Here are a few photos of the stone I found on a piece of waste gorund in our village a few of years ago.I had some photos taken of it as in those days I never had a digi camera and I sent them to the Natural History Museum.Never heard back for months but then had a phone call out of the blue from a lady who told me they are the fossils of some type of snail and were Millions of years old,but I can't remember the exact figure :rolleyes: She reckons that these snails were only found on the Isle Of White and a couple of other places!! And to think it got scooped up by some large piece of machinery and transported to my village how is that.. Wonder if I could sell it on Ebay..
very interesting kandy, i would certainly have a go at selling them on e-bay never know you might be worth thousands, lets hope, keep us posted and thanks for sharing
You were lucky to find that Kandy, I think you would need some positive info and an idea of what it is worth, it is a pity the NHM didn't reply with a letter instead of a phone call as then you would have some written back up. People on Ebay can be very awkward and picky. I imagine fossil experts trawl through Ebay regularly to look for bargains. best of luck if you do try to sell it, I can't judge the size, what would P&P be?
Hi Rosa and Strongy,The lady who phoned me said that she was sorry for taking so long in contacting me but had been off work through illness.She spoke to me and then told Mr Kandy all that she had told me.She also said that she would send us written info through the post but we never recieved anything back. :rolleyes: The Ebay bit was my little joke because I know that people sell all sorts of things on there.I wouldn't part with it because I feel happy that something that was moving around on this planet all those Millions of years ago has ended up finding it's way to me. Glad that you both liked the photos.. [ 16. March 2008, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: Kandyfloss ]
Nice piccies. I think they could be Belemnites but the only ones I have found aren't open. Mine are just black, solid objects that are the shape of bullets
Well, that link doesn't work. I just googled Belemnites and there was a lot of info. there. I does look promising
Yeah. I think they're Belemnites. The ones I found were on the I.o.W embedded in the chalk. so that puts the time period about right. (Jurrasic to Cretaceous). They're more of the squid family than the snail family. Have a look on e-bay there's adverts about them on there, good luck
Actually, Sis has a good one, Kandy, and she took it to the place on the IoW that has something to do with dinosaurs, somewhere near Chale if I remember correctly, to be identified. Sis, come here and put a photo up and tell your story.
<palaeontologist> They're definitely snails (gastropods). You can tell because the chambers you can see are spiralling around. A belemnite is a solid lump of aragonite. The only other thing it could have been was a nautiloid - while all the living nautiloids are curly, there were straight ones. You'd be able to tell if it was one of those however, because there'd be a central tube down the middle, called a siphuncle. It looks like the Cretaceous stuff on the IOW, and most snails are marine, so I'd hazard a guess at 110-90 million years ago. But it could just about have been Eocene, which is after the extinction of the dinosaurs, maybe about 40 million years old. There are a few Eocene snails that look similar to their older relatives. My best friend is an invertebrate palaeontologist who works on snails. I'm happy to ask her for her opinion. She used to work at the Natural History Museum, so she probably knows the lady who spoke to you Kandy (I'm surprised they didn't write to you - they used to be pretty good at that when I was there six years ago). </palaeontologist>
LoL,there is a good Palaeontologist on the Isle Of Wight,called Martin Simpson and I would have shown it to him if we had thought to take it withg us when we were over there two years ago Yes, do get Kedi to put hers up on here and anyone else who has anything.I would love to see them.I also have a Heart Urchin that I found in Parkhurst Forest in a pot hole so will have to dig that out{scuse the pun :D } Julia,If you want to show anyone these photos,then do go ahead as I think the subject is facinating. When we were on the Isle Of White in 1992,we went on one of those Dinasaur treks along the beach with Martin Simpson the resident Palaeontologist and Mr Kandy found a pebble that Martin I dentified as a Gizzard stone and called Mr Kandy a jammy Git for finding it,but silly Mr Kandy put it into the pocket of his shell suit and lost it whern he was looking for other bones.He was most upset. When we were there two years ago I found some of the bone that turns black and it had white deposits running through it. Sorry,got carried away there.The lady who rung me up said she had been off work through illness and would definetly send us info through the post,but never did.Not even sure whether they would keep the photos I sent to them or whether they would have been shredded.Any other infromation you might need then give me a shout and I will try to provide it. Thankyou for your time in reading this
I've sent the link to this post to my best friend, Kandy. She's in New Zealand at the moment so she's asleep while we're awake, but hopefully she'll have a chance to look at the pictures. I have no talent for finding fossils whatsoever. It's something of a running joke. All my friends find them. :(
