I am collecting heart-shaped stones under the premise that they were once actually hearts. Like the organ in your chest. Only turned to stone. Here is one heartstone I found along the bank of the Little Sac River in Springfield Missouri.

Notice the stone's overall triangular shape and rounded surface. Compare it to this sheep's heart. Remove the aortic connections still present on top the sheep's heart and it will look like this stone, which happens to have an indentation at the top where aortic connections may once have been.

Flip the stone over and notice what looks like two blood vessel openings on it's flattened underside.

Science says it is very rare for flesh to fossilize. I am researching an alternate theory which claims that this happens abundantly, a theory proposed by Mike Wilkerson. His heartstone theory is one chapter in the growing field of mud fossil research which claims that all rock was once biological. See Roger Spurr for more on the mud fossil theory.

Back at the Little Sac River, I was amazed at how many heartstones I was finding while at the same time remaining unconvinced. Science calls this type of stone a conglomerate, or cobblestone, from the word cob, meaning a rounded lump. Geologists claim these are wads of earth and debris rolled up by glaciers and turned to stone over million of years, millions of years ago. Any resemblance to fleshy organs is pareidolia. Which might explain why I'm finding so many of them. I'm simply recognizing patterns and applying too much significance to them. It feels like archeology on the easy button. These rounded organ-looking stones are so common in fact that any flower bed filled with river rocks is easy hunting ground.

Which is why I am continuing my research in flowerbeds. Also the Little Sac River filled with rain this fall. Here are some I've found in flower beds.

While the shapes of these stones are similar, I need more info. If science is correct and these are wads of earth and detritus then I should be able to break them open and find all sorts of fossils inside. If they are heartsones then there shouldn't be any fossils in them at all. So, let's break some hearts!

This is one of my favorites. It is 44mm long and 28mm wide. It weights 24.5g. The (front) profile is similar in shape to a chicken heart. It has an indentation on top (left) that may be an aortic connection scar. Notice also the dotted lines along the (right) side and all throughout the (reverse). There are also faint parallel lines on (reverse). The colors pop when wet. It looks almost like blood pooling in the bottom of a dying heart.

The dotted lines are what drew my attention. They look like they could be the fossilized remains of a feather or a leaf or some other type of flora or fauna folded into the clay before it became a stone. Or this stone is a heart and these are lines of fascia and muscle. I like this stone too much to break it open ...at the moment. However I found a similar stone that also has these dotted lines in it. I will break it open to see if I can determine if this is feather or fascia.

This stone is very flat as if it were squished before petrification.

It looks like there are feather indentations on the (front) and (right) sides.

A close up of what looks like the feather fossil. It looks like gravel has filled the tiny holes.

Whatever is causing the feather like features on the surface continues inside the rock.

What looked like gravel filling the holes continues much deeper into the rock.

There are several interesting fibrous zones in this stone that look like tiny caves with tiny grass clippings inside, or tiny sand crystals. Aside from the "acorn hat" fossil I found in the first crack, nothing else is immediately recognizable to me as biological. I would like to know what causes the fibrous openings. They are a mystery to me.

This rock is bleached white, barely concave on the bottom and very bulbous on top. it has a hole in the (right) side that is cone-like in shape. It could be an opening into a heart chamber. Or a hole where water pooled. There are possible aortic connection scars on top (right). There are no fossils on the surface.

Let's get crackin'!

Notice that the darkened cone-like indentation ends abruptly however the discoloration continues deeper into the stone. It looks like water damage, as if water that got into the hole was absorbed deeper into the stone and stained deeper down. I was hoping for more evidence of it being an artery, though it's angle of entrance seems odd to me if this were a heart. Also present is what appears to be a very tiny fossil that looks like a fern leaf. The indent and outdent photos are above. It is incredibly small.

I also found a very good example of pareidolia. Here is what looks like a little boy's face staring back at me from inside the stone.

Have I found this heartstone's inner child???

--haha... OK, back to science.