Blessed with some amazing discoveries

Given how pyrite forms, inclusions are not unusual.

Interesting article here, I learned a few things. :slight_smile:

The Many Faces of Fool's Gold | American Scientist.

Here’s a larger photo, hope this helps a bit. There was a host of strange things found inside of the crystals of this stone that scientist could not ID or explain. I sent two of those colorful clusters to a scientist to exam, they said that these things were extremely high in carbon and titanium, but no one had a clue as to what they were or how nature could have created them. Had someone put me in contact with a geochemist that has collected and studied pyrite from all over the world. He said that he has never seen or heard of anything like this but encouraged me to keep asking questions. He also told that he did not understand why I was still alive, said that based on something I showed him and told him, that there was a good chance that this stone could have killed me. Geez, talk about a rude but thankful awakening.


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I don’t believe a word of what you are saying there. This little chunk of rock could have killed you? How? Is the “scientist” who told you this still alive? If so, why didn’t it kill him, and why would he closely examine something that he believed would kill a person?

Don’t eat it then.

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To be clear, it seems you are entirely aware and clear that this isn’t what actually happened, right?

Yep, totally clear, that was just a story that I made up. As for the part about the stone could have killed me. Pyrite should give off a sulfur smell, but I could not smell it from this stone, I had read that if you heat it up a bit that you should be able to smell the sulfur so I heated it up and tried it but still did not smell anything, I even heated it and placed it in a bowl and took a very deep breath and still no sulfur smell. If you look at the photo of the stone above and look at the middle outer left side of it, you will see a pink colored area, it’s also seen a few more time on the back. I’m not sure how much is throughout the stone, but I was told that is realgar, which is an arsenic sulfide and when heated and inhaled it can kill with just a small amount. It looked like smooth wax at first and over time it turned grainy. I’m told that it is safe to handle the stone but should wash hands afterwards.

What is the value of the made-up story?

Don’t try this at home, kids.

Seriously, you shouldn’t mess around with breathing sulphur fumes, or other home chemistry experiments that could be harmful. Just because you didn’t suffer immediate harm doesn’t make it a good idea.

If you feel the need to live dangerously through chemistry, then check out Derek Lowe’s Things I Won’t Work With posts for some amazingly bad ideas.
Good introduction here: Derek Lowe's Things I Won't Work With

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Its a pretty little stone that looks like a consolidation of iron pyrite crystals. Plus assorted inclusions and flotsam. I think there is a tendancy to slant the ordinary and unidentifiable toward the extraordinary and mysterious.

  1. The worm of an unknown genus. That could be a worm or maybe a tiny millipede, and its simply unidentifiable bc its small and dried out. That is not as exciting as “unknown genus”.
  2. A Conodont? That other thing looks vaguely like a Conodont, but so what? That does not mean it is. Random bits of plant might look like a Conodont. Just bc someone suggests that it looks like one does not mean it is one.
  3. A bit of aluminum that could not be explained. Again that just means someone does not know the particular provenance. But having such a thing in a consolidated rock is not unusual. Is that the bent piece of metal? Why not a man-made contaminant?
  4. The red yellow and blue thing could be paper or plastic. Or both.
  5. There is also a bit of root.

Thanks for the clarification. I suspect you may be misremembering what that scientist said, and it was probably more along the lines of “You could get yourself killed if you’re not more careful.”

The story was just something that I felt at the time, so I wrote it down. I have to admit that the comment about dying was an eye opener for me and I do remember what was said, sort of made me feel lucky and dumb at the same time. I am in no position to argue about what any of this stuff is or isn’t, I can only show what I found and relay what the experts said about them. Like I said, this is a very long story, and this stone and everything in it is just the tip of the spear. In 2015, I preserved the stone as best I could and had it locked away. I don’t have a clue as to where I picked this stone up from, I believe that I’ve had this stone since the early 1990’s. All of a sudden, I found myself with a lot of time on my hand, so I bought a metal detector to play with and this is where things really got strange. To make a long story short, I now have a host of life forms that cannot be identified or explained. I know, this all sounds crazy and unreal.

You might want to read about how iron pyrite is formed - I posted a link above. Given that it is a bacterial process, it doesn’t seem surprising there could be embedded fossil inclusions

That’s not to say thay mineralogy is not a fascinating subject, it is, but I think much of what you have found might be explained with a visit to your local library.

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Not really, no. The only somewhat remarkable thing about this story is that you think it is so remarkable.

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I dunno @Faizal_Ali a lot of things in the world are pretty stunning. We often acclimate to them, but fresh eyes see their wonder in fresh ways some time. I don’t see reason to disparage that.

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It’s not so much my lack of understanding about pyrite that keeps me curious about this stone, it’s due to the fact that almost everything that’s found in this pyrite can’t be identified or explained by any of the scientist I have contacted. Finding two life forms that could be 220 million years old that looked so well preserved, yep, that’s going to make me curious. I was told that they were most likely preserved by the pyrite, and I’ve read several articles about how it happens. I was told that if I were to have one scanned it would most likely have a composition of sulfur and iron. I had an edx analysis done on that little worm and once again, like so many other things about this stone, I got results that no one could explain. Finding two life forms that can’t be easily explained is no big deal but finding several, yep, I’m going to be curious as heck about that.
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It’s not clear what you mean by “can’t be explained.” They do look like worms, and fossil worms are pretty cool in my book, but what else are you asking? If you knew more about the location and geology where you found them in, that might tell you something.

Try this: where might iron pyrite be forming today? That would be a swamp or bog. What sort of worms live in that environment?

OK, full disclosure, I asked ChatGPT.

That worm fossil in your photo looks a lot like a nematode to me.

More from ChatGPT. I asked:

What sort of worm fossils might be found in 220 million years old iron pyrite?

If what is in those pictures were anything like 220 million years old, that would be a very significant find indeed.

Maybe. Nematodes have been around longer than that (confirmed from a source other than ChatGPT). Being able to photograph it NOT embedded in pyrite makes me wonder about possible contamination.

Never a paleontologist around when we really need one. :wink: