New Members msal951 Posted May 26 New Members Share Posted May 26 Hi, my family owns property along the Potomac river in Virginia (USA), where we can regularly find paleocene shark teeth in the sandy beach on our land, as well as the odd shell imprint fossil here or there. I was down there today when my 5 year old daughter found a "cool rock" she wanted to show me. She's super into rocks, and we even got her a little rock tumbler last christmas to foster her interest in it, so we're always down hunting for neat looking rocks and shark's teeth. Given the shape, texture, oddly porous nature of this "rock" I wondered whether it was just a neat rock or actually one of the many fossils that can purportedly be found in this area. I have no experience with such things, online searches weren't very conclusive for me, so I figured I'd try asking people who actually know what they're looking at. Did my daughter stumble across a fossil, or is this merely a really neat looking porous rock? We won't be disappointed with either outcome. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellseeker Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 16 minutes ago, msal951 said: Did my daughter stumble across a fossil, or is this merely a really neat looking porous rock? We won't be disappointed with either outcome. Welcome to the Fossil Forum. Great attitude. I also am never disappointed in what I find. Your daughter has a fossil. It is bone, not rock. The more porous a bone is, the lighter it is... and so there is some possibility that your bone comes from a marine mammal, like a dolphin. It could be a rib. There are lots of possibilities. All we can be certain of it that it is a mammal bone. 1 4 The White Queen ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members msal951 Posted May 26 Author New Members Share Posted May 26 Wow! Thanks for the information, she'll be very excited to hear that, I didn't want to tell her it might be a fossil today and get her hopes up, but tomorrow she's going to be jumping up and down. I'm sure I'll have a follow-up hour or two of scouring the beach after this 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patelinho7 Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 Wow, I’m jealous! I want your backyard! Definitely bone, keep looking! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automech Posted May 28 Share Posted May 28 Welcome to the Forum. Congrats to your daughter! If you want an idea of what's found in the Potomac formations, "fossilguy.com" is a great resource. Are you all in the Stratford Hall area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members msal951 Posted May 29 Author New Members Share Posted May 29 On 5/28/2024 at 8:28 AM, automech said: Welcome to the Forum. Congrats to your daughter! If you want an idea of what's found in the Potomac formations, "fossilguy.com" is a great resource. Are you all in the Stratford Hall area? Thanks I'll check that one out, we're a bit farther down towards Hague. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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