What is the Cambrian bolt?
The Cambrian bolt is a rock said to have been found in western Russia in the late 1990s with a bolt-shaped object embedded in it. When the rock was split, a rod a few centimeters long with what looked like screw threads was inside, it is said.
The Cambrian period lasted from about 541 to 485 million years ago, an age when trilobites flourished. There were no humans, of course, and hardly any life on land yet.
The spaceship part theory
A Russian paranormal researcher claimed the bolt was a fragment of a spaceship that came to Earth long ago, broke down and exploded, scattering its parts. X-rays reportedly showed other small bolt-like objects inside the rock as well.
However, accounts of the rock’s age vary from teller to teller, “Cambrian (about 500 million years ago),” “300 million years ago,” “1.5 billion years ago,” and no reliable survey results are clear.
A crinoid fossil?
One leading theory is that it is a crinoid fossil. Despite their common name, “sea lilies,” crinoids are not plants but animals related to starfish and sea urchins, abundant in Paleozoic seas. A crinoid stem is made of many disc-shaped ossicles stacked together, so its fossils can look like threaded bolts or screws.
Another view is that it was found near a former factory and is simply a modern part mixed into the soil. A similar OOPArt is the Coso artifact. Famous OOPArts are listed on the OOPArts page.
