uncoat Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Good hello, i have been collecting small bone fragments from a creek near my home and they seem to be fossilised but not to stone. I assume that they are mammal fossils from the last ice age but does anyone have any tequnices i can use to tell if they are fossilised? I have heard of people finding things like mammoth bones that are about the same as unfossilised bones. Is this correct? Any info or input? Thanks, Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Owens Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Good hello, i have been collecting small bone fragments from a creek near my home and they seem to be fossilised but not to stone. I assume that they are mammal fossils from the last ice age but does anyone have any tequnices i can use to tell if they are fossilised? I have heard of people finding things like mammoth bones that are about the same as unfossilised bones. Is this correct? Any info or input? Thanks, Nick Welcome to the forum. I've used the "light a match to it" test. If you get any smoke & odor it's not fossiled. Where did you find them? -----"Your Texas Connection!"------ Fossils: Windows to the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncoat Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 Welcome to the forum. I've used the "light a match to it" test. If you get any smoke & odor it's not fossiled. Where did you find them? These were found in the small town of Forest Grove, Oregon. I have heard of that test before, I will have to try that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyquest Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Bones that are really mineralized are pretty obvious. They look like a bone but feel like a rock. They're much heavier than bone, they clink when you tap them, and they're frequently a different color from normal bone, but not always. They also sometimes have a bit of "matrix" stuck to them somewhere, as if they were encased at some point in sandstone, limestone, etc.The problem bones are the ones that may be old but aren't really mineralized. I then tend to go by whether they seem partially mineralized, and where they were found. If they were found in a river, and they're not very mineralized, and they're not from an extinct species, then I would tend to leave them where they are. If, on the other hand, they were found eroding out of strata of known age, or maybe in a cave or somewhere where there wasn't much change to mineralize, I might decide to reluctantly add them to my personal baggage in life. A point - this doesn't involve bone, but the "Whiskey Bridge" locality near Bryan, Texas is well known to be of Eocene age and all the shells found there are tens of millions of years old and they're fragile, original shell material, unreplaced by any other minerals. The reason I don't use the "hot needle" test on things I find is because it wouldn't really help me decide whether to keep something. It might help decide if something is mineralized, but it still doesn't tell you anything about what it is or how old it really is. I prefer the "like, love, leave" test. Do you "like" the thing you found? Start walking away from it and see if it calls you back. Imagine life without it - everything OK? Keep walking. Do you "love" it? Take it with you. Otherwise, leave it. Nice answer. That's how I met my wife! Havn't tried sticking her with a hot needle yet though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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