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Found a weird rock on the trail that looked like a fossil
Turns out it was just a chunk of concrete with a leaf imprint, but it made me realize how many people mistake old construction debris for real fossils around here. Has anyone else noticed those scattered pieces on the gravel paths near the river?
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matthew1662mo ago
Man, you just unlocked a memory. I swear half the "fossils" my kid brings home from the gravel lot are just old driveway chunks with nail holes in them.
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kellys782mo ago
Nail holes are usually from fence boards, not driveways...
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young.nora2mo ago
Tbh I used to get fooled by that stuff all the time too. What finally worked for me was bringing a small magnifying glass and actually looking at the texture close up. Real fossils usually have a different feel to them, like the rock itself is denser and the pattern looks more natural. The concrete chunks always feel lighter and rougher, and the leaf imprints look too perfect and flat. I also started checking the edges to see if they're sharp and squared off, which concrete usually is. Once you train your eye to spot those little differences, it gets way easier to tell what's what.
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