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?
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Hi OP, I thought would be a great question for the newly created Geology group, so I posted a link to it there and got this great answer -- in short:
Go and read the full answer for more details!
If you're happy with the answers you've got could you edit your title to add [SOLVED] at the end? Thanks, Michael
Thank you, much appreciated!
Could you edit your title to add [SOLVED]
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