A good ten years ago I was looking for a nice chunk of marble to sculpt in. High in the Apenine Alps near La Colonata above Carrara I found a remarkable piece (40x33cm.) in shell-like shape. Due to the high pressure, there are normally no more fossils to be found in marble. Do you also think this is special? Can this former animal be named? Is this rare enough to be valuable to your collection?
Answer
Dear Hugo
Marble is a metamorphic transformation of limestone and unfortunately no fossils are preserved during the recrystallization of the lime. This is therefore most likely not a fossil. To know what it is, you should at least have more views. I suspect that there is a layered structure in the rock and that erosion has done the rest. The jet-shaped pattern may have been caused by the action of explosives when breaking away from a road to a quarry or when operating the quarry itself.
Answered by
Prof. dr. Robert Speijer
Geology – Paleontology – Paleoclimatology. You study geology in Leuven!
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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