Questions tagged [fossils]
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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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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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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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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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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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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.
...
Puzzled
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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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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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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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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 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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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?
user4951
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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Fossil in Chert pebble picked up on a Kent beach
Please identify the fossil in the picture below. size of pebble is around 40mm diameter and the pebble had been broken to reveal the internal structure.
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How Good is The Evidence For Snowball Earth?
Some geologists say there were times between 770 million years BP and 630 million years BP when ice ages were so profound that the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps met at the equator. This is called the ...
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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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Donation Options for Fossil and Mineral Collection
The father of a friend of mine passed away recently. He left behind an extensive collection of fossils and minerals. They include a saber tooth tiger skull, mastodon tooth, shark teeth, tons of ...
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I need help with these geode like rocks [closed]
I found these rocks in my pasture and was excited because I thought I had found some geodes. The rocks were in a sandy bank and looked like eggs sticking out of the bank. I am located in Ness County ...
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What is this stratefied limestone sphere?
What is this stone from the alps of provence?
It's two spheres, one of them is made of at least 25 layers.
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Geological feature - what is it?
Hello,
We were walking in Bundoran in Donegal County, Ireland today and we encountered the geological feature shown in the picture (from above from cliffs and from very close up at beach level). We ...
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Fossil from North Norfolk coast, UK
This palm-sized rock is from the beach at Eccles-on-Sea (North Sea coastline).
I can see four types of material:
A brown, slightly translucent, 6cm tubular fossil(?) that I can mark with a steel ...
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What is this strange fossil I found?
I found this weird fossil rock and I am wondering if anybody could help identify what could have made the imprint in it or what kind of rock it is?
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What is the oldest fossil on Earth?
What is the oldest fossil ever found on Earth? Where and when was it found? What was the oldest fossil with a brain with 2 hemispheres ever found?
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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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What kind of tooth is this?
Please help me identify this tooth and the era its from. I found it in Panama City Beach Florida. Its cold and hard when i bite it. It looks very old. Possibly a shark tooth?
