While I was in the desert in Southern California, I found a strange looking rock that stood out from the rest. It's roundish, egg shaped, and dark with a shine exterior. So, might it be a coprolite?
Is this fossilized poop (coprolite)?
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Hot zone
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It very well could be...if it contains phosphates... Fertilizer has been made from coprolites and sulfuric acid...
curious kat
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First, welcome to the site..
Don't know if it is but I do have some that I got from old digger and it looks like this....
Don't know if it is but I do have some that I got from old digger and it looks like this....
Harry Pristis
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Nothing about the shape of the object indicates coprolite. You might have to section it to look for bits of plant debris or bone fragments. My best guess is that it's a stream-rounded pebble.
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I have read that it can be hard to tell some from eggs... These look egg like... They also resemble elk turds only much larger... There are as many different kinds of scat as animals...
Harry Pristis
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Elk coprolite, egg, or stream-rounded pebble? What are the probabilities? The shape is not dispositive in any case.
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Sure it has a low probabability and looks like a pebble (as do some caprolites), perhaps as low as trying to Identify what animal made a particular one...
Perhaps it is even a gastrolith!
Perhaps it is even a gastrolith!
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Harry Pristis
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I repeat, shape of this object is not dispositive . . . there are too many possibilities beyond the probable identification as a stream-rounded pebble.
Shape is dispositive in some cases, like the examples I posted (the first example is a 'gator coprolite).
Shape is dispositive in some cases, like the examples I posted (the first example is a 'gator coprolite).
Hot zone
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Calm down Harry, I ain't sayin you don't know your sh** 
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?
SnakemanBill
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Nope not a different screen name, same one I've has since joining this forum 6+ years ago and thank you to GatorBoy for helping to prove my point.
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All here know our rules.......Insults and attacks on members will not be tolerated....
Gentlemen, post by TN rules or you WILL take a vacation, your choice.......
Gentlemen, post by TN rules or you WILL take a vacation, your choice.......
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Bill, you couldn't miss my warning and RiverRat's warning, it is immediately above your post.
If someone breaks TN rules report it.
Please end it before a moderator steps in and ends it......
old digger
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First of all, Welcome to TNET!
I really do not believe your item is a coprolite. I believe your sample is weathered basalt and when looking at your second and last photos, I can see a fine line of quartz.
P.S. By the way, somewhere out in the California desert there is a story about black nuggets of gold laying on the surface of the ground near an ancient volcano cone. It is said that these nuggets are not your typical shiny nuggets, but are black. So it doesn't hurt to check any of those peculiar black rocks.
spillercanyon
Sr. Member
Moqui ball? Iron (hematite) concreation.
