My son and I found this next to a reservoir in a super crumbly wall. We gave it to the rangers (we weren’t allowed to keep, since it was on public land).
We also found this,but have no idea what it is:
I’ve asked a couple paleontologists and they also weren’t sure.
Re: the mystery piece- My paleontologist buddy says “You’re on the Cretaceous right? That is a Baculite. A cephalopod. Related to belemnites and modern squid. Nice piece. Good find.”
I figured he’d know. It looked similar to a belemnite and that’s his thing. He goes out there a lot.
Oh wow! That’s amazing! Given the 4 or 5 chambers in the top picture I figured was something interesting. I forgot to get a picture of it in-situ, but the sediment layers curved around it which I thought was interesting.
Is your buddy in Colorado as well?
I think it’s Cretaceous (especially given the ammonite we found), but the geology in that State Park is very wonky. All the sediment layers are perfectly vertical where I found the piece.
Nah, he’s over here next to the Jurassic Coast. One of his sites, though, is out there. I think he’s comparing belemnites. He gave me a bag of them! :) I am envious of those sediment layers. I wish a quarter of my holocene sediments were so nice lmfao.
Ah, a Brit! My son read a biography of Mary Anning when he was younger, and now is obsessed with Jurassic/Cretaceous aquatic reptiles! I’ll post a fun thing in that regard soon.
As for your holocene (well, Pleistocene in this case I guess) itch, my son and I just visited Hot Springs, South Dakota a couple weeks ago:
