Rockingham man finds curious 'fossils'?

By Internet Photojournalist John Myers

Jim Garris shows a large quartz rock he believes to be the fossilized skull of some unknown prehistoric creature.

Where most folks see rocks, Jim Garris sees monsters -- fossilized prehistoric creatures.
Growing up as a Boy Scout roaming the woods of the Roberdel community of Richmond County, NC, Garris hunted arrowheads, but since he took college courses on geology in the '70s, he's hunted fossils.
He worked in the Myrtle Beach, SC, area as a graphic artist for 20 years before moving back home three years ago. He began his hobby of collecting fossils while living at the beach and he has a collection of fossilized shark teeth and vertebrae he picked up walking beaches.
And deep in the woods near his home on Park Avenue in Rockingham, NC, Garris has found some rocks he believes are evidence of prehistoric creatures buried and fossilized there.

Rocks or fossils?

"When you find rocks that look like animals or wood, they probably were animals and wood," he said.
Garris has collected hunks of petrified wood and what he believes are animal fossils from the old Covington farm half a mile in the woods from his home. And two of the biggest rocks he carted back home he believes are heads of prehistoric animals that roamed there.
Both of the stone "heads" weigh quite a bit. Garris said he took three days to carry them out, carrying them 35 yards or so and putting them down to rest, then carrying further.
"It looks like quartz rock, but I think it's petrified organic material, or fossilized," he said. The largest of the two "heads" appears to be sandstone with quartz elements, he added.
"This whole Sandhills area used to be a Triassic basin, and there's outcroppings of white rocks that look like animals all through this area."
Garris said the area along Ledbetter Road and around Ledbetter Lake has hundreds of outcroppings of the white rocks like those he found on the Covington farm near his home.
The Hoffman and Norman areas, and most of the Sandhills, have similar rock formations.

Fossils everywhere?

Jim Garris has found many rocks in woods near his home he believes to be fossils.

"I'll be riding along Ledbetter Road and see white rocks in driveways that look like a skull or a leg bone. I don't stop and dig them up because people would think I'm crazy. You can't dig up every rock you see. After you find a few, everything starts looking like a dinosaur or a giant wart hog.
"I've had a hard time trying to explain to some people how a rock could become a fossil. I just give up after about 30 minutes. It's just rocks to somebody and fossils to others."
The two stone "heads" Garris found don't look like any creatures he's been able to identify. He said the largest one "might be a giant land sloth. They weighed about 10 tons. Whatever it was, I would have run from it."
The other "head" has similarities to an alligator, but unlike any alligator he has seen.
Garris has also found many rocks he believes are petrified or fossilized eggs, ranging in size from larger than two fists to as small as a modern-day bird's egg. Many are commonly called Indian paint rocks, but he believes they are actually eggs, with the round center the fossilized egg yolk.
"It's a good hobby to have if you don't get poison ivy or get bit by a snake," he said.

Experts doubt rocks are fossils

Experts contacted for opinions about the possible fossils discovered by Garris are doubtful about the quartz "heads" and the egg-shaped rocks.
Three experts said they are naturally occurring rocks, not fossils of prehistoric animals.

Dr. P.R. Rankin of Ellerbe, left, talks with Jim Garris about some of the rocks he found.

Dr. P.R. Rankin of Ellerbe, NC, founder of the Rankin Museum of American and Natural History, viewed some of the rocks found by Garris and said he had never heard of quartz rocks becoming fossils.
"I've never seen fossilized quartz before," Rankin said. But he hesitated about offering an opinion on whether the rocks found by Garris could actually be fossils and suggested contacting some museum archaeologists or paleontologists for expert opinions.

Dr. Gandy's opinion

Dr. Ralph E. Gandy Jr., a Rockingham veterinarian, also saw the rocks Garris found. And though he said he couldn't offer a professional opinion as he is not a paleontologist or archaeologist, Gandy said he was impressed by the largest rock as a possible "head."
"It is awful strange-looking" and has features that "looked like teeth, eye sockets and temporal lobes that you could pretty well identify," he said. "That thing's ancient if it is a fossil of some type. It certainly looks like a fossil."

Dr. May's opinion

Also contacted were the Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia, NC, and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, for opinions from their experts.
Photos of the rocks found by Garris were sent by e-mail for analysis to Dr. J. Alan May, Curator of Archaeology at the Schiele Museum. May viewed the digital images and replied, "I have looked at the ... images and conclude that all are natural formations."
His analysis of the larger "head" is that it is "a naturally occurring vein quartz cobble with numerous voids where softer minerals have weathered away."
He said the alligator-shaped rock "appears to be an unmodified vein quartz cobble."
May said the two rocks "may have been shaped by a stream or a river."
He also concluded that the largest of the egg-shaped rocks "appears also to be an unmodified cobble that is heavily patinated. The smoothness may be due largely to the action of water -- fine suspended sediment 'blast' the surface of the stone over many millennium. The mineral composition may be vein quartz, but the surface has been stained by minerals in solution in water or soil."
The smaller egg-shaped rock was also likely shaped by water, and May said it may have been used to make arrowheads. "Small pebbles like these were probably used in the process of manufacturing points like those found in archaeological sites across the state."
May concluded, "The relative smoothness of all of these specimens is an indication of not only antiquity but also mechanical processes associated with weathering."

Dr. Schneider's views

Dr. Vince Schneider, Curator of Paleontology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, was also sent photographs of the same rocks by e-mail for his comments.
He concluded, "The large block of quartz is not a skull, but just a block of quartz rock." "The large 'egg' shaped rock is not an egg, but a diabase nodule. Also the broken 'egg' shaped rocks are also diabase nodules. You also have a quartz pebble.
"Yes, there are some fossils (that) have been replaced by quartz. A good example is some petrified woods."

Dr. Russell's opinion

Dr. Dale Russell, Senior Curator of Paleontology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, was also sent photographs of the same rocks by e-mail for his comments.
He concluded the two quartz "heads" and the egg-shaped rocks are "not fossils."
Russell said the quartz head-shaped rock is natural in origin. "The nodule is not a fossil." He also examined photos of the egg-shaped rocks and concluded they are also mineral.
"The spherical objects are clearly egg-shaped, but they do not appear to have a thin layer of shell at the surface. Shell is quite distinctive, and certainly does identify eggs. Because spherical concretions are so common, and there is no obvious indication that these are eggs, the odds are very, very, very large that they are mineral in origin."