Manuports; Gastrolith w/ two mimetoliths

[meetmaker]

Gastroliths are stones ingested to aid digestion. Not just for modern birds, dinosaurs and marine reptiles used them, some maybe even for ballast. The study of gastroliths illustrates a weakness common to the fields of Paleontology and Archaeology. The "Holy Grail" of gastroliths is to be found with the fossil remains of a creature. But these stones have been shown to become disassociated within a few days after death. This makes gastroliths insitu exceedingly rare, effectively shutting the door to much knowledge. With the potential number of gastroliths being high, Paleontologists have devised criteria to identify disassociated gastroliths. This allows a broader field for the study of species, size, distribution, migration, and etc. By these criteria the white stone is "most likely" a gastrolith. The other two specimens ( which react to dilute HCL as limestone) were found in the same peck of dirt on top of a hillock above a dry watercourse, likely curated from the same deposit. Rather then being assigned to the rock pile, these stones provide interesting avenues of study in the field of Paleontology.Also, I personally find the subject of manuports compelling for the glimpses into the prehistoric mind. There is much knowledge of gastroliths just a web search away. For all those who scan the ground as we walk, Gastroliths can make an interesting addition to a collection.

[manoman]

Cool post! I always have had a wild hair theory (I have a few) that ancient mankind sought out gastroliths for use as hammerstones. This is purely speculation and daydreaming, but I would think that the dino's and other animals that needed them would have sought out the hardest stones that would last the longest in their digestive systems, making them superior hammerstones. At one time, I foolishly thought that mammoth and mastadon used gastroliths and mentioned this to a few people. Lucky for me they were kindly sorts and just smiled.

I have a friend who has a few gastroliths and they are fascinating!

[DesertWalker]

Actually have found some smaller ones that almost looked like they were tumbled. I figgered they were "gizzard stones" from larger birds.

[meetmaker]

That white gastrolith would make a dandy hammer stone. When I picked it up I was thinking hammer stone. Nice weight, comfortable, variable striking surfaces,shallow surface features that look like impact marks, found on a site with artifacts. Not a stone to stone tool but great for softening an urine pickled hide or pounding meat. As it turns out, the creature thought it would make a good hammer stone also, those surface features are impact marks. Ohio didn't have dinosaurs, we had "Sea Monsters".

[Mud Hawk]

Informative post meetmaker. I had to look up the urine/tanning snippet:

From Wikipedia:

In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used. Ancient civilizations used leather for waterskins, bags, harnesses, boats, armor, quivers, scabbards, boots and sandals. Tanning was being carried out by the South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh between 7000–3300 BC.[2] Around 2500 BC, the Sumerians began using leather, affixed by copper studs, on chariot wheels.

Skins typically arrived at the tannery dried stiff and dirty with soil and gore. First, the ancient tanners would soak the skins in water to clean and soften them. Then they would pound and scour the skin to remove any remaining flesh and fat. Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair fibers from the skin. This was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply letting the skin putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. After the hair fibers were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife.

Once the hair was removed, the tanners would bate the material by pounding dung into the skin or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were that of dogs or pigeons. Sometimes the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple, but not too soft. The ancient tanner might use his bare feet to knead the skins in the dung water, and the kneading could last two or three hours.

It was this combination of urine, animal feces and decaying flesh that made ancient tanneries so odiferous.

Children employed as dung gatherers were a common sight in ancient cities. Also common were "piss-pots" located on street corners, where human urine could be collected for use in tanneries or by washerwomen. In some variations of the process, cedar oil, alum or tannin were applied to the skin as a tanning agent. As the skin was stretched, it would lose moisture and absorb the agent.

Leftover leather would be turned into glue. Tanners would place scraps of hides in a vat of water and let them deteriorate for months. The mixture would then be placed over a fire to boil off the water to produce hide glue.

Variations of these methods are still used by do-it-yourself outdoorsmen to tan hides. The use of brains and the idea that each animal (except buffalo) has just enough brains for the tanning process have led to the saying "Every animal has just enough brains to preserve its own hide, dead or alive".

[Cluton]

I'm a taxidermist here in Texas, maybbe I should try it! Hang this shoulder mount over your couch, don't worry about the piss and feces smell, just enjoy the artwork!lol!

[neralich]

This has been an interesting and informative post!

Although....I'm not so sure that I would know if I ever found such a stone.
..So many naturally smooth and polished river stones, etc.

Still an interesting post, Meetmaker,, and I will keep an eye out
for these kinds of stones.....
Which, will probably be a 5 gallon bucket of smoothly polished "nothings"

Jason

[meetmaker]

What set this stone apart from other smoothed stones is surface features like shallow rippled ridges. Those would be from the muscle action of grinding. I had found several sites on line dealing with gastroliths which provided a check list of sorts. Actually finding a stone in-situ ( in a fossil skeleton) is so rare that much knowledge would be lost if only those would be studied. The one I have pictured meets all the points but one.

[neralich]

Thanks for the observation. Makes sense....(the ripple ridges)