9/10/20 Report - Bigger Surf Predicted. A World In A Grain of Sand or Little Things Mean a Lot. Taking a Closer Look.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Smallest Shark Fossil Tooth I Ever Found.

I've been taking a closer look at some common things you'll find on the beach, and especially some very tiny things.  The small shark tooth above is huge compared to some of them.

I'm reminded of the William Blake poem that begins, To see a World in a Grain of Sand.

You might be surprised by the worlds you've been stepping over.  You see the sand, but how about the rocks.

I picked this one up recently.  

Sample 1.

It is made of a very fine grain clay-like material.  Below is a closer view.   I made the scratches with a knife when I was in the field.  

Although there doesn't appear to be much in that mudrock, there is stuff in it other than the clay, and there is stuff that adheres to the surface.   If I magnified the surface you could see shells and some other things - perhaps even a few very small fossils.

Here is another rock I picked up on the same day on the same beach.  It is a harder rock. You can see a few of the shells embedded in it.  Some are deeply embedded, while others are sticking out of the surface.

Sample 2.

Here is a closer view of the same rock that shows a section that is about a half inch across.

Sample 2.

Now you can see that the rock is very granular and composed of sand and pieces of shell and other things all stuck together to form a very hard rock. 

The black little piece to the left and just above center, I believe is a small fossil - perhaps a broken piece of a fossil.

But that is not all.  I'll turn the rock over to show you the other side.

Same Rock (Sample 2)
Showing Mineralized Remains Of A Seashell.

There is a hole that goes completely through the rock where a shell once was embedded.  The shell was replaced by calcite and/or silica crystals, and that is all that remains of the seashell.  Here is a closer view.

Crystals in Beach Rock.

And here is a view of the crystal surrounding the hole where the shell once was.

Crystals in Beach Rock.

There is a lot more to that rock and the story it tells than you might imagine.  There are also fossils and other things in it.  Some of the fossils you can easily see with the naked eye, and others you can't.

There is an entire field of micropaleontology, which is is the branch of paleontology that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and its characteristic details.

I recently broke down a piece of sandstone, about one cubic inch, and using magnification found about twenty fossils in it.  

One common method is to use acid to dissolve the rock.  I crushed it.

I selected this one small piece for investigation because I could see a few larger fossils on the surface.  That included a fish vertebra and a few other small broken pieces of bone.

You can see some microfossils with the naked eye, but not well.  By definition, micro fossils are between 0.001mm and 1 mm in size.  You can see 0.5 mm fossils as a speck, so magnification is necessary.   Thousands of microfossils can be found in a bucket of material.  With the naked eye you can see many small fossils and pieces of fosil on the surface of some rocks.  

Microfossils are especially noteworthy for their importance in biostratigraphy. Since microfossils are very abundant, widespread, and quick to appear and disappear from the stratigraphic record.  They can tell you a lot from a biostratigraphic perspective.  

You can often see the layers in sandstone.  In one piece I have, with magnification I can see a layer of shell pieces of about the same size, and can imagine how they settled as a layer, perhaps in a slow moving stream, before becoming a part of that rock.

The mudrock I showed above, is composed of very fine grains that would have settled in calm waters.  That goes along with my theory of how some of the fossils ended up on that beach.   

If I knew more about micropaleontolgy I could analyze the microfossils and would know much more of the story that the rock would tell.  As it is, I am just beginning to learn a smidgen about microfossils, and haven't even scratched the surface.  No pun intended.

Here are some microfossils as shown in one paleontology article.

Source: See the palaeo-electronica.org link below.

You can even find micro shark teeth, as well as other types of fish teeth and bones.

Here is the link for the photo of microfossils shown immediately above.

See https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2013/188-382/566-microfossil-extraction-figures#f6

With my scope I have been able to see a number of what appear to be microfossils on the surface of some rocks, and I have physically broken some small pieces of rock to free other microfossils.  

Here is one microfossil as it appeared on the surface of the rock. 

Fossil On Sandstone.

Here is another view of the same fossil after it was removed from the rock.

Microfossil Removed From Beach Rock.

The line shown for scale is .125 mm.

Well, I'll wrap this up.  The point I'm making is there is a lot you can find on the beach.  Much of it you will only see if you look closely.  

You can learn a lot by looking closer.  The beach rocks tell a story - more than you might imagine.  They tell you their history, and a lot more.  Don't be surprised if you even see signs of treasure.

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I didn't plan to go on so long about that today, but there is a lot more that I could have said.  I'll just quit there for now.

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From small to big...

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

It is really getting active out there in the Atlantic.

And we are going to get some bigger surf soon.

Source: magicseaweed.com.

It looks like by Saturday we'll be getting 3 tou 5 feet, and then maybe Tuesday 5 - 8 feet.

That could get interesting.

Keep watching.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net