old digger
Gold Member
- Jan 15, 2012
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how can you tell? they look like worn creek rocks from our area.
Can you explain these to me? What exactly are they
how can you tell? they look like worn creek rocks from our area.
Can you explain these to me? What exactly are they
Very cool!
I have always found those interesting, but I live in Florida where there are no dinosaur fossils.
Occasionally though, we find whale stomach stones here, which were used in the same purpose. I think it is really neat that two completely different animals can find the same use of a rock!
old digger said:That's cool! Just curious, how big and what kind of rocks do they use?
Here, we call them gastroliths. I don't think they use any particular kind of rock, just what is available to them. Some of them can be bigger than a baseball, but they are usually a little bigger than a golfball. Modern whales still do it; if you google 'whale stomach stone,' you will get a ton of pictures. Fossil gastroliths are commonly found off of Venice Beach, Florida.
Here is a picture of a few. Unfortunately, I didn't have any personal pictures on hand, so I pulled one off of the Internet. These are from Venice.
old digger said:Thank You for your response! That is interesting that you can find them on Venice Beach, beacuse my Grandparents used to winter vacation there. I have been down there several times on vacation to look for shark's teeth. But it has been over twelve years since I was down there. I wish I had known that you could find them there. You could say there is another good reason to go back. Thanks!
No, thank you, it's great threads like this that make this website so cool!
That's pretty cool that you have been to Venice before. You should go back, if you are ever in Florida. They also host the annual Shark Tooth Festival in April, which is really neat; some of the teeth people bring are unreal.
I have seen a lot of shark teeth come from the shore, but the real treasures are offshore, where the scuba divers go. There are quite a few charter boats that take divers out to find those huge megalodon teeth.
Are there any famous fossil hunting spots where you live?
old digger said:I still have a two and a half inch+- megladon tooth that my grandmother gave me. I'll post it if I can find it, but it does not compare to some of the huge ones that I have seen or heard of that have been found in the area.
When I was down there I was told that the best time to search was real early in the morning.
As for your last question. Montana is so rich in fossils that you pretty much can find them all over the state. You can find shell fossils in the Pryor Mts. at 9000 ft in elevation to the Missiouri breaks area. Much of the federal and state lands are off limits to vetebrae removal.
On private property I have found both vetebrae and rib specimens, and leaf and plant fossils.
old digger said:Age old here is that sharks tooth that I mentioned.
<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=703470"/> <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=703475"/>
I was down at Venice Beach about 14 some years ago and all I found were the small sharks teeth.