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Found on beach near Whitby whilst looking for fossils. Will forever be known as a dinosaur footprint by people in the household but I'm curious if anyone can explain how it would have really formed? Pic of front and back in case it helps.
TBH I’m not a geologist or palaeontologist, but it looks more like a banded piece of sandstone or similar, with erosion through different layers giving the impression of an imprint in the stone. It reminds me of the bands of multicoloured sand at Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight, which people put into small glass containers for display. Made wet, I reckon the colour would pop!
It might be an impression made when the sand was still soft, the holes on the other side could have been made by small worms or arthropods - there are holes all over the Sarcen stones in Avebury’s ring, which are a type of sandstone, the holes were made by tree roots millennia ago, long before the stones were upended and placed in the henge.
Someone at a good museum might be able to tell you.
So not fossilised dog poo that a duck stood on 40 million years ago ?
Disappointing ?
Well, it’s possible it’s a poo left by a terrified creature as a carnivorous duck ate it 40 million years ago, but who’s to say…
Here’s some photos I’ve taken of a few of the Avebury Sarsens, with holes left by tree roots growing up through the layer of sand before it solidified and turned to rock.
Some of the holes are conical, so it’s possible they were caused grit or pebbles being spun around by flowing water eroding the rock over many years when the rock was still lying horizontally on the ground- I’ve seen that happening elsewhere, in Wales, actually, so who can say with chambord’s pebble.
It’s a pleasing thing in its own right, I’ve got various pebbles I’ve picked on different beaches, with a variety of different colours and textures, they’re just nice things to hold, even without any fossil features. I’ve got one or two of those as well, mostly from Charmouth.
🙂 thanks for the replies. I'm also leaning towards it being just coincidentally worn through the layers in that shape. But others will not be convinced and it remains a dinosaur footprint.
We also have a lot of rocks and pebbles scattered around the place that we've collected once the years. We did find a few fossils on the same trip (to Whitby) this was the pick of the bunch because we got to whack it with a hammer
It is, indeed, an ammonite. A very common fossil, up there with bivalve shells. Probably the most common fossil found along the Jurassic coast, around Charmouth, Lyme Regis, and along the Bristol Channel, around Kilve, East Quantoxhead.
It’s unlikely you’ll find any small enough, in loose pebbles, that could be carried home - most are in the canted strata that make up the coastline down that part of the Bristol Channel.
That top photo looks like a shell imprint. Think of a limpet shell upside down and partially filled in. That is what the hollow is, the slightly filled underside of a shell.
Dad was a geologist, but I am not and he is dead so I could be wrong
this was the pick of the bunch because we got to whack it with a hammer
And the right index finger too by the looks?