olddude Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Holly smoke! now I know why I should have listened to my teachers when I was in school. I am so far over my head in this fossil and rock thing that my eyes hurt thinking about it. I do mostly river hunting here in VA. and until I came across this site my life was normal, now I'm not sure about anything. It seems now I have more questions than answers. Walking the banks of the James river looking for arrowheads I always seem to come home with more different looking rocks than I do arrowheads. Picking up rocks that look like they may be arrowheads but are not got me to wondering. One question is, is there a fossil hunting for dummies thingy anywhere? One of my sons likes to look for shark teeth and I go with him some times to walk the river banks. One of my questions is, do all real shark teeth look like the pretty little black and grey colored things he always brings back or could a tooth be completely turned to stone like river rock you see along the bank of a stream. Also is it possible to find a tooth in a sediment layer, like so called mud rock that is shaped exactly like those pretty ones that everybody else finds but is just a blob of the same material that its encased in? I was digging a couple buckets of of that sediment layer to use for planting material when I noticed something strange looking in the soil. It was getting dark and we had to leave to get back. A day or two later when I dumped out one of the buckets I noticed bone fragments and what looked to be parts of some kind of vertebrae. Out of the three buckets I collected there was over a bucket full of these bone like pieces and a lot of pieces that had the shape of teeth but were just a mass of the grey sediment looking material. Hopefully I will get to go back to the site later to find out what I have destroyed and to see what else may be there.......but more carefully this time I promise. I'm going to try and get some pics of some of the things but my camera battery is dead and I have to get a new one. When I do post pictures it will be in the fossil ID page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplomado Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Yeah, post pics! Sound interesting. Sometimes teeth are encased in matrix (such as rock). Shark teeth may be mineralized (have original material replaced by different minerals, which will change their color) but they won't look exactly like a regular rock... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 12, 2019 Author Share Posted September 12, 2019 (edited) 52 minutes ago, aplomado said: Yeah, post pics! Sound interesting. Sometimes teeth are encased in matrix (such as rock). Shark teeth may be mineralized (have original material replaced by different minerals, which will change their color) but they won't look exactly like a regular rock... How about these: Edited September 12, 2019 by olddude add pic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 12, 2019 Author Share Posted September 12, 2019 Or these: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 12, 2019 Author Share Posted September 12, 2019 This material is brittle and will break easily what do you do to help stabilize it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Looks like suggestively shaped rocks. Keep looking for other characteristics than shape. 2 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Looks like a lot of sedimentary rocks. Not worth stabilizing since there are no fossils in them as far as I can tell. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Very hard to tell from the pictures but looks like a bunch of rock? RB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 13, 2019 Author Share Posted September 13, 2019 19 hours ago, JohnJ said: Looks like suggestively shaped rocks. Keep looking for other characteristics than shape. Another brain dead moment....... but what is, "suggestively shaped rocks" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 3 minutes ago, olddude said: Another brain dead moment....... but what is, "suggestively shaped rocks" ? Rocks that are shaped (via random, natural, geologic processes) like (suggestive of) teeth, bones, or other fossils. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 13, 2019 Author Share Posted September 13, 2019 1 minute ago, JohnJ said: Rocks that are shaped (via random, natural, geologic processes) like (suggestive of) teeth, bones, or other fossils. Thanks, I'm just trying to figure this all out. I just wish I had more time when I filled those buckets to have been able to look at that slab of material that broke off the main portion of bank before throwing it in the buckets. I just picked up what broke out of the bank and threw it in the buckets. Most of the bigger chunks went into the first bucket and when I pulled out that big tooth shaped piece in the pic it just looked odd. The piece in the second pic came out all one piece. At first it looked like a big piece of the same grey material but I rinsed it off and I could see that the outside layer was not the grey sandy looking stuff but it had a tan colored shell like layer about maybe 1/4" thick around most of it. The tan looking stuff seemed a little harder so I started picking out the grey stuff that was on the inside and what is in the pic is what is left. It was larger at first but several pieces broke off from the main part as I was trying to pick out the grey material. In the third pic there is an odd looking piece, center top that I picked out the grey stuff from around the tan shell material. Also a little lower and to the right there is a small < shaped item. You can see the shell like material covering the grey stuff, to me it looks like the end of some kind of tail bone section. It's hard to see in those pics but I'll get a couple new shots of those two pieces today and maybe a few more of other pieces of what look like parts of vertebrae. How would I be able to figure out the time period these layers are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagurus Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 10 minutes ago, olddude said: I could see that the outside layer was not the grey sandy looking stuff but it had a tan colored shell like layer about maybe 1/4" thick around most of it. I think it is likely that the outside tan colored "shell like" layer is a result of an iron stain on the surface of the rock, and penetrating slightly into the rock. Rocks sure can be fascinating, can't they! Start the day with a smile and get it over with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplomado Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 There is a chemical called paraloid (dissolve crystals in acetone, then paint on the fossil) a lot of people use to stabilize fossils. Don't worry about mistaking weird rocks for fossils- there are a lot of really weird rocks... I've been fooled before for sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddude Posted September 13, 2019 Author Share Posted September 13, 2019 1 hour ago, aplomado said: There is a chemical called paraloid (dissolve crystals in acetone, then paint on the fossil) a lot of people use to stabilize fossils. Don't worry about mistaking weird rocks for fossils- there are a lot of really weird rocks... I've been fooled before for sure... Thanks, I read something about that. Also don't you need to heat up the specimen first to drive out any moisture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 On 9/12/2019 at 9:49 AM, olddude said: One of my questions is, do all real shark teeth look like the pretty little black and grey colored things he always brings back or could a tooth be completely turned to stone like river rock you see along the bank of a stream. Not all fossil teeth will be black and grey. The color is derived from the minerals that replace the shark tooth. Fossil teeth will seldom (if ever) look like the rock they are in. On 9/12/2019 at 9:49 AM, olddude said: One question is, is there a fossil hunting for dummies thingy anywhere? This is the best site for fossil hunters from beginner to expert that I know of. Within the stratification of soils that become sedimentary rock there will be differing hardnesses. Some "rock" will be very loosely consolidated while other rock (next to the first type) can be very hard. This is determined by many factors including mineral type and concentrations, age, how long and how deep it was buried, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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