Home | Back

Boy finds tiny piece of history: Rock found in Portage at least 300 million years old

Share_print Print Story    |    Comments    |   

Mike Sever
June 27, 2010

 

By Mike Sever

Record-Courier staff writer

A Ravenna Township boy recently found a piece of this area’s history that goes back millions of years.

A few weeks ago Brody Hebb, 6, was out looking for arrowheads. Brody, who wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up, was walking in a recently plowed field in northern Portage County with his father, John Hebb, and a family friend.

Instead of an arrowhead, Brody found an unusual rock which he showed his father and his father’s friend. At first glance, they thought it looked like the knob of a thigh bone. But John Hebb said he thought it “looked like it had lizard skin or something” on it. The gray, rounded surface was covered with small angular segments. The interior of the rock looked like porous bone.

All agreed it was a most unusual rock. Hebb’s friend knew someone who works as a geologist, so she took the rock and had it analyzed.

It turns out the rock is actually a piece of agatized coral fossil dated to be 300 million to 400 million years old. It was formed when what is now North America was covered by shallow, warm seas during the Paleozoic Era.

The rock has been identified as an example of Favosites (or Hexagonia), a colonial coral made up of invertebrate animals. Many species of Favosites were called knee cap or elbow corals because they resembled joint bones. 

Brody is hanging on to his find and continues to keep his eye out for arrowheads.

Brody’s mom, Miranda Hebb, said she thought her son’s discovery might influence other kids “to get outdoors and explore” this summer, rather than sit at home playing video games.

 




Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed. Recordpub.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.

Login above or Register to comment.
 2 Total Comments
2.
    Posted by MGirl1964 June 30, 2010
It is nice to read stories about real people living real lives and incorporate a little local history with it. Thanks to the R/C, need more of this kind of writing.

1.
    Posted by MyThoughts June 28, 2010
Great story.

Home | Back