# Strange objects in logs of wood or rocks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980 "2004-10-13T08:01:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/1 "2004-10-13T08:01:02Z")
I’ve heared of strange objects, like fish, being found inside logs of wood or rocks. I did a google search, but couldn’t find anything. What gives? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/2 "2004-10-13T12:48:39Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > I’ve heared of strange objects, like fish, being found inside logs of wood or rocks. I did a google search, but couldn’t find anything. What gives? 😕 Are you asking about fossils or what? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/3 "2004-10-13T12:55:27Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > Are you asking about fossils or what? Nah, X-Files stuff: [This mummified corpse of a frog was found in a hollow flint ‘geode’ which was cracked open in 1899 by workmen in a quarry in England.](http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Frog.html) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/4 "2004-10-13T13:36:24Z")
I have seen **bass** wood, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t have fish in it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/5 "2004-10-13T14:02:14Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > Are you asking about fossils or what? No, not fossils. The fish was apparently alive inside the wood. Something similar to **Desmostylus** frog link. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/6 "2004-10-13T14:04:31Z")
Most of these objects seem to have been discovered in the Victorian era or before; I’m going to boldly suggest that they consist of: -A rather small number of genuine cases where (for example) a frog crawled into a crack in a rock (or squeezed into a hollow log) and later _appeared_ to emerge from a completely enclosed cavity. -A slightly larger number of genuine cases where an animal happened upon the scene at the moment when an object containing a sealed cavity was being broken open (and perhaps had fallen to the ground) - hasty conclusions along the lines of: unusual cavity+unexpected animal=animal must have been _in_ cavity, right? -A significant majority of hoaxes, some of them based on manufactured evidence, others based on nothing more than fanciful writings. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-objects-in-logs-of-wood-or-rocks/268980/7 "2004-10-13T16:44:28Z")
FTR it used to be common for miraculous things to “discovered” in coal, such live animals, modern technological items (such as spark plugs) and human-carved figurines. A book I inherited at home has photographs of things even as ludicrous as a carved replica of the Venus de Milo, complete with missing arms, found in a piece of coal about 300 feet underground. In West Virginia. Some of these items are “cited” as “proof” of either a Biblical time scale, ET intervention, Atlantis, or that people just like pulling off hoaxes.