Animals Sealed In Stones

[Mysteryman]

I came along this site during research and just captured my interest. Thought you guys might want to discuss this wierd bring-up.

http://paranormal.about.com/od/earthmysteries/a/aa011704.htm

Amazing cases of living frogs, toads and lizards found encased within solid rock.

ONE OF THE greatest Warner Bros. cartoons of all time is the one about the singing frog. A construction worker, demolishing an old building, finds a time capsule in the cornerstone. When he opens it, out leaps a grinning green frog, which commences to dance and sing old show tunes: "Hello, my baby... hello, my honey... hello, my ragtime gal...." The construction worker is amazed and quickly sees that this astonishing find will make his fortune. He quits his job and opens a theatre starring his talented amphibian. When the curtain rises on opening night, however, the frog just sits and croaks.

The construction worker never questions how the frog was able to sing and dance. He doesn't even question how it managed to survive so long in an airtight time capsule without food or water.

But then, this is just a cartoon, right? Nothing to do with reality.

You think so? In fact, there are many documented cases of toads, frogs and other small animals inexplicably found encased within solid rock - alive! Granted, they do not sing or dance, but these amphibious enigmas are one of the most perplexing mysteries of geology. Here are some of those cases:

In 1761, Ambroise Pare, physician to Henry III of France, related the following account to the Annual Register: "Being at my seat near the village of Meudon, and overlooking a quarryman whom I had sent to break some very large and hard stones, in the middle of one we found a huge toad, full of life and without any visible aperture by which it could get there. The laborer told me it was not the first time he had met with a toad and the like creatures within huge blocks of stone."

In 1865, the Hartlepool Free Press reported that excavators working on a block of magnesium limestone taken from about 25 feet underground near Hartlepool, England, discovered a cavity within the stone that contained a live toad. "The cavity was no larger than its body, and presented the appearance of being a cast of it. The toad's eyes shone with unusual brilliancy, and it was full of vivacity on its liberation. It appeared, when first discovered, desirous to perform the process of respiration, but evidently experienced some difficulty, and the only sign of success consisted of a 'barking' noise, which it continues to make invariably at present on being touched. The toad is in the possession of Mr. S. Horner, the president of the Natural History Society, and continues in as lively a state as when found. On a minute examination of its mouth is found to be completely closed, and the barking noise it makes proceeds from its nostrils. The claws of its fore feet are turned inwards, and its hind ones are of extraordinary length and unlike the present English toad. The toad, when first released, was of a pale colour and not readily distinguished from the stone, but shortly after its colour grew darker until it became a fine olive brown."

Around the same time, an article in Scientific American related how a silver miner named Moses Gaines found a toad inside a two-foot diameter boulder. The article stated that the toad was "three inches long and very plump and fat. Its eyes were about the size of a silver cent piece, being much larger than those of toads of the same size as we see every day. They tried to make him hop or jump by touching him with a stick, but he paid no attention." A later article in Scientific American said: "Many well authenticated stories of the finding of live toads and frogs in solid rock are on record."

In 1821, Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine wrote how David Virtue, a stone mason, was working on a large chunk of rock that had come from about 22 feet below the surface when "he found a lizard embedded in the stone. It was coiled up in a round cavity of its own form, being an exact impression of the animal. It was about an inch and a quarter long, of a brownish yellow color, and had a round head, with bright sparkling projecting eyes. It was apparently dead, but after being about five minutes exposed to the air it showed signs of life. It soon ran about with much celerity."

During World War II, a British soldier was working with a team in the quarrying of stone for making roads and filling in bomb craters. They often used explosives to crack open the rock. After one such detonation, the soldier pried a stone slab away from the quarry face when he saw "in a pocket in the rock a large road and beside it a lizard at least nine inches long. Both these animals were alive, and the amazing thing was that the cavity they were in was at least 20 feet from the top of the quarry face."

Live toads and frogs have also popped out from inside impossible tight and enclosed spaces within trees that were being cut open:

The French Academy of Sciences published an account in a 1719 edition of it Memories of the felling of a large elm tree. In the exact center of the trunk, about four feet above the root, was found "a live toad, middle-sized but lean and filling up the whole vacant space."

The Uitenhage Times of South Africa in 1876 printed the experience of timbermen who were cutting a tree into planks, when deep inside of it a hole was found containing 68 small toads, each about the size of a grape. "They were of a light brown, almost yellow color, and perfectly healthy, hopping about and away as if nothing had happened. All about them was solid yellow wood, with nothing to indicate how they could have got there, how long they had been there, or how they could have lived without food, drink, or air."

Odder still, it is not just natural stone and trees in which these impossibles occur:

When a castle wall was being demolished in September 1770, a live toad was plucked from the solid plaster. That wall had stood undisturbed for more than 40 years.

Renowned biologist Julian Huxley received a letter from a gas fitter in Devonshire, England, who had broken up some concrete flooring to install some pipe extensions: "My mate was at work with a sledge hammer when he dropped it suddenly and said, 'That looks like a frog's leg.' We both bent down and there was the frog. [The] sledge was set aside and I cut the rest of the block carefully. We released 23 perfectly formed but minute frogs which all hopped away to the flower garden."

In 1976, a Fort Worth, Texas construction crew was breaking up some concrete they had set just a year before. Within the broken concrete, a living green turtle was found in an air pocket that matched the shape of the creature's body. If it had somehow got in when the concrete was poured a year earlier, how did it survive over that time? Ironically, the poor turtle died a few days after its release.

There are no easy explanations for these incredible anecdotes. Those who found the creatures nearly always state that there was no discernable way – no small hole, crack, or fissure – by which they could have gotten into these pockets inside the rock. And the pockets are always about the exact size of the animals within – some even bearing an impression of the animal, as if the rock had been cast around it. Even if a fertilized egg of a toad or frog had somehow seeped into the rock cavity, what did it live on? What did it eat, drink and breathe to grow, in some cases, to full size? Being unable to move inside the rock, how did its muscles develop so that it could hop away upon being released? Geologists tell us that rock is formed over thousands of years. How old are these animals?

The most incredible of such anecdotes was recorded in 1856 in France. Workmen laboring in a tunnel for a railway line were cutting through Jurassic limestone when a large creature stumbled out from inside it. It fluttered its wings, made a croaking noise and dropped dead. According to the workers, the creature had a 10-foot wingspan, four legs joined by a membrane, black leathery skin, talons for feet, and a toothed mouth. A local student of paleontology identified the animal as a pterodactyl.

Edited January 17, 2005 by Mysteryman

[JennRose]

As far as I've ever heard these things are true, or at least the people representing it aren't lying. There may be another explanantion. The impression left inside the stone (or coal, in some cases) perfectly fit the animals, like it was formed around them. But it's only reptiles or amphibians found, that I know of. Are they capapblel of such extended hibernation?

Edited January 17, 2005 by JennRose

[Mysteryman]

Honestly, I'm just finding out about this so I am clueless.

Whats so questionable is how for example when the cement was poured in Fort Worth, Texas, a turtle was buried in the cement. How would the turtle survive in the cement due to starvation, dehydration, and the drying up of cement would cause total paralyis to the body causing suffercation. How is this possible? Even if an airbubble were to form in the cement, what would they feed off...

This seems so out of bizarre and so surreal, though truley, I am just bewildered, totally stuck...No idea what to say!!! A solid rock, no gaps including the fact that rocks don't grow and wouldn't regenerate to cover any new gaps, and an amphibian gets in it.

Maybe some animals are just born in the wierdest places - maybe thats how life started. Animals are just born in the most random spots to continue a life cycle their (JUST KIDDING)...

I honestly am clueless beyond this subject....I would like to hear everyones thoughts, ideas, and theories on this though.

[recon_soldier]

strange to say the least

im more curious as to how they got into the solid stone in the first place...

some found over 20 feet into the stone...in cavity's that are no larger than there bodies...would be interesting to find out how old some of these survivors are

[Mysteryman]

I agree...Every single little and big thing about this seems so random and so surreal...I really am having trouble myself believe it...

I mean, when my parents got a new driveway and my steps to the house were taken down, their was a snake under it which was pretty strange, but it was dead, for what it should be, not living in cement?

All I can say is its a messed up freak of nature accident...

[TheCrow]

I think this is an interesting phenomona. My dad has a book, The Readers Digest of Unexplained Phenomona or something and it has stuff about cryptids, spontaneous combustion, sightings or the devil, ghosts etc and it also has a couple reports about people finding frogs/toads in coal or rocks.

There was one that was quite interesting if I remember correctly, so I'll type it up later when I get the book.

[Mysteryman]

Sounds great, type it all in for us!

[DarkSide]

Like you, I have no clue on this subject, I think its amazing though. I expecially think the teradon one would be intresting, i'm surprised that they haven't done DNA tests on any of the animals that cme out of the rock to see what species they are.

[Mysteryman]

Thats why its probably fictional...Don't think it could really be possible -

[recon_soldier]

is it possible we could find any forms of Jurassic age reptiles in the same condition ... a few million years of hybernation could be possible for all we know

[Mysteryman]

Well, like I say, anything is possible. But according to ways of evolution (which we all can't judge), the question to ask is "Can an actual animal hybernate for that great mass amount of time?"

We have some Jurassic animals present day...

Alligator;

Cockroaches;

Iguana;

Horse-shoe Crabs;

It is true though...Though they might have been slightly larger...

(Alligators were probably like sarcosuchus imperators)

(Iguanas evolved from the dinosaurs iguanadons)

(Large cockroaches)

And like many of us said in this forum all over, large rats!

[Lord_Kazius]

im at a loss of words as to how to explain this phenomenon...it is very strange and somewhat random i would say...the pterodactyl one is very interesting but i doubt there is much truth behind it...another thing when they were cutting the stones and wood how come they ddint cut through the animals inside? we heat are home with wood and time to time there are nests of dead squirrels in the logs we cut, most of the time we find them by cutting into them...just a thought on the truth of these accounts..

[Mysteryman]

That is true. [supporting the fact that its most-likely fictional]... When cut or thrown, also, the animal may have caused severe injuries and results of death...This is just one strange mystery.

[Lord_Kazius]

might i say it is an unexplained mystery?

[Shai_Hulud]

Interesting, no complex animal can survive in the circumstances so presented, no oxygen, no food, almost totally immobile. When ampibians are subjected to any one of this factors they die... Maybe a combination of all this could somehow contribute to their survival, yeah right. I would question the evidence of there being no cracks or hole where the animals can crawl into, most of this animals are retrieved only after their environ has been breached and I question the observational skills of quarry workers and such.

If such phenomenon can be commonplace as one of the witness stated, why don't we see evidence nowadays? And a pterdactyl, really? Where are its remains, im sure if such a thing had happened it would be proclaimed as a great scientific discovery. There are too many inconsistencies about this phenomenon.

[Bone_Collector]

Nice find Mysteryman!

I know a story about a famous Indian sculptor called Jakkanna, he was the architect of several beautiful Indian temples. Once, he was commissioned by a king to build a big temple, during this time when he sculpted a beautiful idol, his son said there was some fault in it, Jakkanna challenged his son and said that if he could expose a fault in the idol then he would chop off his very own hands with which he sculpted the idol. When his son split open the idol, then, immediately a frog hopped out of it. Jakkanna kept his word, accepted defeat and chopped off his own hands. This story dates back to 12th century AD, stories like these have been around for a while and all can't be discounted as recent cook ups.

I wonder if there is any consistency in the kind of rocks in which these animals are found, I mean the rock texture, if it is porus or something, allowing these animals to breathe or may be these rocks harbour some kind of fungi on which these creatures feed. I wonder if the rock forms around them or these creatures creep into small holes or fissures in these rocks and grow big inside, not allowing them to crawl out.

Anyways, the whole phenomenon sounds fascinating and almost unbelievable to me.

Here's some of the creations of the sculptor I was speaking about...

[TheCrow]

Readers Digest: Mysteries of the Unexplained. The book is really good and has cool reports/stories of prophecies, dissaperances and stuff to do with monsters as well as other things but below are all the ones about creatures in stone.

A horned lizard that had been found alive in a block of stone "so solid as to preclude the entrance of the smalled insect" was sent to Smithsonian Institution in Washington by Judge Houghton of New Mexico in 1853. The lizard lived for 2 days after it's release.

When the great breakwater of Plymouth, England was being built in the early 19th century, stoen for the job was brought from the marble quarries atOreston on the eastern shore of the Plym estuary. These quarries then covered some 25 acres and were known for the close-grained, finely variegated Devonian marble. The only defect was that here and there wide seams of clay wandered through the 400 million year old ston and in places gave way to partially clay filled caverns.

In one of these caverns, completely surrounded by solid rock, the fossil bones of 3 rhinos were found. Rhinos were common in the area 2 million to 65 million years ago. The cave was 15 ft wide, 45 ft long and 12 ft deep. It lay 70 ft below the surface, 60 ft horrizontally from the edge of the quarry and 160 ft from the edge of the estuary. It contained no stalactites or stalagmites nor any other indication of a former opening. In short, the cave contained no indication, except for perfectly preserved rhino bones, that it had ever been anything but hermetically sealed.

During excavations being made for the hartlepool waterworks in Durham, England in 1865, workmen inadvertantly freed a living toad from a block of magnesian limestone 25 ft below the ground.

The cavity was no larger than its bod, and presented the appearance been a castfor it. The toads eyes shone with unusual brilliancy and it was full of vivacity on its liberation. It appeared, hwne first discovered, desirous to perform the process of respiration but evidently experienced some difficulty and the only sign of success consisted of a 'barking' noise which it continues invariably to make at present on being touched. The toad is in possession of Mr. S Horner, the president of the Natural History Society, and continues in aslively state as when found. On a minute examination of its mouth is found to be completely closed, and he barking noise it makes proceeds from its nostrils. The claws of its forefeet are turned inwards and its hind ones are of extrodinary length and unlike the present English toad. The toad when first released, was of a pale colour and not readily distinguised from the stone but shortly after its colour grew darker until it became a fine olive brown. (this is presented like a quote but there is no name of a quotee)

A local clergyman and geologist, the Reverand Robert Taylor, expressed the opinion that the toad was 6000 years old. The the last report (1865) the creature was to be given a place of honor in the Hartlepool Museum, its "primary habitation" - the rock - being provided for accomodation should it so desire.

In the late 16th century Ambroise Paré, Henrythe 3rds surgeon, saw a "huge toad, full of life" emerge from a large stone just split by workmen near his house at Meudon, France.

A living taod was liberated from a cavity near the center of a large rock by workmen digging for ore at Paswick, Derby, England in 1852. They came upon the rock, actually a large lump of ore, at a depth of 12 feet below ground level and since it was to large for two men to lift, they began to break it with their picks.

The cavity in which they found the toad was nearly 6 inches in diameter, considerably larger than the animal itself and was lined with crystals, perhaps of carbonate of lime. The toad died very soon after been exposed to air.

Then there are a few other accounts which I can't be bothered to type out fully (sorry) so I'll just list the main points in each account.

Like when workmen were preparing the ground for the London-Birmingham railway in 1835 they had to deal with masses of rad sandstone 4 1/2 ft below ground level. The blasted most of it and as one block was throw away it fratured. In one of the cavities in one of the peices they found a living toad. When it was first exposed to air it was a bright brown but after 10 minutes it was black. it was quite plump and smaller than other toads. It seemed 'opressed' and frequently gasping, having, or so it seemed, sustained a head injury. They put it back into the cavity and sealed it with clay but the animal died four days later.

In 1818, Dr. Edward D. Clarke, a geologist, was giving a lecture at Cambridge University and described some unusual newts he found while in a chalk quarry. He had been looking for fossils and was digging at a depth of 270 feet when he came upon a number of fossilised sea urchins and some newts, very wel preserved. He put them on a piece of paper in the sun where they began to move. Within a short time 2 of them had died but he put the 3rd in a nearby pond where it swam off. They were unlike any other newts of the area and belonged to an extinct species previously unknown to science.

In France in 1851, an astonished toad was liberated from its snug cavity in a 14 pound nodule of flint by a workmans pickaxe. Upon been exposed to air it hoped out of its hole and crawled away. The workmen stopped him and put him back in flint and sent it to their local Society of Sciences for study. There the toad was placed in a bed of moss. if they removed the top of the flint, in darkness, the toad quietly layed where he was but if they did it in light he tried to crawl away. If he was put on the edge of the flint, he would crawl back into his hole of his own accord. He would tuck his legs under him and took care with one foot which seemed to be injured. The cavity fitted his body perfectly except for a small area above his back and his mouth rested on a ledge which had produced an indentation of his jawbone.

There is also the account of the Pterodactyl coming out a of tunnel which has already been posted.

Here is the last account.

An hour and a half after stoking his fire, Mr. W. J. Clarke of Rugby, England reached over to poke the fire coals. As he broke open one coal, he saw something move and snatched it out of the fireplace. It proved to be a living toad and it survived for five weeks. It had no mouth and was almost transparent.

Above is a photo of the toad that Mr. Clarke found embedded in coal. Frogs can hibernate in a casing of mud for months but can they survive long enough for the mud to metamorphosise into rock?

The book offers 3 ways to account for these anomolies.

1. These are just stories made up by people

2. Although the stone may appear solid, it actually contains fissures through which water, air and perhaps even nurtients mayenter. In the case of limestone, these fissures may become sealed by seeping carbonate of lime, the chemical which stalactites and stalagmites for formed. To the untrained eye new depostis would be undistinguishable from the old rock and the limestone would seem to be a solid mass.

3. The 3rd explanation is interesting but not variafiable by ordinary means. It can be illustrated by a story from tibet.

In the later part of the 19th century a lama and two companions were making a journey to Lhasa. On day, he fell into an unusually wrathful mood and said that they should stop their journey and set off in a direction that didn't lead to anywhere. After several hours they reached a rock formation, that he said they would reach and told them to break it open. Having only wooden staffs it could not be done so they walked a distance away to talk about the situation.

The lama struck the rock once with his staff and it split open revealing a scaly black creature like a salamander. He placed it in front of him and did a yoga on its behalf, which is said to involve the transfer consciousness and is peformed for the benefit of the dying. After a while a narrow column of rainbow coloured light rose from it's head and it died. Funeral rights were performed and it was burned.

Afterwards, the lama explained that he had liberated the animal, which in a previous life had had connection with him, from one of the occasional hells. In the Buddhist description of other realm, these occasional hells lie outside the main circles of hell and are sometimes encountered in thisworld. Very often,they are instanced by the enclosure of a living creature in solid rock.

[Mysteryman]

Good stuff Crow! Honestly, the only explanation I myself can give is that over time rock is formed due to weathering and if any organisms get caught in it during the process...It'll get trapped. But that doesn't explain how animals could survive in it for years and hop out beuatifully as if it had been preserved....Strange?

[GothDemon]

Hard to believe but ive heard stories of it happening all the time...

[Apocalyptic Cryptid]

who knows.... but you know haw some species of frogs toads and all kinds of amphibians like burrow down into the mud of pods during the winter.... and hybernate... well maybe like the iceage came and ....winter didnt go away so they just stayed... as the mud built up ontop of them over the years...i still dont know if they could live that long hybernating but maybe they could and then the mud hardened into rock.....i dont know..but that might be how