Questions tagged [fossils]
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(Fósil hallado en Zapala, Neuquén) Fossil found in Zapala, Neuquén, Argentina
(Alguien podría decirme qué es?)
Could someone tell me what it is? Zapala is in Western Argentina, east of the Andes Mountains.
enter image description here
English translation via Google Translate
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Are These Leaf Fossils Found Near a Texas Lake Shore?
I recently came across some intriguing specimens near a lake shore in Texas and am seeking your expertise to help identify them. The objects have a few characteristics that lead me to believe they ...
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Aligator or Dinosaur Fossil skin type rock
The more I looked at this stone and touched it, the more this thing looked like it was wrapped in some kind of reptile skin. It may just be a random rock. More photos if needed. Does this look like ...
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How quickly can coral fossilize?
On a trip to Honduras a few years ago I visited one of the islands off its north coast with a friend and went to a section of it mostly with nothing but residences which looked far less visited by ...
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Life on Earth previous to us
I've seen in several places that there seems to be an extinction cycle on Earth of approximately 27 million years. I've read this here:
Life on Earth wiped out every 27 million years (but we've got ...
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Who can it belong to? fossil tooth
**Tooth was found in Baltic Sea, near Lithuanian coast, **
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How old are Pecten fossils in general?
Many years ago, I found a piece of rock on a lakeside in Switzerland (see picture below).
I think that it could be a "fossil" from some Pecten species (do you agree?).
My question is: how old such ...
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What other areas of the planet might be rich in Mesozoic-era fossils that have yet to be explored?
China is a region rich in sedimentary rocks from the Mesozoic period and incredible discoveries about dinosaurs have been made there since the 1990s.
I was wondering which other areas of the planet ...
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Regular-ish chipings in slate - weird weathering, hewn or a fossil?
When hiking in the Moselvalley (on the Calmont, to be precise) I found a slightly rhomboid piece of slate measuring about 10 by 11 cm, with a thickness of ca. 2 to 4 cm.
As can be seen in the first ...
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How can I learn to spot fossils and fossil-bearing rocks on the Jurassic coast?
Due to a pleasant change in my circumstances, I have been to Lyme Regis several times recently, and it seems as though I'm going to be a regular visitor over the next few years.
As a former biologist ...
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Could this be a tooth or a fossil, looks like a molar [closed]
Found at shore off Genoa, Italy. My kids really think it’s a molar of some kind..
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Is this a fossil?
Found this on open heath land close to RAF Honington, Suffolk, UK. Its about the size/shape of a cherry tomatoe cut in half.
Thanks
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Is this a fossil or something anorganic?
So, i found a weird structure in a piece of jurassic limestone. It is cylindrical and roughly one cm in diameter, enters the stone on one side and leaves on the other. Under the microscope, you can ...
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Has there ever been a case where we have found what appears to be a prehistoric fossil but have no way of dating it?
I find that when ever I learn of a new fossil, the age of said fossil is always mentioned. This perplexes me given how intuitively rare it seems to have radioactive material to date a formation. I ...
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What materials are fossils made of?
I was reading on fossilization and I came across petrifaction. Are fossils that take the shape (have the shape) of the original organism made of only stone or iron? Can there be a fossil made of any ...
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What is the difference between permineralization and replacement
I am reading on the petrification process. I found that there are two processes which are permineralization and replacement. I am not sure I fully comprehend the difference between them. I wonder if ...
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Which trilobite species are these?
Asking for a friend. These would probably fit better on archeology exchange, but as far as I know that kind of site does not exist yet.
First specimen, friend suspects it's some kind of Proetus.
...
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Will the fossil record ever be complete enough to see inside punctuated equilibria?
It is generally believed that the time over which speciation occurs is too short (~10,000-100,000 years) for our museum collections to include many transitional forms between species. (Transitional ...
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How long ago was the first limestone formed?
It is readily apparent from the fossil record that the first limestone was laid down hundreds of millions of years ago, but how long ago was the very first limestone formed? It could be approximately ...
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plant fossil or trace of water?
I've found this rock at the altitude of 2500 meters.
Is it a plant fossil or trace of water?
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Natural Gas fields as power sources
Natural Gas fields as the name suggests are a source of natural gas which in turn are a major source of energy for almost every economy.
Recently in news is Gateway to Hell of Turkmenistan, a natural ...
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What is this fossil? What is this crystal?
My daughter found this fossil while walking through the Swabian Jura, in Southern Germany.
She asked me about it, but I have absolutely 0 clue about geology.
The crystal part is 3cm in diameter, but ...
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Is the Talus (or Astralagus) the most frequently recorded fossil mammal bone?
I was once told by a paleontologist that the talus (or astralagus) bone is one of the most frequently observed fossils among mammals. Can anyone verify if this might be true?
Because of the density ...
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Are there any rock recognition practices or games?
I'm a complete beginner in fossil collection but from my understanding I should mostly look at sedimentary rocks for fossils. However the problem is that rocks that I see in real life are not the same ...
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What are some effective approaches to enhancing fossils in amateur found rocks?
My stepson found this rock on the shore of Lake Michigan and gave it to my son who loves fossils.
I'd like to really bring out those fossils.
What are some techniques that I can try that won't ...
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Fossil ID: possible fauna fossil, from Perlis, Malaysia
I found this fossil while doing my fieldwork in limestone area. Description below may help to identify it.
Location: NW Perlis, Malaysia (Setul Formation). Hilly Area.
My Observation:
Have a curly ...
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What is this fossil found in flint in Kent?
My 7 year old son found this fossil whilst cracking open flint in Deal, Kent.
The fossil (assuming it is) looks like scales/cells/shell and is chalky. The oblong lines are raised and well defined and ...
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What is deepest fossil we have found?
Deepest as in has had the most sediment above it. Obviously it has to be exposed to be found but it's still considered deep if its previously been covered by sediment. I should mention im not looking ...
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What would people drilling through Mount Everest find?
I am interested in knowing what kind of fossils we would find if we were to drill horizontally through the mountain and what we would find if we were to drill vertically. Would we find anything ...
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What is the time period of these chalk/clay layers?
These limestone-clay rocks are very common in the Alps, they come from weather changes.
How many years does it take to make one of the rock bands? 7 years, equivalent to an el-nino type event? 1000 ...
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Dating recent skeletons with radiometric dating techniques
Can we use radiometric dating techniques on recent skeletons from, say, around the year 2000 and so on and get the same result as the recorded date of death of the owner of the skeleton? If yes (or no)...
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Are marine fossils in the mountain happens due to lower sea levels?
https://9gag.com/gag/aBme0M2
This one says it is
I am not sure whether to ask this in geology or biology.
How does marine fossils show up in mountains?
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What is this fossil? [closed]
While walking in a state park yesterday in the Chattanooga, TN area we came across a rock that looked like this. Is it some kind of holdfast or washout from cement work? (There is an old reservoir ...
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Looking for videos/GIFs of petrification/permineralization
Do you know of any good animations, videos, or GIFs of petrification/permineralization? For some students verbal and written explanations don’t work, they don't always visualize well. So it’d be ...
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Is there a massive drop in quality of Cretaceous vs. Triassic dinosaur fossils?
One thing that still blows my mind about dinosaurs is the massive timeline. Relevant to this question are the time periods:
Triassic Period (252.17 to 201.3 million years ago)
Cretaceous Period (145 ...
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How was the onset of the Cambrian period dated?
What dating method was used to determine the beginning of the Cambrian, and what was its margin of error? Was only one fossil dated, or were a number of similar fossils used?
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Have fossil-containing gastroliths been found inside other fossils?
This article describes gastroliths ("stomach stones"). It says that gastroliths have been found inside the rib cages of fossilized creatures such as dinosaurs. It also says that gastroliths sometimes ...
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Identification of Iguanodon and Maiasaura
What are some good ways to distinguish between Iguanodon and Maisaura fossils, or even just pictures of the two dinosaurs?
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Have fossils ever been found in the asphalt lakes of Trinidad and Venezuela?
La Brea tar pits in California are the result of ancient oil seepages and famous for the fossils of extinct animals which were trapped in the tar. The asphalt lakes in Trinidad and Venezuela are also ...
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Continuous production of amber by trees in one location
In which well known amber location did trees produce amber for the longest continuous period of time, roughly how long was it, and was it long enough to see signs of evolution at work in any of the ...
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What geographical features facilitate amber fossilization?
Image source: Wikimedia.
There seems to be a few places in the world where amber (fossilized tree resin) can be found in large quantities:
Amber can be found in many places around the world ...
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Can hippopotamus fossils be found all along the Nile?
The image below shows their historical range (red) and current range (green) of hippopotamuses:
Image source: Six Surprising Facts About Hippos, 2014
Hence my question...
Question: Can hippopotamus ...
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Is there any significance of lacustrine gastropoda fossils regarding paleoenviroment interpretation?
How to interpret lots of gastropoda fossils seen in lacustrine marls? Do they indicate any paleoenvironment conditions? Depth, temperature, chemistry, ph?
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What is this (possible) fossil from the triassic/jurassic boundary?
My son recently found this:
while walking at Waterloo Bay in Northern Ireland. It looks (to my untrained eye) like it could be a plant fossil. Is this correct? If so, is it possible to tell anything ...
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What periods of the fossil record are most lacking in specimens?
What parts of the fossil record are most lacking in specimens? That is, if you were to trace the evolution of a modern mammal (humans, for example) from abiogenesis to now, which periods are the most ...
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What exactly is ammonite?
I miss the definition of ammonite. In my opinion, many authors confuse the term "Ammonite" and "Ammonoid". Ammonoids (Ammonoidea) are large group of cephalopods including for example goniatites (...
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Curious natural patterns on the surface of basalt blocks that make up the sidewalk
During one of my walks through the city streets, I noticed that some basalt blocks that make up the sidewalk have in their surface some very curious natural patterns:
The photos above was taken at ...
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Is this a fossil we found in a store? [closed]
We found this rock at a mineral and jewelry store. The gal wrote down what it was and we cannot find what we think she wrote on the internet anywhere. She wrote Mcstrodlite.
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I have found this fossil tooth, could it be pliosaur ? Or maybe theropod?
Lenght: 10 mm, striated, circular cross-section
Site: Brno-Hády (limestone quarry), Moravia, Czech republic, central Europa
Age: Jurassic, oxford
The site is a good source of fossil shark teeth, ...
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Fossil or Beef Limestone?
I found the below sample on Monmouth Beach near Lyme Regis and I am unsure if it is a fossil or simply beef limestone. The beef limestone is from fibrous calcite layers within a shale (known as shales ...
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