Dino dung?

[1968]

Found this cool "rock" about 3.5 inches long and flat on one side up north last weekend. Might just be a grassy fossil, but dino dung sounds much cooler. The marks are not scratches. Opinions?

[mainbutter]

I don't know what it is, but a few thoughts:

1) The "science-y" term for such a fossil is "coprolite".

2) I've never seen one with that shape before as plenty actually look like someone chiseled a pile right out of stone, but then again if it was in a river or on the shore of a large lake for some time, that could account for the rounding.

3) Have you tried polishing it, just to test the veracity of a common idiom?

[bobbymalone]

that's not a fossil. it's s type of volcanic rock, but I can't remember what. i'm looking for it.

cool looking rock whatever it's called.

edit: yeah, i can't figure out what it's called. I've found a rock like that before and my googling skills were apparently sharper then. I'm sure somebody will chime in.

[1968]

I did find a very similar rock at this site- Fossil dung from Arizona, only 4 hundo..

It was on a beach too, not big water though.

[DARK30]

Yup, a dinosaur turd would be much cooler to own

Hard to tell without touching the rock...Could the lighter areas be crystal type growths maybe?

[bobbymalone]

Could the lighter areas be crystal type growths maybe?

That's what I thought.

I found some up north somewhere that look just like that along lake superior. The base rock seemed like basalt or a finely grained granite, unlikely for fossils.

[1968]

I'm going to have to find my magnifying glass. If it helps, I found it next to a boat landing in the McGregor area.

[1968]

Well so much for the dino dung theory. It looks like it's porphyritic mafic volcanic rock with large plagioclase phenocrysts. At least according to this site that shows a near identical rock- Diabase-igneous rock

[mrg]

it is called gabbro.