Prehistoric decorations...

[joe schmoe]

Next time you buy some slate, make sure to look really closely.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7weom/foss.jpg
Being more excited about the prospects of other fossils being in that piece (and being a closet geologist in another life) I cleaved off 4 big pieces but found no more.

I'll have some updated pics of my tank soon. I've taken out about 25% of the plants - those that weren't doing well. It's starting to look a bit more organized and it's not the mess you see in my tank profile. I'm soaking some wood in a bucket right now, so the tank has a big open space in the middle. Once I've done that for a few days I'll drop it in, try to attach some Java Fern then take some pics.

[dethjam316]

that's awesome!!! what do you know about it?

[joe schmoe]

Looks like a Trilobite to me....or maybe just the imprint. The fossil itself probably remained in the other half of the rock, so they got rid of the useless part and it ended up at an LFS.
http://members.aol.com/condon2/bugs.jpg


Pretty common fossil. Common enough to make jewelry out of... http://www.crystalsandjewelry.com/crystalsnjewelry_images/jewelry/letgotrilobite.jpg

[RENEGADE]

it kinda looks like a imprint of a bolt:p

but its probly a Trilobite....I have a pice of slate with one in it...very cool

[cdawson]

I would take that out, it will dissolve over time and ruin the fossil. You're best off just leaving out of the tank on display.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

If its slate and not shale you should be ok. Slate has been metamorphasized from shale so it is much much harder. Although, its pretty rare to find a fossil on slate. Are you sure its slate and not shale? Shale break apart really easily and will most likely over time splinter off in your tank. It shouldn't dissolve though.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if it was a trilobite it was a very large one. As you see, you can't see the 'spine' of the triobite in the picture. (the raised ridge running down the middle of its back). It's just one side or the other of it's back.

It also looks a bit more like the imprint of a shell. Very hard to tell. Exciting though! I always go fossil hunting. Usually I just find shells, and dinosaur bones. :D

[LMOUTHBASS]

you judt go fossile hunting ? how the hck can you tell what your looking at? how do you know when you find some type of dinosaur bones? lol they all look like rocks to me

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Because I am Diana, super-nerd extrordinaire! I've been obsessed with dinosaurs (next to fish, of course) my whole life, and i've taken a few geology courses. Very very interesting stuff when you learn how to look for it properly.

Heck yeah, i have a huge bag of dinosaur bones i've found on my trips to the badlands. Even a dino tooth! Cool eh? They are real esay to find in the right places. :D

[Danduin]

If I want fossils all I have to do is walk out my front door and look down. Of course most of 'em are corals, horn corals, and shells with an occasional (kinda rare without a little effort) trilobyte. It's kinda neat since I lived most of my life in New England where the oldest thing I used to find were arrow heads.

I have seen many of the type above but I have forgotten what they are so I will have to go down to the local park and look at the display again . . .

I asked, a while back on a cichlid newsgroup about using predominantly fossils as my gravel. It was suggested that I put vinegar on them and if they fizzed do not use them. I would say that 90% of the ones around here are shale and rarely pass the vinegar test so I do not use them in my tank (so much for that idea).

[joe schmoe]

It's slate....HARD slate. Some of the shards are the kind of shape and hardness that prehistoric man could have used to cut meat.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Obsidian glass. :D

Okay I'll shut up now.

[Raf]

:p oh please don't :p

[LMOUTHBASS]

you guys are serious about just finding dino bones huh? - you have a tooth? i thought you had to really dig for this stuff after all its been lying aroiund for millions of yrs - i've always had interest in dino stuff too - i live in boston area so i don't think in MA we had lots of dinos? anyone know anything about thast in my area?
i thought you had to go out west to find anything
isnt dino bones worth something too? maybe to a museum or no

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Large bones would be worth something, yes. Complete skeletons, yes. But when you go to the badlands and you scour the hills, you will find tiny fragments of bone that have eroded out of the hillside. The largest I've found is a bone the size of my finger (the largest one i've kept, that is ;) ). The tooth is very small, the size of your pinky finger's nail. They look like tiny peices of rock, but when you look closely, they are pourous. Look like petrified wood- and often you find that too. The little peices that have been laying on the surface for a long time will be bleached by the sun- and a pinky white color. The peices newly exposed will be dark and rusty colored. Sometimes purpley. The tooth is glossy though because of the enamel. So cool.

The farthest east i've been dino hunting is the badlands in south dakota. There are lots in montana, some in arizona (think grand canyon area), and lots in alberta (canada). These are for dinosaurs though, you can find fossils pretty much anywhere you have old sedimentary rock. Check it out in your area- its so fun to do!

[LMOUTHBASS]

one thing tha always amazes me is the way people can asses how old the bones are ! also how do you know if it's dino bone or some pre historic animal ? also those discovery channle "walking with dino's" shows are awesome - i just know nothing about fossils but it is very interesting

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

The level of earth that the bones were found in tells what age they are. Another reason why bones you find eroded out of the hills are worthless/useless. You don't know where they came from.

It's true- it is posisble that the bones came from some sort of mammal. But all the mammals at that time were small little rodents so most of the bones you find will be dinos. That is- if your in the right area. :D


Tis all very confusing. Hehe. ;)

[LMOUTHBASS]

the badlands is the place to be huh? what is it like there? just complete (searching for a word here) nothing - ness? just like mountains and desert type combo?
must be cool

[Grassguy]

They can tell the age of the bones from the rock that's around them, and they can tell the age of the rock from the bones that are in it. From a scientist no less.

[Firsttanks]

To tell the age of the rocks they usually do "Carbon Dating", not sure of the process, but the carbon levels will pin down the age that the rocks were formed.
The wife and I go to the Badlands in Drumheller (do a search for "Royal Tyrell Museum" for some good pics & info) quite a bit and hunt for fossils, but in the summer it gets up to about 45 C by 11 am, so the hunts don't last too long.
We also like to take trips back to Ontario and do some "small" fossil hunting on Manitoulin Island. It is part of the Niagra escarpment and is a treasure trove of partial fossils of shells and small sea creatures.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

I'm pretty sure they can't carbon date rocks. Carbon dating, i believe, is only used on bone. On things that used to be alive. I learned it but i can't recall if you are able to carbon date fossils. Fossils are rock- and none of the actual living material remains. Just the shape.


http://www.nps.gov/badl/

That's the south dakota badlands national parksboard website. You can find some awesome pictures there. I think the landscape is beautiful- and not at all 'nothingness'. :)

And thats right- the dakota badlands have more recent fossils than the montana ones- not dinosaurs just mammals. I remember that now.

[Firsttanks]

It was probably Radiocarbondating I was thinking of (basically the same but more accurate I believe). Here is a small excerpt from http://www.c14dating.com/
----------------------------
It follows from this that any material which is composed of carbon may be dated.Herein lies the true advantage of the radiocarbon method, it is able to be uniformly applied throughout the world. Included below is an impressive list of some of the types of carbonaceous samples that have been commonly radiocarbon dated in the years since the inception of the method:


Charcoal, wood, twigs and seeds.
Bone.
Marine, estuarine and riverine shell.
Leather.
Peat
Coprolites.
Lake muds (gyttja) and sediments.
Soil.
Ice cores.
Pollen.
Hair.
Pottery.
Metal casting ores.
Wall paintings and rock art works.
Iron and meteorites.
Avian eggshell.
Corals and foraminifera.
Speleothems.
Tufa.
Blood residues.
Textiles and fabrics.
Paper and parchment.
Fish remains.
Insect remains.
Resins and glues.
Antler and horn.
Water.
------------------------------
not sure if this would also work with non-ore bearing Igneous or Metamorphic rock, but should work for fossils in Sedimentary rock.

...I would have to agree, the Badlands while harsh and rugged, are IMO some of the more beautiful landscapes around.

[LittleLoach]

Fossils in tanks are pretty cool.

All my tanks contain at least one rock with fossils but I have never found the fossils in slate, only ever in sandstone. My favourite stone has at least 8 bivalves of different types and sizes, another contains a perfect crinoid calyx fith "fronds". Truely a great piece for an aquarium.

As for dating fossils, the most widely used method is to determine what kinds of common oganisms are fossilised within the deposit and scale it to known bands. Many types of organisms which had specific characteristics during a given period are used as date markers. Within marine sediments/fossils it is usually based on small, microscopic oganisms termed foraminifera. There are also a number of bivalves and other molluscs used for dating purposes - even trilobites are used (due to their commonality in prehistoric seas).

There is not one "right" way to date fossils, but there are many "acctepted" ways.

[cdawson]

Originally posted by ~*LuvMyKribs*~
If its slate and not shale you should be ok. Slate has been metamorphasized from shale so it is much much harder. Although, its pretty rare to find a fossil on slate. Are you sure its slate and not shale? Shale break apart really easily and will most likely over time splinter off in your tank. It shouldn't dissolve though.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but if it was a trilobite it was a very large one. As you see, you can't see the 'spine' of the triobite in the picture. (the raised ridge running down the middle of its back). It's just one side or the other of it's back.

It also looks a bit more like the imprint of a shell. Very hard to tell. Exciting though! I always go fossil hunting. Usually I just find shells, and dinosaur bones. :D

Where abouts!?!!!

I'd love to know a good spot in the lower mainland.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Saltspring Island and Hornby are awesome for shell-like fossils. I always head over to alberta for the dinosaurs. Some places in the rockies are good too. And up north near Prince Rupert they have been finding lots of aquatic dinosaurs.

The lower mainland, and north shore in particular, are mainly granite and volcanic rocks so finding fossils is harder.

But the Gulf islands are good for fossils for sure.

[Danduin]

I do not think you will find much in the way of fossils up in Mass. unless you visit a geology store or museum! I spent most of my life in CT and never once came across a single fossil. Too much granite and glacial leftovers I assume.

I moved out to Ohio and went crazy they were just lying around everywhere and the natives are like "yeah so what it's a fossil". The stream beds are all fossil laden. I do not think there is a stream rock without a fossil of some type in it around here. Amazing really. So far the best things I have found are the trilobytes I have one where he is all curled up in a ball and several flat ones like the pictures above

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Hey! I have one thats in a ball too. Those are supposed to be really rare.

Anyone ever been to the Burgess shale up in the Canadian Rockies? Amazaing. Absolutely amazing. There are soft-bodied creatures preserved from cambrian time. So really weird stuff! Alien looking animals. It's all strictly gaurded though, so you need to be part of a tour to see it. But still sooo cool!

http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/geology/geo102/burgess/burgess.htm

Imagine keeping some of these things in our fish tanks!

[LMOUTHBASS]

were the trilobites? bugs or soemthing

[OrionGirl]

Wyoming has lots of fossils too--and so does Colorado, Idaho and Utah. I picked up a nifty rock full of shells from New York last year as well.

I'm setting up a shadow box 'tank' to display all of my fossils--mostly fish from the Green River area.

[sumoschro]

I used to be a big dino/prehistoric "stuff" fan when i was a kid, I had so many dinosaur toys and posters and stuff on my wall:p

Anyway back from the flashback....Trilobites were ocean-dwelling creatures that could get to be almost about 10(?) inches long if i remember correctly. They were like prehistoric lobsters, at least thats how i remember them:D

[Danduin]

Looking at that picture and comparing it to the fossils and pics they have at my local park it looks most like a Cephalopod fossil. They are the perhistoric relatives to Octopi and Squids. I find pices like that one all over here. According to the board I was reading they can get up to 12' long! A bit big for my tank. A google search brings up *some* pictures like that one.