Coprolites? Acorns? Pyrite going brown.

[Jesamine]

Hi again. My ever dwindling fossil collection, will hopefully survive this ID session.

I found most of these in April 23 amongst cliff fall rocks on the beach in Charmouth UK.

I found the large grey blobbly one on the right in September same place.

There is one that looks like a perfect acorn and some similar. 

The large browner looking one seems to be made up of nutty nodes.

I'm wondering if they are coprolites. I'm sure they were greyer when I found them.

Should I coat these with B-72, should I leave them be or am I imagining fossils that are just funny shaped rocks?

Thanks, Jes.

[SPrice]

  This is from Dinosaur Universe - "When it comes to finding out if a potential coprolite is soft and porous or not, there is a quick test that is often used by the professionals.

 

There is a good chance that if you touch the stone with the tip of your tongue and it sticks, it is likely to be a coprolite, which is made up of calcium phosphate.

 

If you’re not very brave, you can also touch it with your wet fingers to see if it’s sticky, but it’s not as much fun.

 

If the calcium phosphate takes on a harder, denser form, the “tongue test” won’t work. In some cases, a chemical analysis is needed to identify the mineral composition. "

[SPrice]

Your mission, Jesamine, should you choose to accept it, is to determine if the samples you've obtained are coprolites or siderite ... As always, should you be caught in the act of licking the poo, The Fossil Forum will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This email will self-destruct in ten seconds. Good luck, Jes.

[Jesamine]

1 minute ago, SPrice said:

  This is from Dinosaur Universe - "When it comes to finding out if a potential coprolite is soft and porous or not, there is a quick test that is often used by the professionals.

 

There is a good chance that if you touch the stone with the tip of your tongue and it sticks, it is likely to be a coprolite, which is made up of calcium phosphate.

 

If you’re not very brave, you can also touch it with your wet fingers to see if it’s sticky, but it’s not as much fun.

 

If the calcium phosphate takes on a harder, denser form, the “tongue test” won’t work. In some cases, a chemical analysis is needed to identify the mineral composition. "

Thanks. I tried it and not porous nor stuck to my tongue. They are more metallic than rock. 

[Jesamine]

1 minute ago, SPrice said:

Your mission, Jesamine, should you choose to accept it, is to determine if the samples you've obtained are coprolites or siderite ... As always, should you be caught in the act of licking the poo, The Fossil Forum will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This email will self-destruct in five/ten seconds. Good luck, Jes.

Didn't taste like poo either.

[SPrice]

Here's a pic showing very many similarities to your specimens. They do look a lot alike, right. These are called siderites. Iron Concretions without any organic contents. 

 

But don't take my word for it. I'm a newb at the fossil game.

[Jesamine]

1 minute ago, SPrice said:

Here's a pic showing very many similarities to your specimens. They do look a lot alike, right. These are called siderites. Iron Concretions without any organic contents. 

 

But don't take my word for it. I'm a newb at the fossil game.

 

[Jesamine]

3 minutes ago, SPrice said:

Here's a pic showing very many similarities to your specimens. They do look a lot alike, right. These are called siderites. Iron Concretions without any organic contents. 

 

But don't take my word for it. I'm a newb at the fossil game.

Yes they do look very similar. At least they are something. I will keep these as examples and avoid picking them up in future. Thanks.

[SPrice]

11 minutes ago, Jesamine said:

Thanks. I tried it and not porous nor stuck to my tongue. They are more metallic than rock. 

 

 

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!...old British Army and Navy cheer. You're a brave girl.  They do look like they would taste rusty metallic flavored. I hope you had a good  mouth rinsing beverage in hand. I'm having a nice warm Chai Tea this morning @ 745 AM in the western high mountain desert climate.  I lick my fossil sometimes to give me contrast from the matrix for confirmation when in the field. Tastes like salty dirt.

Edited October 6, 2023 by SPrice

[Jesamine]

2 minutes ago, SPrice said:

 

 

Huzzah! Huzzah, Huzzah!...old British Army and Navy cheer. You're a brave girl.  They do look like they would taste rusty metallic flavored. I hope you had a good  mouth rinsing beverage in hand. I'm having a nice warm Chai Tea this morning @ 745 AM in the western high mountain desert climate.  I lick my fossil sometimes to give me contrast from the matrix for confirmation when in the field. Tastes like salty dirt.

It's nearly Beer o'clock here. That is a good idea. I don't find many fossils though. All rocks or debris or something else. I'm learning what to ignore, like anything that I think is a fossil.

[SPrice]

Light bulb moment! Do you happen to have a neodymium magnet?  Try sticking a super magnet ( instead of your tongue ) next time. I promise I just thought of this after the lick test. My family and I went meteorite hunting on the Yelland dry lake bed in Nevada and the clue was " Only meteorites will stick to the magnet...everything else will be a meteorwrong".  Regular magnets may not stick due to weak iron attracting force. Neodymium should stick if there's iron in your specimens. It was a fun trip, I taped the magnets to some Arundo donax canes ...we looked like we were pretending to be metal detectorists. We started finding them when one of my children fizzled out and sat down in a gravel bed which would have been the lake shore.  She instantly said Dad, is this one? BINGO! We all sat in the gravel bed and found meteorites!

Edited October 6, 2023 by SPrice

[SPrice]

7 minutes ago, Jesamine said:

It's nearly Beer o'clock here. That is a good idea. I don't find many fossils though. All rocks or debris or something else. I'm learning what to ignore, like anything that I think is a fossil.

 Guilty...like the guy with only a hammer...everything begins to look like nails. Some of my smaller ammonite finds are just wrinkled rocks. I then put on the readers and or wet it to look for contrast or details.  

[SPrice]

Have a pint on me...it's Happy Fri-Yay!

[Jesamine]

5 minutes ago, SPrice said:

Have a pint on me...it's Happy Fri-Yay!

Will do. Have a great weekend. 

Jes.

[SPrice]

You as well. I just might be here tomorrow.  Kicking back in the wide open spaces...under blue skies... a few thousands of fossils right under my feet in these pics...with peace and solitude far away from the madding crowd.  Next weekend this area of Utah will experience a throng of 318,000 looky-loos driving down to see the solar eclipse.  Massively huge traffic jams expected. Not for me.

 

 

[jpc]

The eclipse should be cool, even if it is only annular.

 

As for the rocks in question... siderite nodules.  

[Jesamine]

15 minutes ago, SPrice said:

You as well. I just might be here tomorrow.  Kicking back in the wide open spaces...under blue skies... a few thousands of fossils right under my feet in these pics...with peace and solitude far away from the madding crowd.  Next weekend this area of Utah will experience a throng of 318,000 looky-loos driving down to see the solar eclipse.  Massively huge traffic jams expected. Not for me.

 

 

Wow. Where to start? Nothing like that here. Jes.

[Jesamine]

4 minutes ago, jpc said:

The eclipse should be cool, even if it is only annular.

 

As for the rocks in question... siderite nodules.  

Thanks. I'm labelling them now. One is so much like an acorn that I was sure it was a nut fossil, but nature is cruel.

[Fossildude19]

Siderite nodules /ironstone concretions.

[(Julia)]

Whatever they are, your rocks are cool as $&@)!

[SPrice]

"Wow. Where to start? Nothing like that here. Jes."

 

On my first trip to this locale I went with what my research suggested - "Search for the rusty brown concretions" .

 

Well, rusty brown to one is chocolate brown to another. The lighter brown ones looked like harder sandstone, the darker looked like chocolate limestone. I picked up the chocolate first.  They are literally below my feet in the pic. The shale on the right is also fossiliferous. 

 

First hammer strike - it opens to reveal some of everything, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, you name it. I stuck with chocolate. Always a good choice, IMO. On a later trip a bigger hammer was need on the lighter toned concretions as they were less crumbly and with fewer cracks. Inside was similar but much better preservation of the fossils. 

 

It's much like your nation's Jurassic coasts - Lyme-Regis, Charmouth, Yorkshire, Whitby - only without the ocean, the stormy weather and lots of beach combers.

A dream vacay for me would be at any of those coasts after a winter storm with a guide to point me in the right direction.

 

[SPrice]

This thread got me started at this locale.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Charmouth is packed with siderite, pyrite and marcasite nodules. 

I think most of these are pyrite. 

[Jesamine]

3 hours ago, SPrice said:

"Wow. Where to start? Nothing like that here. Jes."

 

On my first trip to this locale I went with what my research suggested - "Search for the rusty brown concretions" .

 

Well, rusty brown to one is chocolate brown to another. The lighter brown ones looked like harder sandstone, the darker looked like chocolate limestone. I picked up the chocolate first.  They are literally below my feet in the pic. The shale on the right is also fossiliferous. 

 

First hammer strike - it opens to reveal some of everything, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, you name it. I stuck with chocolate. Always a good choice, IMO. On a later trip a bigger hammer was need on the lighter toned concretions as they were less crumbly and with fewer cracks. Inside was similar but much better preservation of the fossils. 

 

It's much like your nation's Jurassic coasts - Lyme-Regis, Charmouth, Yorkshire, Whitby - only without the ocean, the stormy weather and lots of beach combers.

A dream vacay for me would be at any of those coasts after a winter storm with a guide to point me in the right direction.

 

There are lots of people fossil hunting on the beaches, but it's scary under those cliffs. They creek loudly and constantly throw chucks of cliff down around you and that's on a nice day. 

The walk along the beach from Charmouth to Sea Town under Golden cap is fantastic, but utterly terrifying. This is a photo of my son at the base of Golden cap on a foggy day with a rough sea roaring the other side of us. 

Jes.

[SPrice]

Very "Lord of the Rings" stuff there.  Well composed photograph!

Steve