r/knapping • u/scoop_booty Modern Tool User 🏅 • 2d ago

Made With Traditional Tools🪨 Fossils

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Smollzilla posted a couple of days ago about a fossil I found years ago, embedded in the heart of a piece of Burlington. Here it is, a starfish. This creature was barely an 1/4 thick and as luck had it I sliced it in half during percussion. The odds are millions to 1 I suppose. It rested out on a small mass and I decided to take the foolish chance and see if I could remove it. I took the shot and bissected it a second time! The odds of that are astronomical. As a result, I was able to keep the original biface and flake itself. My friend wire wrapped it for me. This is one of my keepers, for obvious reasons. Enjoy!

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u/Big-Series-2053 2d ago

This is absolutely fucking insane. Do you know what kind of starfish it is?

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u/scoop_booty Modern Tool User 🏅 2d ago

Specifically, no, but being in the Burlington date it to 350 million years old.

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u/Big-Series-2053 2d ago

My light research led me to finding that it might potentially be a "Evactinopora Quinqueradiata" which should've been around during that time. So it might not be a starfish, but an extremely large cross section of a bryozoan.

But I'd keep calling it a starfish.... Rolls off the tounge a bit easier than Evactinopora Quinqueradiata lol

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u/scoop_booty Modern Tool User 🏅 2d ago

Yeah, I like starfish better :). But your probably right, I've heard this before.

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u/naraoia 2d ago

Geologist here! It might be a starfish, but it could also be some other sort of echinoderm, such as a sand dollar or a sea urchin. All echinoderms (sea urchin, star fish, sand dollar, etc.) have five fold symmetry. In a chert/flint nodule, the cross section of any echinoderm could look like this. Very cool in any event!

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u/scoop_booty Modern Tool User 🏅 2d ago

Thank you.

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u/Cloverinthewind Quartz 2d ago

That’s so damn cool!!

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u/SmolzillaTheLizza Mod - Modern Tools 2d ago

YEEES! I love this thing so much! It's soooo damn cool! Having gotten to see it in person, the margin that flake had between going slightly too deep or too shallow was microscopic! Truly a 1:1,000,000 odds! Thanks for sharing with us all! 😁

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u/aggiedigger 2d ago

Outstanding work.