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Found this in Myrtle Beach. It looked like a shiny black rock when wet, but now I'm not so sure. Is this a fossil, or something a lot less interesting?
(self.whatisthisthing)
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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What is this thing?
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Yeah. Looks like some sedimentary rock that has a few shells fossilized. If I had to bet, the rock itself is limestone perhaps?
Is that something that forms in a short period of time, or is this a prehistoric formation, do you think? Those shells don't seem ancient, but what do I know, these shells probably have had the same shape for millions of years.
Oh man, I am not the guy to ask that haha, just using some preliminary knowledge. According to the Fossil wikipedia though, a fossil is considered such if it is older than 10,000 years. What we're looking at is apparently called an external mold, where something embeds a mold of itself into a rock. I haven't been able to find any info regarding how long these things take to form, but most examples I see are tens of thousands of years old.
So I would guess that rock/mold is thousands of years old then. But you're right, it could definitely be millions if you got lucky.
That's fascinating! I didn't know external mold was a thing, although it makes sense. Thanks for the information