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Author | Topic: Is This Rock a Dino Egg? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
At Roxrkool's request, I have posted a pic of my Dino Egg (or at least I suspect it of so being).
The red arrow points to where my dad polished a facet on one end (as he was told to carve something out of the rock...the peculiar look of the thing made my dad decide to stop carving however). The pits and wrinkles visible in the highlight only hint at the texture. Also, it does not appear to be "pits" so much as a uniform texture (they look more like little wrinkles that flattened just a tad). Then there are the larger wrinkles (not too many of them) that criss cross the thing. The rock actually belongs to an uncle of mine. --TheLit This message has been edited by TheLiteralist, 02-14-2005 12:45 AM
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jar Member (Idle past 384 days) Posts: 34026 From: Texas!! Joined: |
Can you post a picture of the polished section?
Aslan is not a Tame Lion
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
I can try, but the camera is not too good...it'll take me about 15 minutes.
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
What is kinda weird is the little wrinkles and pits seem to actually go inside the egg. My camera will not show this in the facet...I had a cheaper camera that could almost act like a microscope...I threw it out when I got my new computer, though.
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
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jar Member (Idle past 384 days) Posts: 34026 From: Texas!! Joined: |
Very interesting. It does not polish up like one of the quartz. It definitely looks like some aggregate in the picture. Let one of the geologists chime in on this one.
Aslan is not a Tame Lion
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
If it is important to anything, I might consider buying another one of those cheap videocams that sticks to your monitor (they are able to focus at extremely small distances, believe it or not...or the one I had could, anyway).
I think the facet simply didn't go as deep as some of the pits and wrinkles were in the area polished. (no longer "weird")
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NosyNed Member Posts: 8996 From: Canada Joined: |
Just for fun while we wait for a qualified geologist to peek I'm guess river smooothed obsidian.
You might want to see how hard it is. Try steel and glass on it.
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Quetzal Member (Idle past 5862 days) Posts: 3228 Joined: |
In another WAUG from "It looks like a rock" Quetzal the Non-Specialist: could it be some type of basalt? Both the egg shape and the polished facet look sort basalt-ish.
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roxrkool Member (Idle past 979 days) Posts: 1497 From: Nevada Joined: |
Hmmm... that's a very interesting rock, TL, thanks for posting it.
My first guess, without knowing anything about it and only seeing the picture, would be that it's a silicified and possible brecciated shale, later rounded through fluvial processes. Although texture-wise, it has the mottled appearance resembling quartzite. Never seen a black quartzite, though. Other things that come to mind, though I've never actually seen them, are an obsidian cobble (though glass would tend to shatter rather than abrade or break off in small pieces), or a basaltic (as Quetzal suggested) or pahoehoe cobble (see other examples below the picture). It doesn't really look like an egg to me. Shape is okay, but the color is not quite right. Some questions: 1. Where was the rock collected? 2. Minute veins or veinlets present? 3. Pure black or other [faint] colors present? 4. Can you scratch it with your fingernail? With a knife? Or does the knife leave a metallic streak on it? 5. Can you see any sparkly or metallic minerals? Mineral facets? This message has been edited by roxrkool, 02-15-2005 00:16 AM
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
Hardness Test: Stainless steel leaves marks on the facet that can be wiped off...no scratches. (It is likely quartz, I would assume then)
Colors: Mostly black, seems to have a slight (very faint) grey/brownish grey here and there. There is also a rich brown on the surface (in 3 fairly well defined areas), but it can be scraped off (I suspect a rust stain). Some of the little pits have small white flecks, but I can scrape those off, too (cleanser residue?) Collection Location: I believe that the rock was found in Northwest Florida, where my uncle lives (which, duh!, would have ruled out obsidian from the very beginning, Northwest Florida having so few volcanos). I want to say it was found near a creek or river, but am not certain about that. My uncle lives in some little town probably about 200 to 300 miles east of the western-most side of Florida--maybe 100 or so miles south of the Alabama/Florida line. He is not likely to have found it outside of a 200 mile radius of where he lives (doesn't travel much). Veins or veinlets: If you mean of included minerals, not that I can see. Just the surface pits and wrinkles. Sparkly or metalic minerals or facets: No. If you would like to see a better view of the texture, I could get another one of those cheap webcam cameras (the last one I had could focus at distances less than an inch, which provided neat details if sufficient light was provided). This message has been edited by TheLiteralist, 02-15-2005 04:36 AM
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Dr Jack Member Posts: 3514 From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch Joined: Member Rating: 8.2 |
I don't know what it actually is, but it doesn't look like a dino egg to me. The dinosaur eggs I've seen have all been very flattened, and partially fragmented with obvious cracks and brakes in the surface, and the egg surface itself is always very thin (has to be, otherwise the embryo inside the egg would suffocate) so I wouldn't expect it to polish up in the way shown.
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
What is a cobble?
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TheLiteralist Inactive Member |
Mr. Jack,
I fear I am also beginning to suspect it is not an egg. It was much funner to think it was, though. (Rats!) I was thinking of something like a mold injection I guess (which is why I was thinking obsidian, too...but obsidian is out for several reasons, not the least of which is the lack of descent volcanos in Northwest Florida). Oh well... This message has been edited by TheLiteralist, 02-15-2005 04:52 AM
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JonF Member (Idle past 158 days) Posts: 6174 Joined: |
cobble1 (kŏb'əl)
n. 1. A cobblestone. (that is, a rounded small stone used for paving - JonF) 2. Geology. A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded. 3. Coal in rounded lumps of various sizes. Also called cobbles cob coal.
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