Gem dinosaur bone (or "gembone") is a truly fascinating stone. It's not just a beautiful gem with endless variation, but a 150-million-year-old piece of history showing the actual bone structure from a long-extinct Jurassic dinosaur.
Most gembone was collected decades ago during the age of uranium exploration in the four-corners area of the American west. Today, it's illegal to collect on public land and not much is found where it is allowed (private lands). All material offered here is from old time rock collections and cut from small fragments that lack the features needed to identify the specific species of dinosaur the bone was from.
Mineralized dinosaur bones come in a wide range of quality, from brownish stones with soft calcite cells to true gembone that shows bright agatized cells with hard contrasting webbing (the fossilized trabeculae or marrow bone). The best is highly prized by jewelers and cabochons often set in gold as precious stones.
Depending on the material, we sometimes treat gembone slabs with Hxtal, a museum-grade water-clear epoxy that helps stabilize any hidden fractures and makes the stone more durable for cutting and wearing. We'll note any such treatment in the item descriptions.
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