Frog effigy - my favorite find

[springcreekoutdoors]

I don't post enough and just wanted to share my favorite find so far in my couple years of hunting.
When I picked this piece up it was upside down in the water and just looked like a fairly ordinary hardstone.  After looking at it for a moment i noticed the odd shape and how perfectly symmetrical it was.  I thought I should keep it although I still didn't know what I had found - I did know it had to be something - at this time I was still in my first year of artifact hunting...
After staring at it for a good while later on it became apparent from the arch of the back, the protruding eye sockets, and stand out legs that this thing was a frog.  I got with my hunting buddy (archaic) to confirm and sure enough, what a find!
The pics don't really do it justice, the arch in the back is very prominent along with the split for the legs in the back.  We *think* there are traces of paint on the left eye and one of the legs in the rear which cannot be seen in the pics.

[arrow719]

Are you sure that's not a fossilized clam?

[painshill]

arrow719 wrote:

Are you sure that's not a fossilized clam?

Hmmmm.... that was my reaction too. It appears to me to be an eroded steinkern (the internal fossil mould) of a "heart clam". I couldn't find a picture taken from exactly the same angle as in your pictures, but this should give you some idea of the similarity:

[pic by Kris on the Austin Diggers website]

[SDhunter]

You guys are amazing!

[CMD]

Rib-bit

[OBION]

SDhunter wrote:

You guys are amazing!

  I second that

[springcreekoutdoors]

I can see the resemblance but we're positive about what it is.  The pictures tone down the detail in it and don't do it justice, it's something you'd have to hold to appreciate really.
Thank you guys for the kind words!  Another youtube video is in the works but we really need a serious rain/wash first

[painshill]

springcreekoutdoors wrote:

I can see the resemblance but we're positive about what it is.  The pictures tone down the detail in it and don't do it justice, it's something you'd have to hold to appreciate really.
Thank you guys for the kind words!  Another youtube video is in the works but we really need a serious rain/wash first

  What is it that makes you "positive"? I'm equally sure it's the internal steinkern from a heart clam, lacking the detail of the shell which has eroded away. I think it's probably Protocardia texana, although there are other similar species. Knowing where you found it might narrow down which clam species it is.

[SDhunter]

That doesn't look anymore like a frog than I do.  Just saying....   :whistle:

[Olden]

[CMD]

Olden, that is absolutely priceless :rolf:

[CMD]

springcreekoutdoors wrote:

I can see the resemblance but we're positive about what it is.  The pictures tone down the detail in it and don't do it justice, it's something you'd have to hold to appreciate really.
Thank you guys for the kind words!  Another youtube video is in the works but we really need a serious rain/wash first

  I think if you show it to an invertebrate paleontologist, you will be told it is indeed a fossil clam, and not a man made effigy at all. The resemblance is due to the fact that it is a fossil clam.

[springcreekoutdoors]

Maybe some paleontologists can step in here, what material would a fossil 'seem' to be made of, and how heavy would it be?
That's a cute meme, thanks for the laugh

[JoshinMO]

Those details vary a bit i imagine. Neat thing whatever it is.
BTW,  the decade i have been using artifact forums there may have been 4 or 5 archaeologists that had anything to say about items posted and shared. There may be 1 or 2 regulars as far as I know. Mostly hunters and collectors frequent the forums...

[clovisoid]

Nice clam.
Many of us have had pieces we loved either turn out to be geofacts or fakes (for those who buy.)  It doesn't feel good, but it happens.