Glass like egg - fossilised or petrified?

[NikTait]

Solid glass-like egg found in the Blackheath sandy formation outside of London, which was laid down under a shallow coastal sea early in the Eccene Epoch and overlies Paleocene Thanet sands. Found about a foot deep, with various shark teeth and shells surrounding. 

 

The egg looks like a normal hen's egg, still with some shell on it, but it's now rock solid - on one of the videos you can hear me tapping it. There's also something showing inside the egg. The shell is definitely natural / real. 
 

No idea what this is or how the egg could now be made into some sort of glass like structure - thoughts appreciated!

[Mark Kmiecik]

You should capture a few stills in .jpg and drop them in your post. Links get lost over time and this may mean nothing to those who view it in 10 years.

 

I have no idea what it may be. I never saw anything like it. Is that actual eggshell or just something that looks like it? I get a man-made vibe from this overall.

[Mark Kmiecik]

Thanks. Definitely interesting. Let's wait for a few others to chime in. It's the weekend and most members will be out fossil hunting, so be patient. 

[Rockwood]

I'm fairly confident that this essentially a man-made egg. They are used in poultry farming. Nest starter or something like that. 

[Fossildude19]

Cropped and contrasted:

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Looks like glass with a thin, decorated ceramic coating to me.

To create a false egg to encourage hens to lay as Dale suggested. 

Must have looked quite convincing back in the day.

[North]

My guess would be that someone made cast in a egg with resin or something similar.

[NikTait]

The shell feels very authentic and not at all ceramic. There's also parts where the inner substance has leaked out through cracks and then hardened - see the photos. You can see the small beads of what looks like water, but is actually now solid like glass. And the same at the bottom - as if it's cracked and the innards have come out a bit.  And why would there be some sort of embryo looking weirdness inside a fake egg...?

 

[Rockwood]

This area in Texas has many glass balls in creeks and rail beds. I believe they were used in some sort of industrial process. The texture is almost identical. 

[Rockwood]

1 minute ago, NikTait said:

And why would there be some sort of embryo looking weirdness inside a fake egg...?

Impurities. It would make no sense to bother purifying the molten glass more than is necessary for this purpose. 

[oilshale]

48 minutes ago, NikTait said:

.....There's also parts where the inner substance has leaked out through cracks and then hardened - see the photos. You can see the small beads of what looks like water, but is actually now solid like glass. And the same at the bottom - as if it's cracked and the innards have come out a bit.  ....

 

 

Someone has blown out an egg and filled it with polyester resin. Some resin has escaped through a crack.
Take a red-hot needle and press it against it. If it's plastic, it will melt and stink. 

Or take a cotton ball with some acetone and rub the "glass". The plastic becomes sticky and comes off a little.

Edited April 27 by oilshale

[jpc]

This is by far the most egg-like thing we have seen since the last real fossil. 

[Rockwood]

44 minutes ago, oilshale said:

omeone has blown out an egg and filled it with polyester resin. Some resin has escaped through a crack.
Take a red-hot needle and press it against it. If it's plastic, it will melt and stink. 

Or take a cotton ball with some acetone and rub the "glass". The plastic becomes sticky and comes off a little.

Edited 32 minutes ago by oilshale

I can also imagine a freshly cast glass molding dipped in ceramic which was hot enough to briefly remelt the surface. It seems like a more scalable process to me. The test result will no doubt be useful. 

[Mahnmut]

I am in the "resin in real egg shell" camp. Will be easy to test.

[Rockwood]

Would the inside of an egg leave a seam like this? 

[Randyw]

If you look on YouTube you will find videos of people doing as @North suggested. They blow out the contents or as much as possible and inject in resin. depending on the effect they want it may be multiple pours. then they open the shell and have an egg shaped resin piece. I imagine when they started to open this one they saw they didn’t get everything out and discarded it. Some of them look really great! There are also posts on Pinterest on how to do it.

Edited April 27 by Randyw

[Randyw]

54 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Would the inside of an egg leave a seam like this? 

It looks to me like they cast the one side but when they cast the other it trapped a bunch of air bubbles under the solid layer. That’d be my guess. I imagine that the inclusion is either something they added that clumped instead of spreading or left over crud when they blew out the shell. I couldn’t say wich…

[Randyw]

Especially look at the ones on bottom left

 

[Mahnmut]

15 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Would the inside of an egg leave a seam like this? 

If you first fill one half and the the other, it will.

 

[Rockwood]

3 minutes ago, Mahnmut said:

If you first fill one half and the the other, it will.

My mother used to make jewelry with dried flowers cast in it that way. Filling an eggshell with it just seemed so ridiculous to me that I hadn't considered it likely. 

[Mahnmut]

If you look closely in the original jurassic park movie, you can see that the amber inclusion on John Hammonds cane was made in a similar way...

I do not know what the OPs egg is, but something cast seems most likely to me.

Maybe it fizzes in vinegar ( the filling, not the shell)and we go back to considering geological origins...

My hypothesis predicts a shell that fizzes with acid and a filling that melts when heated.

Cheers,

J

[Randyw]

4 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Filling an eggshell with it just seemed so ridiculous to me that I hadn't considered it likely. 

I do a little resin work and have seen it done before. If it's done right they make some beautiful pieces. I considered trying it once but egg shaped silicone molds are so cheap and easy to use I  just got a couple and never got around to it.

Edited April 28 by Randyw