I found a fossil in the Grand Canyon about two years ago. I was hiking into camp in the town of Supai. I found it on my way out, along the trail. It looks like a scallop shell. It is in a sandstone type rock. Any ideas/comments? I am curious.
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 2
-
It probably is just that, a scallop shell. Scallops and Trilobite fossils are not uncommon in sandstone, shale and limestone type rocks. I found a trilobite fossil once myself as a kid. They really aren't worth anything but they are a cool little conversation piece.
-
The shell may have come from the huge inland sea that covered the areas east of the Grand Canyon covering most of western Colorado Eastern Utah and into New Mexico. when the sea finally over flowed the natural dam it broke sending billions of acre feet of water down forming the Grand Canyon not in millions of years but in a relativly short period of time. Your shell most likely formed either in the sea or from the settling of the sand as the water receded. A parallel to this occured after the Mt. St. Helens eruption 30 or so years ago only on a smaller scale.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC