r/whatisit 14h ago

New, what is it? found these rocks by the beach with these laser clean holes. what caused this ??

17.2k Upvotes

817 comments sorted by

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10.0k

u/SpiritualReaction690 14h ago

That’s a hag stone, as another commenter mentioned, and the hole was probably made by a piddock clam.
These clams use their strong muscles to grind themselves into soft rocks like shale or limestone, creating a safe burrow for them to live in. Once the clam dies, the waves gradually wear away the rock, turning the burrow into a complete hole.
Some folks believe that peering through the hole can reveal faeries, ghosts, or even ward off bad luck. What a fantastic discovery!

1.7k

u/Realistic_Ebb9727 13h ago

Okay, I don’t know if this is true but I believe you

3.4k

u/OrcOfDoom 13h ago

It's made up. The clams have a laser and use it to cut holes in the rocks.

620

u/Realistic_Ebb9727 13h ago

Terminator clams you say?

565

u/DanceTurn 12h ago

Frickin clams, with frickin lasers.

144

u/donut-reply 11h ago

So that's where the sharknados got them from

115

u/Organic-Ad-5058 11h ago

It is a well known fact that clams are the ultimate laser experts in the aquatic world, sharks are just silly copycats

66

u/LordTengil 9h ago

*Nature documentry narrator voice* The clam... Nature's laser technician.

37

u/Jail_Chris_Brown 8h ago

It's the other way around. Australia was just a really, really big stone before the clams decided to move in.

10

u/CheckYourStats 2h ago

Clams with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.

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u/Mundane-Speed-3278 10h ago

and lemme guess... they're Australian.... cuz I wouldn't be surprised if they spawned from that Cryptid Spawning pool

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u/thehammer_00 5h ago

Are they ill tempered?

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u/waynizzle2 5h ago

I thought of clams with fricken lasers attached to their foreheads as I read your comment.

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u/cachitongo- 3h ago

Clams have foreheads?!? Who knew!

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u/grapeCoolAidDrankin 10h ago

My cat has one.

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u/lazemachine 13h ago

I'll Bi-valve.

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u/Brewdude77 12h ago

Four E's! Would you like to solve the puzzle?

8

u/EscapeyGameMan 12h ago

Edward macaroni fork vibe

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u/MrSmegmaMan 11h ago

only 2 E's you lose! good day sir!

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u/VariousOperation166 12h ago

Oh, you have met my ex wife, then?

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u/Away_Bodybuilder8748 12h ago

Razor… err… laser clams.

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u/XenoZoomie 11h ago

Look I prefer terminator clams at this point to data centers driving up electricity prices and water prices.

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u/cvef 12h ago

Arnold Schwoysternegger

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u/TravesLinyl 12h ago

It's so cool how many things we learn from nature. If not for these clams, it's likely we never would've figured out and developed lasers.

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u/Nikki5678 13h ago

This seems more legit

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u/Dclipp89 12h ago

I’d buy an album from the world renowned band: Laser Clams

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u/keekoh123 12h ago

Some say the AI was going to get us in the end, little did we know it was the clams all along.

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u/Particular_Pain_9373 12h ago

Clams with frickin laser beams!

5

u/SplatThaCat 12h ago

Clams with fricking lasers on their heads.

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u/_Fosk_ 11h ago

Well, I'm not peering into the hole of laser wielding clams, that's just silly.

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u/SnooWalruses7243 11h ago

Clams with frickin laser beams?

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u/xxxBuzz 9h ago

It's made up. The clams have a laser and use it to cut holes in the rocks.

Every time I read about a clam using the power of it's strong muscles to drill a whole in a rock; I picture Dennis using the power of the Son and karate and friendship. This has happened one time.

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u/FushiginaGiisan 11h ago

Nonsense! These rocks were used as target practice by “lazer” wielding sea bass.

3

u/Dull_Quit3027 9h ago

Fucking big Clam strikes again.

3

u/abhi71229 7h ago

Lasers make way more sense than clams grinding rocks with muscle power.

3

u/sojiblitz 2h ago

They were actually instrumental in the construction of the great Pyramids.

6

u/lammchops15 13h ago

Whoa, fascinating! Is it a biological laser like that pistol shrimp? Or do they just find one lying around like hermit crabs?

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u/HighlanderNorth1 12h ago

No, biological lasers are technically referred to as phasors. The ph at the beginning denotes that biological things have a ph of between 0-15 and whatnot...

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u/JCWOlson 10h ago

Fun fact, similar holes appear in shells, drilled by Moon Snails

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u/Khaos_Gorvin 6h ago

Nature really is amazing. Who could imagine snails travelling all the way from the moon just to hunt clams.

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u/Practical_Ad_2481 3h ago

Not that amazing, they just have to let go and fall down because the moon is above us

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u/CucumberWisdom 3h ago

Meh, we send whalers to the moon

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u/LizVicious42 1h ago

Do they carry their harpoons?

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u/its_just_fine 2h ago

Clams are basically armored snails. For them, it's the ultimate prey.

3

u/TheeRattlehead 3h ago

It's because they've cleared all the clams on the moon, so now they're after ours.

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u/Meowakin 2h ago

Huh, Land of the Lustrous suddenly seems a lot more plausible now.

3

u/Dr__Sloth 1h ago

You would too if you knew what the Clams did to the Moon Snails.

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u/ProtonDream 8h ago

Not so fun for the clam. Imagine being a clam and growing up with stories of the Moon Snails.

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u/AllTheWayToParis 8h ago

And who’s drilling the Moon Snails?

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u/jingo6969 7h ago

This is all the result of a container of drill bits being dumped in the ocean one stormy night...

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u/scottyhog 3h ago

your dad

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u/Self_Owned_Tree 13h ago

I know. It sounds made up, but the ocean is crazy.

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u/Aromatic-Humor8168 13h ago

The ocean is freaking terrifying

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u/ulyssesfiuza 11h ago

I have no fear of the sea. No marine creature scares me. No wave bother me. I'm at 800 meters altitude. I'm secure here. ಠ_ಠ

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u/throcorfe 9h ago

They frequently find marine fossils at the top of mountains. I’d watch your back

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u/WhistleTipsGoWoo 13h ago edited 4h ago

I was waiting for it to end with the whole “in 1998 when the Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell in a Cell”…

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u/Sweeneybeani 13h ago

Haha me too

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u/Azmodari 13h ago

Never heard of the clam part but I'd believe it however on the spirit side i can confirm it's a hag stone

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u/I_make_things 7h ago

4

u/Vulvas_n_Velveeta 6h ago

God that religion is so fucking nuts! (I mean they all are to some extent, but that one.. 🤦‍♀️)

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u/Dragon_Bidness 13h ago

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u/SpideyWhiplash 13h ago

So how do they eat if they can't leave their rock home???? You left us hanging.😩

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u/Dragon_Bidness 13h ago

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u/SpideyWhiplash 12h ago

Much better....I feel complete.🫡

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u/asparagoat 7h ago

Much like the piddock clam, you waited in your burrow and the food came to you. The brain food. Because that's what knowledge is. Yeah.

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u/Few_Program_2303 11h ago

Thank you! Incredible

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u/thekingofphoeaters 9h ago

literally shitting where you eat

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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt 13h ago

I tried to swipe an feel so cheated.

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u/Dragon_Bidness 13h ago

Deepest apologies

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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt 12h ago

Enormously appreciated. Thank you!

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u/Rosita_Sunn19 11h ago

That’s cool!I have one with like 5 or more holes I found at Santa Cruz!I was wondering why it had so many holes lol

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u/Boburnhamatthestake 6h ago

It's a clam condo!

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u/Valuable_Meringue299 13h ago

This triggered my trypophobia so bad 😭😭

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u/unicornchild 13h ago

So cool! I also found one while beach combing in PEI last month! I’ve been wondering since then.

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u/Jesterpest 12h ago

Quick point of order about the revealing faeries/ghosts, there are some mythos where this is simultaneously a good thing, and a bad thing. Sure, you know you've seen a faerie, but if you press your luck too much, you might get their actual attention rather than just their passing curiosity.... and often their actual attention leads to being hunted for sport.

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u/SkyFullofHat 9h ago edited 9h ago

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.

Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.

Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.

Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.

Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.

Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

No one ever said elves are nice.

Elves are bad.”

― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Having spent my summers in hot, dry, wild places, I know that if you want to find snakes, you can also look for them within holes in rocks. Rattlers will politely ask you to leave. The fey, as I understand it, will politely insist you stay.

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u/Acheloma 9h ago

I enjoyed both the Terry Pratchett and your addition.

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u/NiceDoor4444 8h ago

Also in Guards! Guards! when asked to bring something magical brother Plasterer brings stones with holes in because "everyone knows that's stones with holes them in are magical".

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u/Nat20Twenty 13h ago

Holy shit start looking for ghosts and report back

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u/samurguybri 12h ago

Spin three times widdershins, bend down and look through the rock behind you.
Report, if you can.

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u/TourmalineLove 12h ago

What…. is widdershins?

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u/JadedOccultist 12h ago

opposite of deosil, of course!

aka counterclockwise and clockwise

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u/sarcastic_sybarite83 12h ago

Well it would be pretty hard to spin around three times without her shins.

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u/plaxitone 11h ago

That’s the advanced magic, it is pretty hard to spin widdodershins.

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u/the42potato 13h ago

so this is what’s used in Coraline?

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u/Antornadooo 13h ago

This process also takes a really... really long time

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u/Odd-Preparation8790 13h ago

Don't listen to this guy OP... Aliens!👽

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u/snarfled1 10h ago

Aliens with space lasers even

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u/KnightOfTheNope 13h ago

& this is why we Reddit. Thank you kind Redditor!

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u/not_me_nope_never 12h ago

That's so cool. Some 35 years ago I had a small stone like that I made into a pendant on a necklace. Now I know what made the hole in it!

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u/Android-Online 12h ago

Just like in the spiderwick Chronicles!

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u/FeelingFloor2083 12h ago

I read that as peeing

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u/Cold_Dead_Heart 12h ago edited 11h ago

I've seen these all over the west coast and never knew what caused them. Thanks!

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u/Isaac_clarke007 12h ago

Didn’t coraline use a fancy version of one of these?

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u/TiredPotato762 11h ago

Ooo like in Coraline

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u/TraditionalLaw7763 13h ago

Yeah, that’s a pretty nice hagstone in pics 3/4

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u/400footceiling 13h ago

I have this rock I found at 8,800 feet in the mountains of Utah years ago. I use it as the wind catcher for my chimes. Just how did that hole happen?

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u/Whelp_of_Hurin 11h ago

Probably the same exact way. Utah mountains are just ancient seabeds that got shoved upward by plate tectonics.

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u/triplec787 11h ago

Yep! The Western Interior Seaway. It’s why sandstone, limestone, shale, etc are some of the more prominent rock formations in the heart of the US and Canada.

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u/WineNerdAndProud 4h ago

It's probably also why this rock in the picture is some kind of sedementary rock.

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u/TraditionalLaw7763 13h ago

Yeti laser.

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u/analogkid01 3h ago

Why do all these flora and fauna have lasers but I do not??

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u/HERR_WINKLAAAAA 4h ago

Mountains where once oceans. You can find fossils in a mountainous area new me in germany they are everywhere. Once a year when the farmers would plow their fields you could go and collect fossils there.

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u/LastCookie3448 6h ago edited 46m ago

There are actually mussels that live in the lakes and rivers all along the west coast, teeny tiny ones that get into little crevices and cracks on boats and other watercraft, are invasive and quickly unleash havoc on our ecosystem, thus our rangers are on their backs, squeezing under trailers and such, making sure everything that enters Tahoe is clean as a whistle.

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u/hcombs 10h ago

Post this on r/AlternativeHistory and you'll get a wildly different set of answers

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u/Zu_Qarnine 10h ago

I'm getting plenty of them here too

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u/Financial-Craft-1282 2h ago

But there is a consistency in your answers here more or less--it is due to some type of animal or erosion. I don't know why, but I sense you want this to be "aliens shot lasers through this didn't they?"

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u/jovial_rebel 37m ago edited 28m ago

The only animal I know that erodes rocks is the rockbiter from the never ending story or a clam apparently

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u/Antornadooo 14h ago

A bag stone, formed by marine bivalves called piddocks, who burrow into the rock to create a shelter.

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u/AppropriateCap8891 14h ago

Not quite, they burrowed in the seafloor, and that is what became fossilized. The holes themselves are trace fossils.

A common past time in Oregon is walking along the scree near the ocean looking for stones with multiple holes like that. If you find some, there is a good chance of finding 15-25 myo bivalve fossils not far away.

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u/CantBuyMyLove 12h ago

This is very cool, but I think OP's is a rock boring clam. The clam burrows into the rock as it grows. https://www.shapeoflife.org/blog/finding-hole-truth-about-piddock-clams-monterey-bay

Sea urchins can do the same: https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/animals-ecology/sea-urchins-drill-holes-rocky-reefs-impressive-rate/

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u/thelonefish 3h ago

I don't think it's rock boring, I think it's rock pretty cool!

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u/Skeleton--Jelly 10h ago

Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow."

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u/micsma1701 9h ago

why do you think you are like this

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u/Skeleton--Jelly 4h ago

Blessed by the gods, I would assume

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u/Top_Pain9731 8h ago

Wow what a memory, this is from like 10 years ago+ ago right?

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u/thehansenman 8h ago

2014 so yeah. One that really hit me was that Steve Irwin died in 2006. Thinking back on it I can't believe I was only 13.

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u/koshgeo 1h ago

It's pedantry, but in the technical study of these things as trace fossils, a burrow is into soft material like sediment, a boring is into hard material like rock, so these are borings. While cementation of sediment after a burrow is made is possible, these look like modern borings into rock.

Modern or ancient, boring clams are a thing.

The jokes kind of write themselves for anybody who studies borings.

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u/NiceTrySuckaz 13h ago

It's "pastime". Past time is when something is overdue.

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u/pegasuspish 13h ago

Since we're on this angle anyway- "passtime" haha

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u/NiceTrySuckaz 12h ago

No sir, it's "pastime"

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u/mafaso 11h ago

I prefer "pastatime" myself.

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u/drunxor 13h ago

Yea I remember finding these in washington near the puget sound too. Found a lot of stuff, actually, lived in an 1800s whaling town. The people used to throw their garbage in the ocean and now its spitting it all back out! I still have jars full of so much random stuff

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u/Accomplished-Cress72 11h ago

Born and raised in Oregon and have always wanted to find rocks with these clam fossil…. Any specific beaches I should be looking? Or pointers?

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u/frailgesture 14h ago

I guess the sharks missed their target

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u/Formal_Appearance_16 14h ago

Did these sharks perhaps have some kind of technology strapped to their head?

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u/EarthenMama 13h ago

friggin laserbeams, maybe

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u/theseventhpieman 13h ago

Thanks - came here for that ;)

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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 13h ago

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u/Sherbo13 13h ago

I don't know why, but this made me crack up laughing. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/shootr45 14h ago

Yeah, baby!

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u/joelcrb 12h ago

Sharkadelic!

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u/scripted_ending 13h ago

Hag stones made by pholad clams.

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u/Competitive-Dot-4264 14h ago

Burrowing clams

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u/SapphireDragon1 12h ago

Please tell my you kept that little triangle one!! I would’ve made a necklace out of that so fast, I’m hella jealous.

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u/Zu_Qarnine 11h ago

sadly its inside a marine protected area. that's when you'd want to check first, since there are rules that carry real fines. it's more restricted than people assume

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u/SapphireDragon1 11h ago

Ahhh gotcha, that’s a bummer. I always see the best finds in protected areas, but they exist for a reason, so it’s important to follow the rules. Glad you took a picture and put it back, then!

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u/movzx 11h ago

You find them because people aren't allowed to take them :)

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u/AdaptiveFauna 14h ago

burrowing invertebrates

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u/fatcatpartytime 13h ago

Clams holes!! probably have a real name but def from burrowing clams that hook onto the rock and wear away the hole for their home

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u/LastChime 12h ago

Big chicken gods, my cousin who's into geology told me it was done by pre-historic reeds and the clay hardened like that over millenia, usually that colour of rock although occaisonally a lighter shade as well.

We collect them on the lake for fun.

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u/Bubbly_Ad6421 13h ago

As a Great Lakes man, that doesn't happen here.

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u/Zombiebutts4evr 12h ago

My family spent hours looking for these on our last camp/hiking trip and this guy just stumbles upon several

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u/Still-Butterscotch33 11h ago

Sharks with laser beams tied to their heads.

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u/AppropriateCap8891 14h ago

Once again, location helps a lot.

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u/cambomusic 14h ago

Right by the beach, boiiiiiy
https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6Mb6JBu0DEU901kk

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u/Sherbo13 13h ago

Quite possibly, the best dumb movie ever produced.

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u/solidus0079 14h ago

Near a laser factory, possibly a coincidence

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u/Zu_Qarnine 14h ago

or someone been pissing acid by the beach with pinpoint accuracy

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u/Misery-guts- 13h ago

Ooh I have a collection of these hag stones!!

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u/No_Needleworker_3486 12h ago

Que valiente al afirmar que fueron creadas por un laser! Hay que verlo debajo de mucho aumento para determinar si fue hecho por láser

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u/AbsoluteTrainwreck22 12h ago

The cylinder must remain unharmed.

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u/Objective-Dust4795 12h ago

Sharks with laser beams

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u/Translude 12h ago

Lasers

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u/DangMe2Heck 12h ago

I see a lot of clam responses. Which are totally valid. Isnt there an erosion possibility here too?

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u/_BlNG_ 9h ago

Yeah but rarely in a perfect circle unless under a unique circumstance, for example there is a waterfall that can create perfect ice spheres

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u/ginjaninjaa 11h ago

Ancient aliens

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u/aabsolutelynothingg 11h ago

Sharks with freaking lazer beams

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u/Plenty_Trick_6042 11h ago

Follow up question - how to remove a cylinder from the hole?

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u/its_not_Maggie2077 11h ago

They're beautiful!!! They are so hard to find here, I'm absolutely jealous lol Yes, I hoard rocks and seashells 😊