Marbles. The dimple/hole in their center seems a little bit strange. Did they form around roots or something similar? Franz Bernhard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 @FranzBernhard we have actually found artifacts and other interesting finds all throughout the yard up closer to our house! My grandpa owns all the land that his house, my aunt's house, and my mom's house are on. And his extended family owns the land beyond that. My aunt's house (used to be my great grandpa's house) is actually considered a historical landmark by our local historical society! Our land was along a well used trail for the Iroquois people that used to live there. Many arrowheads and Native artifacts are found in the area. My great grandpa dug up an Iroquois skeleton that was buried in a sitting position. He contacted our very small local museum to figure out what to do with it - I think it may have been returned to the Iroquois Nation. Recently, my grandpa had a major pipe break in his front yard and when they dug it up to fix it - they found a lot of artifacts that suggest a home existed there long before his did! There's an archaeologist looking to start another dig somewhere in the area and my aunt has been trying to convince my grandpa to have them come check it out. Sorry for a bit of an off topic rant, I just feel very lucky to have all this history where I live! Small towns often have some of the best history - a few of the most interesting historical things near me are the Torture Tree, the Treaty of Big Tree (portions of Big Tree still exist in our local museum), and the Ambuscade (a monument for the Boyd and Parker Ambush - relevant to the the Torture Tree) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 @Fossildude19 Is there a way you suggest to carefully crack a few open and see if there's anything inside? Or should I just whack it with a hammer haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I would try carefully with a hammer. Some light taps may open them. You could also try the Freeze/Thaw method. 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER 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 More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 54 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said: Thanks for the extra infos, @KelseyM! Ok, sure not artifacts than ! @Fossildude19, thanks for the hint! They look indeed like somewhat extreme Moqui Marbles. The dimple/hole in their center seems a little bit strange. Did they form around roots or something similar? Franz Bernhard Not sure exactly how they formed. I'm sure there are many different forces that cause different concretions to form. Geology is not my forte. 1 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER 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 More sharing options...
fossilnut Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Neat Concretions. Especially like "B". Interesting finds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Sometimes concretions will begin to form around something organic, for instance the Mazon Creek concretions, but will not complete the process if there are not sufficient amounts of the material forming them available from the surrounding sediment, as can be seen in many concretions where the fossil would have obviously extended beyond the edge of the concretion. The available mineral(s) may have been drawn to the center of mass of whatever the organic core material was originally, preserving only a ghostly interior 3D image of it. If it had a hole or tube centered in its mass then that feature would have been preserved, while other details were outside of the area of preservation. So you end up with a sub-steinkern-style type of concretion with one or maybe two distinct details that are visible but not enough to identify the organism. Or, it could be strictly geological. 2 Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 I was mulling over this post in the back of my mind all day, mostly because of the holes in these concretions. I I have seen this sort of thing before, but not in sedimentary rock. I didn't remember where until I got home. I have fulgurites from from the Sonoran I found while working for Raytheon. This is a crazy hypothesis, but could these be fossils of fulgurites? I'll post pictures tomorrow as they are on display on my desk at work. If anything, will make for interesting conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KelseyM Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 38 minutes ago, LabRatKing said: I was mulling over this post in the back of my mind all day, mostly because of the holes in these concretions. I I have seen this sort of thing before, but not in sedimentary rock. I didn't remember where until I got home. I have fulgurites from from the Sonoran I found while working for Raytheon. This is a crazy hypothesis, but could these be fossils of fulgurites? I'll post pictures tomorrow as they are on display on my desk at work. If anything, will make for interesting conversation. It's probably a pretty slim chance, but it's fun to entertain the idea! I've got a few in water now so I can try to freeze/thaw them. I decided that I needed to sacrifice "b" from the pictures because if I am gonna find anything interesting, it seems the most likely. My coworker is a bit sad about it because he liked that it looked like a poop emoji! I'll be back in a few days with updates (or sooner if I can't wait that long and decide to smash them with a hammer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 10 minutes ago, KelseyM said: It's probably a pretty slim chance, but it's fun to entertain the idea! I've got a few in water now so I can try to freeze/thaw them. I decided that I needed to sacrifice "b" from the pictures because if I am gonna find anything interesting, it seems the most likely. My coworker is a bit sad about it because he liked that it looked like a poop emoji! I'll be back in a few days with updates (or sooner if I can't wait that long and decide to smash them with a hammer) Let them soak for at least three days. If the material is not porous, though, the freeze/thaw will do nothing. Water needs to soak all the way to the center for it to do any good. Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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