Looking For Opinions On What I Believe Is A Petrified Finger

[JohnJ]

33 minutes ago, Jdl said:

Well then feel free to tell me what it is since you are the expert 

 

@Jdl   I don't think it is chert.  It might be quartz...but I really think it is a calcite speleothem.  Have you tested it in a small cup of vinegar or muriatic acid solution?  If it is calcite, it will bubble.

[jikohr]

I get how frustrating it is to find out your prized specimen isn't what you think it is. It's happened to all of us. The uncanny things rocks can erode/form into don't help. But that's what the forum is for, an unbiased opinion based solely on the pictures and data provided. Nobody knows you (unless you're really well known in the field and advertise it), so that doesn't factor into the opinion. Nobody is getting paid to contribute. Believe me I feel ya, but an unbiased opinion especially from people with a lot of experience is always the best route to go.

 

Also most of the fossil experts and enthusiasts I've met are country boys (that's were the fossils are found), so believe me that has nothing to do with anything.

[FossilNerd]

1 hour ago, Jdl said:

I'm just some stupid country boy 

Take it from another stupid country boy… it ain’t a finger or a fossil. 

[Bone Daddy]

I get this frequently with rocks that are supposed to be meteorites. Some folks can't absorb new information to correct erroneous assumptions. 

 

I've had people swear up and down that their piece of river rock was a meteorite, that I was an idiot, and that I was part of some conspiracy to cheat them of the fame and fortune of their historic find. Bearing in mind, they find me and contact me wanting my opinion because they think I am an expert - then I suddenly become a cheat or a dummy when I don't agree with their fantastical idea. 

 

It's quartz or chert. I find weird rocks like that all the time. I've found 100 fingers in the Peace River. Some alien skulls and DB Cooper too.

 

Chalk this up to the decline of STEM education and the American cultural trend of doubling-down on wrong information. And I'm no credentialed academic snob, but you gotta know when to admit you're wrong and somebody else with more experience might know better. Don't look at it as being wrong, look at it as an opportunity to learn something new.

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Bone Daddy

[Desrosiers1718]

I have a flint nodule somewhere that looks like a finger, usually the first chapters in most fossil books show pseudo fossils ,  rocks that look like fossils but aren’t,  flint nodules that look like feet,  obsidian that has fractured into a shell like pattern,  not fossils just rocks.   People I guess are stuck in there ways, more interesting to say it’s a finger I guess.   

[Jdl]

On 5/3/2023 at 7:04 PM, Bone Daddy said:

I get this frequently with rocks that are supposed to be meteorites. Some folks can't absorb new information to correct erroneous assumptions. 

 

I've had people swear up and down that their piece of river rock was a meteorite, that I was an idiot, and that I was part of some conspiracy to cheat them of the fame and fortune of their historic find. Bearing in mind, they find me and contact me wanting my opinion because they think I am an expert - then I suddenly become a cheat or a dummy when I don't agree with their fantastical idea. 

 

It's quartz or chert. I find weird rocks like that all the time. I've found 100 fingers in the Peace River. Some alien skulls and DB Cooper too.

 

Chalk this up to the decline of STEM education and the American cultural trend of doubling-down on wrong information. And I'm no credentialed academic snob, but you gotta know when to admit you're wrong and somebody else with more experience might know better. Don't look at it as being wrong, look at it as an opportunity to learn something new.

 

 

 

I would love for you and everyone else to be able to see this with your own eyes and then tell me it's quartz 

[JohnJ]

On 5/3/2023 at 4:46 PM, JohnJ said:

 

@Jdl   I don't think it is chert.  It might be quartz...but I really think it is a calcite speleothem.  Have you tested it in a small cup of vinegar or muriatic acid solution?  If it is calcite, it will bubble.

 

Test it.

[Bobby Rico]

3 hours ago, Jdl said:

I would love for you and everyone else to be able to see this with your own eyes and then tell me it's quartz 

I suggest then if your that sure. Why don’t you take it to a local museum with a  Paleontology or a Geology department but be prepared for a disappointment.

[Desrosiers1718]

Or post it on an Archeology or Anthropology forum ,  I’m sure they have studied enough ancient human remains to know a rock from a finger.   Again prepare to be disappointed.   

[doushantuo]

the "Speleothemic" line of reasoning appeals to me,and intuitively feels right(aka "rootsicle")
"ferric root-associated stalactite"

[Bone Daddy]

If I had a dollar for every time I've been down this line of reasoning, I'd be a gazillionaire.

 

I'm out. How do you mute or block in this forum? I can't find it.

 

Edit : nevermind, I found it.

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Bone Daddy