Weird to think they were rocks way longer then they were ever crabs.

If you identify the rocks by the legs poking out, it may be that there are many complete encapsulated crabs; but with no clear external sign of the contents

The important question is: how do you determine which side is "up" when prepping the fossil :D

I think the crabs fossilizing is unlikely to all be the result of tsunami, there is just too many of them. A more likely scenario to me is that crabs burrowed deeply into mud banks (look at Australian mudcrabs for comparison) and were then killed by something like a storm event cutting them off from the estuary, and drying out and suffocating while buried.

This is a great video. Your explanations for determining signs of fossils within a silt matrix was very insightful and inspiring. Based on your hypothesis for the hydrolysis of this crab, here’s my best understanding of the deconstruction of the crab’s chemical composition (as it’s been exposed to the Ca2+ ions in the water). Note, there are innumerable ions in sea water, so this chemical reaction is VERY simplified. HCO3-(aq) + H2O(l) ↔ CaCO3(s) + H3O+(aq) Bicarbonate (carbonic acid) in an aqueous solution (aqueous just means that a chemical can dissolve in water) reacts with liquid water to form a concretion of solid calcium carbonate and hydronium, which is a weak acid that dissolves easily in water. Crabs and other hard-bodied organisms such as snails, ammonites, mollusks, etc. tend to be very common in the fossil record, as the amount of calcite in their hard outer-shells can easily undergo mineralization fossilization. This is where an organic substance's chemical compositions can react to ions specifically in water to form very tough and hard biproducts, which tend to last the test of time despite the relentless weathering of an ocean/beach environment. Essentially, their chemical compositions are gradually replaced by harder solids, forming a "stone" versions of the once living organism.

Congratulations to you!! I ran across your interview last night in Newsweek very cool I was like hey I watch this guy all the time

Dude! The hunt hasn’t even started yet and I’m blown away. One thing I’ve learnt and am still learning is that learning something is so much different to understanding it. I love how you take your understanding and teach it! You can see your passion for this mate! I love it! On with the hunt old chap! (I’m probably older than you but it just sounded cool haha!) okay! Hunt time!

I can’t wait to see those prepped! Love your videos. Stay safe!

Your explanations seem spot on, those are the predominant theories my old geology teacher gave, which matched up with my own thoughts on how they formed, it definitely makes the most sense to me out of all the possible explanations anyway. It's been a long time since I did any chemistry and I never was the greatest at balancing equations so I'm afraid I can't help you there but cheers for putting out such a clear and concise explanation anyway

New Zealand really does feel like such a special place :) thank you for showing us all these fossils and explaining how they occur! It's so amazing to watch and lovely to hear as well :)

So awesome. Thanks for sharing your finds and knowledge. Totally enjoyed this video.

Thats the best explanation of how the concretions are formed. Awesome video thank you

What people forget is that these crabs lived there for millions of years, hundrets of thousand, possible millions of genrerations and only a realy small fration of them got fossilized

A lot of great information, thank you for such a great explanation. It looks like you have several really good collecting places. Be happy, safe and stay healthy. 😷⚒

Your theory and explanation of why the concretions are harder than the surrounding material and why it forms the oval shape makes so much sense! You are so blessed to be near the few places on earth that produced these fossils Thank you so much for making this video!

Wow... I'm really jealous. I live somewhere where it is nearly impossible for a layman like myself to find fossils. I'd love to move somewhere like New Zealand some day. This channel is really fun to watch. Keep at it!

Such an informative article....beautiful land you enjoy! Thanks for sharing.

I'm really glad you didnt answer these questions in text on the facebook videos! This was super informative!

I'm glad your growing fast and its interesting hearing about these fossils

I think your theories are logical and sound, but I'm just a layman, but you explained in a way I undetstood. Thanks.! That big crab you uncovered is stunning.💖 Thanks for taking us fossil hunting with you.

Was looking around watching Motorbikes and magnet fishing and found this :D really awesome not regretting it one bit . And grats on the find

Just come across your channel. Great videos and very informative!

Nice video man! As always much love from the state's 🍻

So happy to have found your channel!

That big crab looks so awesome id just love that on a display shelf somewehere. The colouring is great.

Incredible fossil's finding. it looks like a live crab. It's wonderful achievements. Thanks for your posting. 🌻

You draw better than me. 😂 Great explanation on how the concretion is formed. I didn't know the carbon from the decomp participated in it. Never too old to learn! Plant fossils are a great find. I love the New Zealand countryside. I miss the ride-along's! 👍❤️

That's awesome. I can't wait to see what is in the possible shark tooth and the bone cluster. New favorite channel right here!

I just saw you in a news article on my phone! So cool!

Thank you for the mineralization, explanation. Victorians thought animal shapes just happened randomly in nature and that was their explanation for fossils, for a time.

Your personality is marvelous. And thanks for sharing your discoveries. Pls show opening a fossil or two?

I'd like a video going over your prepping tools/materials, the fixating agent, the "drill".. What's necessary for someone new to try and prep a fossil :) Thanks for your content, always relaxing and nice

That makes a lot of sense about the conception formation. I’ve been trying to think of ways it would happen just through straightforward sedimentation and erosion, but it didn’t quite fit, because they seem to come right out of the cliff like that. My mind was thinking something must happen to change the matrix around the crab and make it more dense. The way the shape fits the crab(etc) does strongly imply that it is having a direct effect on the formation. And the same seems to happen with other similar things like nautiloids, ammonites, clams, etc. All things that would have a lot of carbon in the shell or exoskeleton. Thank you so much for sharing your theories!

Very cool and well stated explanation about the formation of the concretion.

The fossil crabs you find are spectacular!

Formidable ! Merci pour les explications 😊

I think your theories are extremely good.

Your explanation is much more detailed than what I've been telling people haha

Ok I have a few questions A. How do you keep from scratching or marring the shell vs the rock? B. Is that species of crab still around or is it some proto crab species? C. Do you intend on selling them or just keeping them around the house?

Love watching you enjoy your hobby man!! Question: were would I buy one of these concretions so I can bring out what's inside??? I'd really love to clean up one of these!!!

I would love to see your whole fossil collection!! I watched one where you were so excited about a possible penguin. Did you do a follow up on it? I cant seem to find the video if you did. I would like to know😃😃 your videos are very interesting and you get excited about your fossil finds! Thank you for your enjoyable videos!!

I know this is response with the comments on that fb page where your vid was featured. If you guys have read that comment section, you would feel your braincells dying. Keep up the cool vids.

More prep videos!!!!!! I love this one too lol.

Nice one. I had asked some time ago how the concretions are formed around the crabs. Long time since I had a science lesson.

Awesome video and very interesting theory about formation of nods 😀👍

Fascinating, I was wondering when you would tell us how the mechanics of fossilization works. I'm amazed that you can detect those small leg marks on the rocks. I'm in east London, south Africa. I've tried to find out what fossils we get here but there is very little info that I can find. I have found fossil wood but nothing else.

Very interesting theory. I would find it to be a lot of CaCO3 just from the C from the crab. Seems like it's too much (just by my gut feeling :) ). We have these CaCO3 rocks on the shores of England, so I wonder if it could be a combination of your idea and deposits of shell material. Super interesting!

Very interesting I was wondering how you did it good vid always good to see a happy person doing good vids god bless

Good information👍✌

Really great explanation. This is so interesting

Oh man......New Zealand looks stunningly beautiful! I could fossil hunt there all day every day😍 how fun! Just found you and can't stop watching your videos! New sub👍

Very informative video Thanks 👍

Awesome video. I will look now with more attention to the rocks in Portugal beaches. We have a lot of fossils, from Dinosaurs Thanks for sharing!

Just watched again. Big crab looks so nice!

I saw so many people calling it fake on facebook, and I had to keep explaining how concretion forms and often contain crabs. I even attached scientific articles on the matter. Some people just can't fathom anything they can't conclude from their knee jerk reaction.

Great video. Many thanks my friend. Peace

I found a bunch of fossilized whale vertebrae this past weekend. Love your videos, they bring me a sense of peace

@14:00 ... that looks like wheat or barley to me. Amazing when you know what to look for! Now I'm going to have to really pay attention on the beaches around here!

New Zealand looks pretty amazing! hello from Michigan,USA

Cool you explained a lot thank you two thumbs

Another great vid

Him tells how to spot a fossils on rock.. Me - proceeds to check every good looking rocks in the backyard

@mamlambo Fossils....have you ever considered first making a cast of the concretion then revealing one half of a crab, then cast that side in acrylic then reveal the other side and do the same? this way you could reveal the entire crab and have it encased in an acrylic "concretion" so you can maintain the original shape of the concretion but the clear acrylic would give us an "x-ray" view of how it sat in situ?

That plant impression was very cool under the microscope. I have a few from Tunis, never occurred to me to scope one, i'll have to dig up my biology trunk. :)

Great explanation, makes sense to me 👍

Being calcium carbonate does that mean that acid could be used to expose the crab?

I live in Washington State. Now you'll have me looking for crabs in rocks

Most importat question, how it is possible you have all the beach for yourselves? Here in the UK there is loads of fossil hunters scouring the beach at any time. Great vids BTW. Love to learn some more about preparation process, tools and chemicals used.

V interesting dude keep it up 👌

Thank you for the explanations. I learned something! 😁 More birds!

I was told that the crab's hibernate during winter by burrowing in the mud by creating a small oval chamber . Sometimes they die during this time and minerals fill in around them and turn the chamber into rock over time. I don't know if that's true but it sounded like a reasonable explanation at the time.

I’m still amazed by that giant crab!

I think your theory is the best explanation, you've studied this in depth and are very knowledgeable and expert so I cannot think who is better qualified to explain

Man I love New Zealand lamb chops, only chops from New Zealand, lamb from Australia and the USA taste like crap. Awesome plant fossil, a pinecone is on my bucket list. Lastly, loved the footage at the end, those little birdies look like time travellers, poof dissappear from here, now I'm over here!

Shared knowledge from the locals also helped 😉

Thank you ever so much for teaching..us how it works..

Wow! Thankyou For this I'm on the east coast of Australia and I never thought to look for some if these things! I think that plant fossils comparison could be right! Its funny you say you don't find leaf fossils when that's all I seem to find! 😂

Hi from OZ,,, love ur channel,LOVE ur office , have u ever had to run from a land slide? and if so did u find anything from it?

man that's awesome. always thought it had to be 'juices' leaking into the sediment, changing its properties!

Interesting answers to your 3 most asked questions. A 4th question is: How do you know how to orient the conretion when prepping it? It can't just be good fotrtune that you don't end up prepping the crab's bottom.

They all look like concretions to me. Every time you pass a rock with the least little blemish on it I am like, "Oh there's one...and another one!" LOL. Glad you know what you are doing 😉. This is very entertaining👍

The crab you drew looked like a seal face. 😁

I'm 32 and had no idea that fossils actually STUCK OUT OF eroded rocks like that but it makes perfect sense. Dang. My intuition was that smooth highly eroded rocks like that equal = just rock, not sure why I thought that, but clearly I have been ignorant. The idea you can just basically see a (fossilized) crab leg sticking out of a rock wasn't how I thought it worked lol (and is incredible given the span of time)

Hi! I looooove your videos so much! For those of us lucky enough to live in NZ, could you give us some clues about which are the best areas to find fossils? North or South Island? East or West coast? I would love to take my boy exploring and even finding a tiny leaf would be awesome. Thank you! V

I agree with your theory about volcanic or a cataclysmic activity. I reckon liquefaction plays a part in the process.

Have you ever done just half? Opposite of the horizontal plane you did on this one...leave half completely in stone, with the other exposing the crab (left vs right). I love your work, sir. I know you're a busy guy, I wish you had your own series on HISTORY or even BBC doing what you do on multiple continents with different specimens ❤

This is so cool! I'm subbed! What I want to know is: how do you know where the best spots to look for these kinds of stone fossils are? Do the rocks have to be rounded? There's a beach I love that has some rocks but I don't think they are the right kind... How do you know which beach to go to?

Very interesting. Where did you find them? I'm in Canada on west coast, from the east coast. Lovely beach, but sharks yes. I heard there are great whites off Nova Scotia. We are getting fin sightings closer to the beach and never heard of that before!

Congrats on your vid going viral :) Did you end up receiving my email in regards to the unprepped concretions?

with your explanation I would wonder if bone concretions are harder/different/more common because they have the Ca already there.

Hyper interesting

As a sedimentologist, you are partially right. But the carbon does not come only from the fossil. Most of the time, CaCO3 (formed from HCO3- and removed a H+ give you CO3 --, which is a perfect receptor for Ca++) need a core or a nodule to be fixed on. That is why, most of the time, there is fossile inside a concretion. If there is nothing inside, the former fossile may be dissolve or just nothing.

can you exhume the entire crab? like not keep any gray behind or does it just break?

Very well done. I think this type of animal may have first appeared during the Cambrian period or about 542 million years ago. A more detail description of Geological Time Periods would better tie down a better date. Possibly, Ice Age periods would add to the information.

What is the clear product you put on as you loosen something from the rock

A pleasant Sunday afternoon watch

Would love an update in future on any info about that fossil plant imprint

Ca will combine with HCO3 to form Ca(HCO3)2. The calcium bicarbonate at high temperatures (a common thing deep underground) will decompose in CaCO3 + H2O + CO2. Not sure if this is what actually happened but that's the chemistry of what you described.

Fossil hunting, so addictive!

Can you give the details on the tools you use to reveal the fossil imbedded in the rock? Enjoying your videos.