RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 21, 2021 21:10:17 GMT -5
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 22, 2021 22:54:32 GMT -5
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,506
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Post by Brian on Jul 23, 2021 7:21:57 GMT -5
That one has a lot going on! The dark squiggles are interesting.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 23, 2021 10:06:42 GMT -5
That one has a lot going on! The dark squiggles are interesting. Yes, it does. I think I'm starting to recognize that some of these features might be dung beetle tunnels replaced with agate, but I'm not sure about it yet. My ability to interpret what I'm observing is evolving and I want to be conservative about any claims I might make.
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,506
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Post by Brian on Jul 23, 2021 10:35:00 GMT -5
That one has a lot going on! The dark squiggles are interesting. Yes, it does. I think I'm starting to recognize that some of these features might be dung beetle tunnels replaced with agate, but I'm not sure about it yet. My ability to interpret what I'm observing is evolving and I want to be conservative about any claims I might make. Funny you mention that because I deleted the part of my post pondering aloud about the bugs in the poop. Those tracks made me think of it. I was thinking back on the original article that posted the picture of the beetle in the coprolite in terms of what it would look like in the rock. That little beetle would have fossilized along with the rock, meaning that it would likely look like an agatized pattern in the rock making it impossible to tell apart from any other part of the coprolite based on a slice of it. The ghost limbs you find are similarly fossilized within the coprolite but they are big enough and have a distinctive enough pattern in them that you have a pretty good idea what they are. For a bug, the best you might be able to identify from a slice would likely be the path that it make unless you are lucky enough to have a transparent agatized portion adjacent a fossilized critter such that you could see a three-dimensional shape and the odds of that happening are probably not that good. Or at least that is the direction my wandering mind has taken me.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 23, 2021 19:05:10 GMT -5
Yes, it does. I think I'm starting to recognize that some of these features might be dung beetle tunnels replaced with agate, but I'm not sure about it yet. My ability to interpret what I'm observing is evolving and I want to be conservative about any claims I might make. Funny you mention that because I deleted the part of my post pondering aloud about the bugs in the poop. Those tracks made me think of it. I was thinking back on the original article that posted the picture of the beetle in the coprolite in terms of what it would look like in the rock. That little beetle would have fossilized along with the rock, meaning that it would likely look like an agatized pattern in the rock making it impossible to tell apart from any other part of the coprolite based on a slice of it. The ghost limbs you find are similarly fossilized within the coprolite but they are big enough and have a distinctive enough pattern in them that you have a pretty good idea what they are. For a bug, the best you might be able to identify from a slice would likely be the path that it make unless you are lucky enough to have a transparent agatized portion adjacent a fossilized critter such that you could see a three-dimensional shape and the odds of that happening are probably not that good. Or at least that is the direction my wandering mind has taken me. We are having similar thoughts. Recently I've been noticing structures in coprolite cuts that remind me of many instances where I've seen bug bore holes through wood that have been semi filled with dung that the beetle left in it's wake. I used to do a lot of logging and log home building and almost every log had beetle trails under the cambium and throughout the wood. I've also found petrified wood with this condition. Additionally it's common to observe that dung beetles leave a trail of droppings in many of the bore holes they make through turds, likewise earth worms leave castings in their burrows. It seems reasonable that ancient dung beetles would have left bore holes like today's version.... some tunnels are found empty and others have material plugging them. Regardless if my coprolite bore holes were hollow or plugged with bug poo, they almost always fill with agate at some stage later on. It's rare, so far, to find obvious, hollow bug holes in the coprolite I get. I'm getting more confident I'm finding these bore holes in some of the coprolites that I cut open but so far I have no definitive way to prove that's what they are so I'm hesitant to show photos and proclaim that's what we are looking at. I've found quite a few anomalies that point toward this but because the material has been digested it's so much more difficult to identify than a bore hole in petrified wood for example. More research is needed and I'll soon start looking at specimens through a microscope for clues. Think about it. We are looking for a separate coprolite entity within another coprolite!
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 23, 2021 19:50:26 GMT -5
Here's some Blue Forest petrified wood with bug bore holes preserved for us to see. If you look at many of these samples it becomes obvious that some portions of the tunnels were plugged with bug poo.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 23, 2021 19:51:26 GMT -5
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 23, 2021 19:52:18 GMT -5
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 24, 2021 8:33:35 GMT -5
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Post by stephan on Jul 24, 2021 11:00:38 GMT -5
That top one… wow! The bottom one is no slouch either, but you keep raising your own bar.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 25, 2021 10:53:21 GMT -5
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 25, 2021 11:46:48 GMT -5
Randy and Brian (I'm not tagging you because I know you'll both read this! LOL) - I wanted to say thank you to both of you for bringing up some amazing discussions and well thought out ideas and responses! They are always interesting and fun to read!
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,506
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Post by Brian on Jul 25, 2021 12:02:22 GMT -5
Randy and Brian (I'm not tagging you because I know you'll both read this! LOL) - I wanted to say thank you to both of you for bringing up some amazing discussions and well thought out ideas and responses! They are always interesting and fun to read! I’m always excited to see a new post in this thread! I find these coprolites fascinating and an unbelievable source of inspiration for my wandering thoughts. I need to do some deeper research in the subject to see what information has already been discovered but I feel that Randy and his endless supply and knowledge of coprolites is an untapped resource for so much more.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 25, 2021 12:11:58 GMT -5
Randy and Brian (I'm not tagging you because I know you'll both read this! LOL) - I wanted to say thank you to both of you for bringing up some amazing discussions and well thought out ideas and responses! They are always interesting and fun to read! I’m always excited to see a new post in this thread! I find these coprolites fascinating and an unbelievable source of inspiration for my wandering thoughts. I need to do some deeper research in the subject to see what information has already been discovered but I feel that Randy and his endless supply and knowledge of coprolites is an untapped resource for so much more. I've searched for literature on the subject and what I've found is somewhat sparse. So far the best thing I've found is a master's thesis written a few years ago. I'm hoping this thread will become a repository of coprolite knowledge and I think we can take it to higher levels.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 26, 2021 6:57:56 GMT -5
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,190
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Post by RWA3006 on Jul 27, 2021 6:46:10 GMT -5
TURD TUESDAY
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 27, 2021 7:34:34 GMT -5
Here's some preforms I shaped up the other day...now they just have to squeeze into the lineup to get done. Gives new meaning to "squeezing one off"! (And the hits just KEEP coming! LOL)
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Post by mohs on Jul 27, 2021 11:03:48 GMT -5
As anyone done a study of corporlite under extreme heat and pressure ? Metamorphism Kind of like earth natural constipation. Under such conditions does corpro turn to schist ?
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jul 27, 2021 22:03:09 GMT -5
Men just never grow out of scatalogical humor, do they?
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