--Chad Love

A British commercial fishing trawler recently dredged up an ancient and giant fossilized oyster that just might contain the largest pearl the world has ever seen. But the world may never see it because opening the oyster would destroy the extremely rare fossil. What to do?
 
From this story in the UK Daily Mail:
 
A 145million-year-old oyster fossil trawled up off the south coast by fishermen could contain the mother of all pearls. Experts used medical MRI scanning technology to analyse the fossil to discover if there was a rare gem inside. And their results showed up a mysterious smooth object about the size of a golf ball. If it were removed and identified as a pearl, it could be worth many thousands of pounds. But experts will not explore the contents any further because it would mean the fossil would have to be destroyed. The oyster – which measures about 7in across – remains at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, where it is kept securely and brought out only for lectures.
 
According to the story, the biggest pearls ever recorded are about half the size of this potential prehistoric pearl. So, what would you do? Keep the extremely rare fossil intact? Or crack that sucker open and get Christie's or Sotheby's on the phone, fast?

In this case, I'm thinking greed would have to win out over scientific integrity...

Comments (6)

from vasportsman wrote 46 weeks 2 days ago

Well, it could potentially be the world's largest pearl, but what if it isn't, or its flawed so badly it is not worth anything, and you just destroyed the fossil for nothing. At least this way they can still say "potentially" right?

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from Sayfu wrote 46 weeks 2 days ago

Pearl? That is an Oyster turd. I use to be a rock hound with a huge collection. And I did have a pearl in my collection from eating raw oysters at a restraunt in New Orleans.

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from dtbc333 wrote 46 weeks 1 day ago

Wish there was a caption for the photo. Obviously the fossil oyster that may have the pearl they are talking about inside is the one on the left, but what's on the right? It looks like a fossil oyster too, so it's not a modern one for size comparison. Is that just the size of the average fossil oyster?

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from Sayfu wrote 46 weeks 1 day ago

Looks to me like the baseball Babe Ruth hit for his record number of homeruns. Look, you can still see the stitching.

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from elkslayer wrote 46 weeks 2 hours ago

Crack it open. If science isn't going to discover anything new from the fossil, then lets open it up and see whats inside.

Had I been the one to find it, I would have opened it long ago.

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from Red Salas wrote 45 weeks 5 days ago

Wow pretty cool.

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from vasportsman wrote 46 weeks 2 days ago

Well, it could potentially be the world's largest pearl, but what if it isn't, or its flawed so badly it is not worth anything, and you just destroyed the fossil for nothing. At least this way they can still say "potentially" right?

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Sayfu wrote 46 weeks 2 days ago

Pearl? That is an Oyster turd. I use to be a rock hound with a huge collection. And I did have a pearl in my collection from eating raw oysters at a restraunt in New Orleans.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from dtbc333 wrote 46 weeks 1 day ago

Wish there was a caption for the photo. Obviously the fossil oyster that may have the pearl they are talking about inside is the one on the left, but what's on the right? It looks like a fossil oyster too, so it's not a modern one for size comparison. Is that just the size of the average fossil oyster?

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from Sayfu wrote 46 weeks 1 day ago

Looks to me like the baseball Babe Ruth hit for his record number of homeruns. Look, you can still see the stitching.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from elkslayer wrote 46 weeks 2 hours ago

Crack it open. If science isn't going to discover anything new from the fossil, then lets open it up and see whats inside.

Had I been the one to find it, I would have opened it long ago.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Red Salas wrote 45 weeks 5 days ago

Wow pretty cool.

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