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Newbie...need Help Identifying What This Fossil Is Made Of


lemanie

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I live on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. I found the furthest to left in Kewaunee, WI on top of a large hill, the hill pretty much can oversee the outskirts of the town of Kewaunee. I noticed a rock with a real sparkly luster so I dug it out that's why it has that dirty tint to it (I've tried to get the dirt tint off of it but haven't found the solution). I can't figure out what it is, I was wondering if it is the same as the rock in the middle that I found on the shore of Lake Michigan and just never had the chance to be tumbled from the water and sand to make it smooth like the one in the middle? Also, the rock to the far right...is that a coral that makes up the Petoskey stone. Again, I apologize for silly questions but wanted some answers from people with expertise.

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They are both probably corals and they are usually preserved as calcite. The petosky stone corals (only found near Petosky, Michigan) are often a gray, dirty color and the fossilized honeycomb favosites from the Lake Michigan shore near Milwaukee are white to amber. I believe the colors are due to different mineral impurities in groundwater that precipitate out when the water seeps through the porous calcite..

Falls of the Ohio has some good fossil ID sheets that have both of those corals and several other similar varieties.

Edited by Tethys
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