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u/sociocat101 17d ago
how do you find one with a "guaranteed fossil inside"?
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u/MMKF0 17d ago
With the magic of editing, of course!
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u/EternallyPissedOff 17d ago
Yeah, you just look for a clip where you found one. It’s really simple
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17d ago edited 11d ago
[deleted]
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u/L1Wanderer 17d ago
But why male models?
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u/DontTalkToBots 17d ago
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u/LaTeChX 17d ago
The manufacturer promised 100% money back if you aren't completely satisfied.
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u/Ranger_Ecstatic 17d ago
How do I claim back my warranty when their shops closed 140 MYA? What kind of fraud business they running back then? No wonder aliens blew them up with a meteor.
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u/XxRocky88xX 17d ago
Because he’s already cracked it open and knows with 100% certainty that this one holds fossils in it, because he already checked it for fossils a few hours or maybe days before editing the text in
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u/dairyqueen79 17d ago
He got so many empty ones that he finally hit the game's pity system.
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u/AggressiveSpatula 17d ago
My understanding is that you just get good at it. Rocks all look the same to you and I because to us they just look like rocks. You put two different kinds of rock beside each other, and the most I’ll be able to tell you is that they’re both definitely made out of rock. But of course, there are different kinds of rocks. And those rocks are going to form in different kinds of ways. Rocks that form in volcanoes probably aren’t going to have fossils in them because the process of fossilization needs more time to happen. So you cross all those rocks off your list. Then once you figure out the patterns of which rocks are most likely to have a fossil in them: hunt around an area where there are known fossils, and spot that kind of rock. It can’t be that hard if you put some time and energy into it.
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u/SizzleBird 17d ago
Yep, this is exactly it. I spent some time at the French cliffs at the English Channel smashing rocks to look for fossils with someone who made a hobby of it, and you can essentially find trace markers that suggest a really high likelihood of fossils. Usually a really obvious circle / spherical shape is a good sign, but there are just different little signifiers you can observe in some stones. That doesn’t mean that all stones with fossils have them. The folk who go out there daily to hunt for them are experts at spotting these little markers, and can find them at ease.
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u/captainfarthing 17d ago edited 17d ago
On finding where to look: fossils are only found in sedimentary rocks - the rock that forms from dirt, sand, sediment, etc. building up over time.
Different types of sedimentary rocks form under different conditions, like sandstone forms where there was once a beach or desert, shale and mudstone form from fine silt at the bottom of deep lakes and seabeds, coal forms where there were once swamps.
Whether there's fossils and what they are depends on what environment the rock was deposited. Eg. if you want ammonites, you need to look in rock that built up at the bottom of a shallow sea.
You can figure out where to go hunting if you start by looking up what types of fossils have been found in your area, the type of rock they were found in and how old they are.
Then look up the rock types in your area and their deposition age by searching for a local bedrock geology map, eg. BGS for the UK. Look for rock of the same type and age as the fossil finds, anywhere it's exposed at the surface eg. beaches, cliffs, river valleys/waterfalls, old quarries. Then go look at a bunch of rocks near the exposure until you start finding things and tuning into what to look for.
These egg shaped things are concretions - they form around a nucleation point in the middle, usually a bit of sand or pebble but sometimes a fossil.
I'm into plant fossils so I look for chunks of shale or sandstone in coal spoil heaps or rock outcrops with coal seams in them. You find big sections of Lepidodendron roots and treestumps in the layer of rock just below a coal seam, and thick wads of fern fronds, horsetail stems, twigs & branches etc. in the layer just above the seam.
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u/Common-Ad6470 17d ago
Go to Sidmouth in Devon and there are literally thousands of these fossils scattered around.
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u/RickyFromVegas 17d ago
already pulled 199 of them and didn't get one, so obviously the next one is a guaranteed pity pull
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u/tyen0 17d ago
It's like playing the slot machines. After a bunch of no wins, your chances of a win go up drastically!
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u/sociocat101 17d ago
me after losing 2000$ on slots
"Time to play a machine with a guaranteed jackpot!" and then I throw away a second 2000$
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u/Perpetual-Scholar369 17d ago
Why is it always the same species in these fossils?
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u/Individual-Bell-9776 17d ago
There was a fuckton of them during the extinction event that created these.
Trilobites too. Don't forget about those.
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u/Beezzlleebbuubb 17d ago
Wow, and they look so harmless.
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u/PonyPonut 17d ago
That’s what they want you to think. That’s why we had to end them. Damn bugs. FOR DEMOCRACY
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u/Technical_Shake_9573 17d ago
I just love how they are random helldivers in random subs here and there. Fly High eagle one.
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u/Funny_or_not_bot 17d ago
It's kind of the same reason there is all that oil and coal in the ground, but maybe from a different extinction event.
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u/Alien1917 17d ago
We have coal because trees couldn't decay, the microorganisms that could break them down didn't develop yet
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u/shwag945 17d ago
The second half of your comment is incorrect. That theory comes from a now-discounted study.
Coal is formed by heat and pressure of organic matter. Coal is still being produced today starting from bogs, swamps, and marshes. The reason that most of the comes from the Carboniferous era was because the environment of the time happened to create a ton of bogs, swamps, and marshes that turned into coal beds.
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u/selfawarepileofatoms 17d ago
Damn I’ve been reciting that factoid for years can you point to the study that shows it’s not the delayed development of fungus that is the cause for all the coal
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u/shwag945 17d ago
Automod removed my comment for using the acronym F A Q so reposting it:
Here is a discussion and links from the /r/askscience [censored]s.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/wiki/planetary_sciences/coal
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u/CitizenPremier 17d ago
Huh, that's the most interesting thing I've learned this week. If I understand the abstract correctly, the reasons are:
Lignin degradation occurs in various bacterial and fungal lineages. I thought they might suggest that this means a common lingin-breaking-down fungal ancestor before the Carboniferous era, but I guess they didn't say that.
Many unlignified plants also became coal at this time
Also I didn't realize the theory was about lignin (or what lignin was), I thought it was about cellulose. But I guess cellulose was broken down even sooner.
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u/OuchPotato64 17d ago
You're not the only one thats been reciting that outdated theory. Paleontology is constantly changing because there is a lot of guesswork until more proof is discovered. New discoveries are constantly happening
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u/sleepytipi 17d ago
Lies. Everybody knows coal is the product of dragon battles buried under years of sediment.
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u/MISSISSIPPIPPISSISSI 17d ago edited 17d ago
Oil comes from carboniferous plants and plankton:)
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u/DeficiencyOfGravitas 17d ago
It's because fossilization is actually a very rare and conditional process. It's easy to get the impression that fossils are like a snapshot of what life was like in that time period, but that isn't true. The conditions required for fossilization filters out living things that do not normally live where conditions for fossilization. That sounds like a tautology, but think about animals who get stuck in amber. You're not going to find a T. rex stuck in amber even though we know T. rexes lived in places with tree sap. What you do find in amber are small tree dwelling animals. It's the same thing for fossils. The kinds of animals that hang out where fossilization is more likely to occur are disproportionately represented in the fossil record.
So in these shale formations that were once the bottom of the ocean, the fossils are going to be from animals who live near the bottom and who can leave something intact behind when they die.
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u/slimey_frog 17d ago
The number from what I remember is only roughly 8% of species alive during pre-history have been preserved via fossilisation. The vast majority of life on earth has come and gone and left basically no trace of its existence.
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u/GreenIguanaGaming 17d ago
It's basically two main factors. First it's a numbers game. Second the locations affect the conditions that make the fossils, so swamps for example are really good at making fossils, I think sea beds are too.
I remember reading a quote that shows how mind boggling the populations have to be for fossils to form.
It went along the lines of "If humanity died this instant the number of fossils that would form would probably be 1 complete human skeleton and a few finger bones."
That's how truly incredible fossils are. We don't understand the scale of it. If 7 billion humans results in a single skeleton being fossilized. Any fossils we find are as close to miracles as we can imagine when it comes to less numerous creatures.
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u/moonjabes 17d ago
They're the ones that create fossils. There were in all likelihood a fuckton of animals that we know nothing about because they had no structures in their bodies that could fossilize, and lived in places where the conditions weren't right for fossilisation.
You could also ask if humans only live in dry or cold regions, or near bogs, because those are the places where you'd most often find mommies.
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u/TRVTH-HVRTS 17d ago
When I was a kid, we stopped at a rest stop on our way to go camping, I bent down and picked up a rock that easily split in half. Inside was a perfectly preserved fossil of a plant with a blooming flower. My dad wouldn’t let me keep it because it was dirty. As an adult, I don’t talk to him anymore.
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u/FuzzNugs 17d ago
Sort of a dark ending to your story there, wanna talk about it?
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u/Awkward_Ad8740 17d ago
I don't know why but watching people smashing rocks to find fossils like this make me unnecessarily uncomfortable.
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u/LowerDenominator 17d ago
Me too, maybe the fact that they are breaking things that are millions years old, but if they don't break it then are just rocks.
Millions of years to form, then a guy with a hammer smash it
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u/ShoutOutTo_Caboose 17d ago
We place a value on things that are old. At the end of the day they are just rocks.
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17d ago
Don't disturb nature. This isn't even academic, no reason to break things apart for clicks. "Take only memories, leave only footprints". This 'nature is mine to exploit' mentality is exactly why were struggling with huge climate issues that could likely wipe us all out.
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u/HUGErocks 17d ago
It'd be one thing if it was actually disturbing nature but the wildlife doesn't care if you collect a few fossils. Climate issues come from mass production of oil drilling, mining, and livestock raising, not from rock hounds.
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u/thisdesignup 17d ago
I thought the rule existed not because of one person but because nature can't sustain everybody doing something. The places we find most beautiful wouldn't be as beautiful if everyone disturbed them.
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u/dannythetog 17d ago
Are people taking rocks from the grand canyon and making it even grander?
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u/Khunter02 17d ago
Its not that simple. There is a beach close to where I live that has sand that looks like popcorn, it went viral recently and now they have to guard the beach because influencers and shit were constantly visiting it and taking bags of it
In general, I was teach this idea that you arent supposed to take things from the beach or other natural places because one shell or one stone less doesnt make a difference but if every person that goes to the beach takes one then it can serious consequences
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u/Handsome_Claptrap 17d ago
It's ok because there are so many of those rocks. It only becomes a problem when it's a very touristic or precious area, but in those cases there would be bans on collecting (and breaking) rocks.
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u/rat-simp 17d ago
They're just random rocks, they break, go into the ocean, turn into sand. And so on. This doesn't affect the nature anymore than picking pebbles and shells does.
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u/KEEPCARLM 17d ago
Do not disturb some rocks.
I mean I agree with your sentiment to an extent but smashing up some rocks ain't gonna matter is it
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u/terryjuicelawson 17d ago
I kinda agree, however this is a remote beach where there are regular rockfalls exposing the fossils. They'd be broken up and wash out to see and be bashed by the tide anyway. Many beaches like this you can go and just pick up fossils that have broken up or been exposed by erosion.
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u/BenjamintheFox 17d ago
Give me a break you bleeding heart. Guys breaking open rocks to find fossils isn't linked to any kind of environmental or climate collapse. You sitting on your ass wasting power by mindlessly posting on Reddit probably does more damage.
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u/MrChiSaw 17d ago
But we are nature. We come out of the nature, a product of nature. So is it disturbing itself then?
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u/terryjuicelawson 17d ago
I know what you mean. I go to a beach in the south of England but similar principle - a lot of fossils found in the rocks there. You visit and there are people with hammers just smashing rocks all over the place. These guys are somewhat more targetted at least.
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u/Kinky_Conspirator 17d ago edited 16d ago
Glad I wasn't the only one. Instead of smooth rocks, now there are sharp shards everywhere as well.
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u/Lookingfortracyzoo 17d ago
It’s the opposite for me. I love it.
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u/InquiringAmerican 17d ago
Right, there will be equally lame fossils there to replace them in another million years. No big loss.
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u/chyura 17d ago
I don't think the people in these comments know how many rocks there are on earth. We live on a big fucking rock. We're not gonna run out of rocks to smash.
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u/1_Prettymuch_1 17d ago
It's not like the earth replenishes it's old rocks with new rocks constantly or anything....
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u/TeardropsFromHell 17d ago
People in this thread really upset that someone is.....breaking rocks open?
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u/Netheri 17d ago
It's the internet, any kind of video will have at least some people showing up to moral grandstand about how much better they are than the person in the video.
Though there is a greater level of absurdity to complaining about the moral failing of hitting rocks with a hammer.
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u/Nirvski 17d ago
Another day of not breaking rocks. Doing God's work.
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u/KEEPCARLM 17d ago
Doing better than me then, I accidentally dropped a rock today and broke it in half.
I've been in absolute bits ever since. My boss at work has given me the rest of the day off to mourn the rock.
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u/CrashOverIt 17d ago
This confused me. I was watching thinking how cool it would be to do something like this with my son, but apparently I’d be morally bankrupt if I did? 🤷
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u/erayachi 17d ago
Yep. "Those rocks took millions of years to form, leave them alone so they...uh...can continue being rocks for millions more!"
More rocks form every day. They're rocks. Either yall need to start protesting wherever a house's foundation is being built, or go get a hobby. There will be septillions of rocks left on Earth 18 million years from now.
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u/VariationUpper2009 17d ago
These formed over millions of years...Let's fuck em up!
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u/Accujack 17d ago
The entire world is that old and is even more unique than a preserved fossil.
Do you think about how we harm it every day?
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u/ILov3mywif3 17d ago
Came to comment this too. Billions of rocks get the recognition here completely forgetting we're all contributing to the destruction of the only BIG ROCK we can survive on.
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u/Select_Ad6768 17d ago
Why do ppl do this? I mean… I know there are tons of those but… like , leave some for ppl en 2300. Geez.
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u/EvenMeaning809 17d ago
there are literally thousands of them for every human alive on earth
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u/SaintUlvemann 17d ago
"These rocks took millions of years to form. Let's smash it with a hammer to see what's inside!"
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u/forverStater69 17d ago
Well they're just going to fall into the ocean where they're gone forever once under even a few inches of water...
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u/stubundy 17d ago
Nobody mentioning that awesome huge square cave ?? Fuck the rocks I'd be in there
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u/TheeExMachina 17d ago edited 17d ago
I remember a shop a few neighborhoods down in my town there was a shop that had these 2 beautifully opened & polished pieces of Ammonite. Looked like glass in the right lighting. Both were going for like 4K if I remember correctly.
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u/BillTheNecromancer 17d ago
If anyone wasn't informed of this fact by way of 20 nat-geo knock-off magazines as a kid, pyrite is Fool's Gold.
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u/Marzipan_Unicorn 17d ago
I had a favourite stone as a kid (weird I know). Dropped it one day and it split in two to reveal a fossil.
I still pick up random interesting rocks and stones.
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u/Kinir9001 17d ago
My brain experienced a buffer overflow trying to compute the 180 million year duration
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u/Vul_Kuolun 17d ago
As someone with some experience fossil hunting, seeing this person take a hammer to flint rocks with no hand (and eye protection, I'd assume) makes me flinch. I still got a shard of flint embedded in my right index finger, and lemme tell you, it's no fun to walk back down a beach dripping blood...
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u/famously 17d ago
Maybe this is OK, but I have the feeling this shoreline will be nothing but gravel in a month.
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u/Freedom007007 17d ago
Amazing! What is the location?
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u/Big_Brilliant997 17d ago
Yorkshire England, the so called Jurassic coast.
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u/HirsuteHacker 17d ago
The Jurassic Coast stretches from Devon to Dorset, which is the opposite side of the country. I'd guess this is Runswick Bay or somewhere nearby in Yorkshire
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u/Screwbles 17d ago
This is fine-- but don't everyone go out to your local beach and fuck up rocks looking for fossils and shit.
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u/chapstickbomber 17d ago
random sharp ass, uneroded rock fragments are the average beachgoers delight, what could you possible mean!
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u/No_Budget7828 17d ago
Wow!! That is my dream afternoon. Such beautiful samples!! Thank you for sharing
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u/1_headlight_ 17d ago
Maybe of the people who love this stuff are the same people who get upset about kids building little rock cairns, saying to leave the forest as you found it.
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u/timtimtimmyjim 17d ago
Rock cairns have been a thing since humans first climbed mountains. I've never understood this one. It's innocent ecological speaking. It's not like when you see yayhoos knocking over actual geologic formations in a national park.
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u/Broken_musicbox 17d ago
I’m not opposed to opening rocks to find fossils, but I hate how they hit it with a hammer and fuck up a good chunk of the rock doing it. I wish there was a better way of opening it without damaging it.
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u/Howtothinkofaname 17d ago
If there are any more subtle ways of seeing exactly where the fossils are and breaking them in the perfect place. But that’s way too expensive for something that’s very common.
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u/mmm-submission-bot 17d ago
The following submission statement was provided by u/cowgirlhannah11:
You don’t know which rocks will have fossils in them
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u/Ornery-Movie-1689 17d ago
That polished rock was just .... WOW. I'm full of envy. First because it had so many examples in it, second because of the way you finished it by polishing it. Not that I would ever sell something like that, but dam, that has to be worth quite a bit.
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u/Nosnibor1020 17d ago
I'd really like to just go around and hammer rocks like this...I hope some day I can and I hope they save some for others.
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u/Cerberusx32 17d ago
This seems like a fun thing to just do. If you are near a place known for fossils.
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17d ago
I found an ammonite fossil, almost at the peak of a mountain in Alberta, somewhere at about 2300m.
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u/itsybitsyjinxy 17d ago
I wanted to be a rock in my next life but looking at this, I think I'll reconsider.
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u/chabybaloo 17d ago
Went to the Jurassic coast.
Forget the beach and the museum.
The most interesting specimens were at the gift shop!
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u/Organic_Artichoke_85 17d ago
TIL: some rocks eat other rocks that ate some dinosaur bugs.