Interesting fossil found by my dog.

[bobice]

I have a lab retriever that spends too much time picking up large rocks from under the water to the point that her teeth are worn down. She brought this to me awhile back while on the beach. It is particularly interesting to me in that besides being a very nice scallop with both sides of the shell it also has a large piece of petrified wood embedded in the matrix. The wood looks like new with no loss of color, but in fact is rock hard. I am wondering if it might have some value. Bob in Troutdale Oregon.

 

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[Klaatu]

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[Snee]

Wow! I love fossils, but couldn't tell you a price range on that even if I guessed! Great find though...well, your dog's find...whatever...

 

[EDDE]

maybe not fossil wood maybe fossil poo,really no joke forget the name of it. thats is pretty different....

 

[gord]

Coprolite

 

[bobice]

Well, my dog has been doing this for quite awhile. I suppose I should train her to find gold nuggets although this was a bit of a surprise. She got started diving when kids on the river we live on in Troutdale Oregon would toss rocks instead of sticks. She will dive into the water whereever a rock is tossed and go completely under to a depth of several feet in order to find the rock. When I realized the damage it was doing to her teeth I of course tried to put a stop to it. However she will walk out into a stream and work rocks loose with her feet and then pick them up and deposit them on the shore entirely on her own. She seems to enjoy it more than retrieving sticks or ducks.

As for the fossil I would bet it is definitely wood in a rock like matrix. The combination is very interesting, but I am surprised by the color of the wood and how it has retained a natural look to it. As I mentioned it has nice grain to it quite visable. It is not so unusual to find a piece of wood in marine mud in the northwest that has turned to stone, but the combination might make it unusual. Pretty good size piece weighing over a pound or so.

 

[bobice]

I just went back and started looking at it with a magnifying glass and it is wood. also there are a number of small boring clams that have taken up home here and there in the matrix. So we have the old and the new within this item. Bob

 

[EDDE]

POO!oh well....

 

[Las Vegas Bob]

The third picture clearly indicates that your dog found a brachiopod (clam) fossil from the Devonian period.? More then likely the matrix the fossil is on is Limestone.

Nice find.