#1 Found At Myrtle Beach, Sc. What Is This Thing?

Answer: that’s a broken megalodon tooth.

Image credits: rinpiels

#2 My Friend Just Moved In To A New Flat And This Is Her Neighbours Garden. What Is This Thing?

Answer: a Voodoo altar

Image credits: DanBread

#3 Found In My Dads Room, Really Hoping Its Not A Sex Thing. What Is This Thing?

Answer: it goes over shoes to give grip on ice. They are called yak tracks.

Image credits: Merciman

The ‘What is This Thing’ subreddit is very large: more than 1,170,300 people (and counting) are part of this community. Which just goes to show just how many people are drawn in by a desire to figure out modern mysteries. Or how many Sherlock Holmes and Castle enthusiasts actually prowl the streets at night, looking for cases to solve. You never know, your own neighbor could be one of these everyday heroes, helping others figure out answers to questions that won’t let them sleep at night.

#4 This Was Found By A Cleaner Hidden Under My Dresser In My Bedroom (She Told Me Very Discreetly About This Which Has Me Concerned), I’ve Tried To Google It To No Avail. What Is This Thing?

Answer: voice recorder, doesn’t transmit using wireless though so whoever placed this thing, will be back. If this was in your home, chances are there are cameras as well.

Image credits: M-I-G-Y

#5 I Found This Ring In My Backyard While Doing Gardening. After Cleaning It, It Doesn’t Look Like A Normal Ring. Any Ideas ?

Answer: It’s a Georgian/early Victorian mourning ring. The initials belong to the lost loved one.

They were typically made from gold (18k+) and enameled in black. Yours looks like it was made around 1820s-40s.

Image credits: gamer0981

#6 Falling Out Of The Sky? What Is This Thing?

Answer: contrails from a passenger plane. Being close to sunset, the vapor clouds are taking on the same color as any other cloud would have under the same late-day sun.

Image credits: FrighteningJibber

Some of you might be thinking that my talks about mom-and-pop internet detectives are a bit far-fetched. However, there are plenty of amateurs who have solved major mysteries! For example, BBC Future writes how Carl Koppelman got fired from his job at Disney and became a detective in his spare time.

#7 What Is This Big Hole That Is Usually Found On Milk Cartons?

Answer: It’s a pressure relief hole. If you dropped it, instead of exploding, the hole would pop out.

Image credits: Daniel_Min

#8 Found At An Estate Sale, No One There Knew Anything About Its Origin. Was Thought It Was Made From Baby Teeth But Had It Inspected By A Dentist, They Are Adult Teeth. Stored In It’s Own Small Leatherette Case. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It’s a voodoo charm used to protect the owner from evil magic. A gris gris bag. However, the practice soon changed, and the gris-gris were thought to bring black magic upon their “victim.” Slaves would often use the gris-gris against their owners and some can still be seen adorning their tombs. During this period, there were also reports of slaves cutting, drowning or otherwise manipulating the gris-gris of others in order to cause harm. Although in Haiti, gris-gris are thought to be a good amulet and are used as part of a widely practised religion.

Image credits: Streetguide

#9 I Saw This In My Yard. Is This Just A Type Of Worm? Or Is There A Parasite On It? (I Saw It Breathing/Have Some Sort Of Heartbeat, So It’s Alive)

Answer: that’s two worms making more worms.

Image credits: Unlucky__Leprechaun

Koppelman is now the moderator of “The Unidentified” subforum on the Websleuths website and holds himself personally responsible for solving three mysteries. He matched three unidentified people in coroners’ reports with their missing person profiles. Among them is Lynda Jane Hart, whose remains were found in 1988, but identified only in 2011. If Koppelman can do this in his spare time, imagine what other mysteries we could solve if we joined forces!

#10 Found This Small Kettle Years Ago. Tried Searching For A Similar One But Have Always Come Up With Nothing. Anybody Have An Idea Why This Has This Unique Shape?

Answer: a portable men’s urinal for bedbound patients. In Italy is called “la padella” = “the pan” and yes, it is used to pee when you cannot get out of bed.

Image credits: home_cheese

#11 What Are These Perfect Sets Of Beach Holes? Flip Flop For Scale

Answer: the remnants of a scientific clam survey.

Image credits: papa_higgins

#12 Found This While Beach Combing In The Olympic Peninsula. I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Squid eggs.

Image credits: Fishtails

#13 Bit Into A Mcdonald’s Double Quarter Pounder With A Cheese And Noticed A Chemically Flavor. Opened It Up And Saw This. What Is This!?

Answer: Former employee, it’s more than likely from their gloves they use to put the meat on the grill.

Image credits: oaktoast

#14 Found Washed Up In The UK By Someone In A Group I’m In. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It appears too furry to be a human, as well as incorrect in the forearm leg bones (ours aren’t fused or bent like that) to be human, and think it may be it is a seal hind leg. 

Image credits: TTT334

#15 Saw This Cat In Texas First Thought It Was A Domestic Cat But When We Got Closer That Seemed Less Likely. What Is It?

Answer: Black bobcat.

Image credits: BlackoutSentinel

#16 Found Under A Bed. What Is This Thing?

Answer: small scale meth making device.

Image credits: Brighteyes907

#17 Scanning Family Slides From 1964 – This Was Over My Parent’s House In Texas. What Is This Thing?

Answer: it’s a residue of a rocket launch. It’s called Twilight effect. It was done right at sunset so the sun lit the vapor/exhaust trail from underneath.

Image credits: TBTurtles

#18 A Local Bar Found This Giant Wheel Beneath The Floor While Renovating. Any Idea What It Is/Was? The Space Was Formerly A Garage

Answer: turntable for rail cars. They would bring in the cars and rotate the wheel until it lined up with a short section of track. Then they would move it to there and work on it while being able to move additional cars to other “spoke” rails to be worked on.

Image credits: dcandap

#19 Noticed This Weird Urinal In A Brauhaus Bathroom In Cologne Germany. What Is This Thing?

Answer: it’s called a Papst (german for Pope). It’s for puking.

Image credits: jingjangjones

#20 My Mother Left Bleach In Her Sink For About A Week While We Left On Vacation, And We Came Back To This. Is It Mold?

Answer: the bleach oxidized the metal parts of your sink.

Image credits: shadowfallwolf

#21 Was My Grandmother’s. A Small Ivory Ball With Ivory Nails Poking Through. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Chinese Ivory, Spiked Balls. These devices are termed “ladies pleasuring balls,” and that they were used, or originated, in China for this very purpose. How widespread their use, or how actual, is up to the viewer’s imagination.

Image credits: baconaro

#22 Empty Gel Container In A Sealed Coca-Cola Bottle. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Ibuprofen.

Image credits: ladyofchaos

#23 What Is The Purpose Of This Chain?

Answer: it is a rain chain, an alternative for traditional downspout of a gutter system.

Image credits: FilthySef

#24 Walking The Dogs When One Of Them Bought This To Me. 2 Aa Batteries Inside It, Black Plastic And Doesnt Appear To Have Any Function. What Is This Thing?

Answer: remote controlled female sex toy.

Image credits: ClavonClavon

#25 20 Years Of Research And Reddit Is My Last Hope! What Is This Thing?

Answer: The Black Drum fish fossils. The Black Drum had a short deep body with a high arched back, but a flattish belly. The jaw teeth were small and pointed, but the throat was armed with large, flat, pavement-like teeth with which the drum crushed shellfish, for food. This characteristic separates it from the weakfish and the king fish.

Image credits: XxUFOxX11

#26 In A Multi Storey Car Park. Is It A Passage For Rats? There Are Also Small Holes In The Floor And Ceiling With A Tiny Ladder Connecting Them

Answer: Secret Industry by John Pym: The stairwells and lift lobbies of multistorey car parks are not usually areas where people pause to admire the architecture, so John Pym used this to his advantage. The model walkways and ladders replicate their full-scale counterparts and are a playful way of suggesting an alternative, unseen service industry at work within the building. Superficially mundane, some people may use the car park for years without being aware of their presence, while others will notice straightaway. The artist sees it as a reward for those who look more closely at their surroundings.

Image credits: petermartin2006

#27 Found In My Aunts “Treasure” Collection. Seems Like A Heavy Metal Weight Inside. What Is This Thing?

Answer: This is a “tracker pebble” used for tracking longshore drift. The pebbles have a serial number, are buried in a location and then refound further down the coast in the shingle by metal detector.

Image credits: wildedgeofficial

#28 Took This Picture From My Airplane Window On Trip From Dc To Las Vegas. Any Idea What It Is?

Answer: a mineral mine. It’s the world’s largest lithium deposit.

Image credits: honeybadger3891

#29 This Tank Looking Thing On Top Of An Office Building In Atlanta, Georgia. What Is This Thing?

Answer: boom for window washers (and, presumably window replacers) to access the windows.

Image credits: SalvadorTMZ

#30 What Are These Yellow Things Coming Out Of This Lizard’s Stomach? This Is The 6th Lizard I’ve Found Like This So Far This Month

Answer: this is Sceloporus occidentalis and those look like dessicated eggs to me. S. occidentalis will lay 3-17 eggs per clutch so this is within the correct range. I’m seeing tiny lizards everywhere at the moment and July is the upper range of the laying season. It’s possible/ unlikely that the lizards in your area are becoming eggbound, dying and are exploding when they decompose, but more likely you have a cat near you that enjoys killing lizards without eating them. The tail here has been severed recently (if it was an older wound you’d see a black regrown stump), which suggests that it dropped the tail to escape from a predator. Gravid lizards are heavier and will probably be easier to catch than a lizard that isn’t carrying eggs.

Image credits: Fresshmaker

#31 Found Inside The White Of An Egg. Are These More, Future Eggs That Unfortunately Got Inside Another Egg? Did The Chicken Lose All Future Eggs? A Parasite?

Answer: Those are lumps of calcium deposits, like what the rest of the eggshell is made of. They’re harmless if they’re on the outside of the egg. I occasionally get eggs from our chickens that have shells that are “grainy “ or bumpy rather than smooth.

Image credits: Youngmanandthelake

#32 What Is This Random Structure I Found In The Middle Of The Forest?

Answer: a WWII one man bomb shelter.

Image credits: me_using_reddit

#33 What Are These Blue Tubes That I Keep Seeing In Berlin?

Answer: to transfer groundwater to rivers because of the water level. Since the early 1990’s the groundwater level in Berlin has been rising. Due to lower water consumption the abstraction of groundwater has diminished and the city now has to cope with an extraordinary high level of groundwater.

Image credits: BrightEyeCameDown

#34 It Is A Fairly Strong Magnet I Found With A Metal Detector. Found In A Person’s Yard In A Small Town. It Is Really Smooth. What Is This Thing?

Answer: that’s 1 out of 2 rattle magnets. Used to have them in school. You throw them up in the air and they make a crazy loud rattle. 

Image credits: pipes990

#35 Clock In Assisted Living Facility

Answer: Bedsore prevention. You would refer to the two hour intervals as a turning schedule.

Image credits: SuperFlyStuka

#36 What Is This Signs Purpose?

Answer: It means do not scare the flamingos. Many people would cross that sign to scare them so that they could fly and get a picture.

Image credits: spangloss

#37 What Is The Purpose Of This Mirrors? I Came Across Them In Trosa, Sweden, Near The River. They Are On Almost Every House

Answer: In Denmark they are called a “gadespejl” It is an old invention, basically a mirror that made it possible to view the street from the comfort of your couch.

Image credits: kemcio17

#38 These Things Hanging On My Apartment Ceiling? At First There Were ~3, 6-9 Months Later There Are 12

Answer: They are Clothes-Moth cases for the larvae.

Image credits: deltabay17

#39 This Just Trundled Across The Road In Front Of Me, Zoomed Down The Sidewalk Before I Could Get A Better Look At It. Spotted In Melbourne Australia. What Is This Thing?

Answer: it’s an automated delivery, possibly for food.

Image credits: Tallands

#40 Found In The Yard Of My Old House (Agra, India). What Is This Thing?

Answer: They are Portuguese Terracotta figures from the 3rd to 4th century.

Image credits: NotYoshii

#41 This Weird Wrapped Car. The Lights Were Wrapped In Cloth. Serial Numbers All Around. Anything Significant Or Just Tacky?

Answer: It obscures the car while being test driven, so the yet-to-be-released models are not photographed and published. The random “wave” patterns effectively hide the body contours and lines.

Image credits: NotoriousJB

#42 This Little Brown Sack On The Bottom Of A Cup?

Answer: roach egg.

Image credits: tatertotski

#43 Does Anyone Have Any Info On This Nazi Dagger I Received From My Grandfather?

Answer: Nazi Diplomat Dagger.

Image credits: Caserod98

#44 This Purple Sky In Southern California Seen At 1:30am And Lasted For Only About 5 Minutes Before Fading Away. What Is This Thing?

Answer: the glow is related to a commercial cannabis growing operation. That’s the color of grow lights.

Image credits: wetspark_

#45 My Brother Found This (Missile?) In The Woods In Tennessee. What Is This Thing?

Answer: The MGR-1 Honest John rocket. It was the first nuclear-capable surface-to-surface rocket in the United States arsenal.

Image credits: mylittletoesie

#46 Mom Found This Bullet On The Beach About A Year Ago, How Old Is It And From What Type Of Gun?

Answer: this is a pre-1980 .50 BMG bullet. You can tell because the bullet in question does not have a boat-tail heel, which was a recent development in firearms from the 1980’s forward. Most likely fired from a M2 Browning Machine Gun, as these guns would most often see action in the Navy. Although the GAU-19 might be a possible contender, it wouldn’t be, because the GAU-19 only fired 50cal with a boat-tail. If you look at the grooves on the bullets, it exhibits a 8 lands and grooves right handed twist, matching the original design of a browning machine gun barrel.

Image credits: Shplurt

#47 What Is This Paintball Gun Looking Thing Being Used My Police In A Real Life Drug Raid?

Answer: Pepper Spray Paint Ball gun. Technically it is a paintball gun, however the paintballs it fires have pepper spray powder inside of them. It’s less than lethal defense.

Image credits: IVIichael

#48 What Is This Weird Half Truck And Why Is It Pushing A Flatbed Trailer? Is There Any Sort Of Advantage Of Pushing Rather Than Pulling It?

Answer: Float Plane Mover. This truck’s job is to move planes up and down a boat ramp into the water. Backing up an ordinary truck+trailer combo down a boat ramp is not easy. With this vehicle, the driver can look straight forward down the ramp rather than in his rear-view mirror, and since the steering wheels are at the back it’s easy to align the truck’s bed with the plane. Most trucks only load at a boat ramp once in a while, since this one does only that, it makes sense to design it specifically for that job.

Image credits: Ouisha

#49 Found This In Apple Maps. Something On The Top Level Of My Parking Garage At Work. What Is This Thing?

Answer: a spider crane which is very common in construction where there are tight areas to have to bring machinery through like a multi level garage.

Image credits: kurujiru

#50 Antique From The 1800’s, Have To Figure Out What It Is For A School Project. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Antique Soap Saver. Small scraps of soap were put in the cage and when people did dishes by hand the soap saver was swished though the dishwater to made suds.

Image credits: Earffff

#51 My Dad And I Buy Foreclosed Storage Units. We Have Had This For Two Years, Taken It To Multiple Experts, Google Searches Galore, But Still Cannot Figure Out What This Is. What Is This Thing?

Answer: the spectrometer for mineral exploration. A Sharpe A-3 Magnetometer (serial No, 220), This instrument, which can be used either as a self-levelling, self-orienting dip needle or as a vertical force magnetometer was used as a vertical force magnetometer for this survey. The instrument was designed to have an accuracy of approximately plus or minus 50 gammas at levels of moderate magnetic force, but its accuracy is dependent upon the magnetic range in which it is being used. For readings of 100,000 gammas above the base control reading its accuracy would be plus or minus 1000 gammas. For a reading of 3000 gammas above the base reading, its accuracy would be expected to be within 30 gammas.

Image credits: Saxyboy15

#52 What Is This Thing?

Answer: the dam on the Elbe near Dvůr Králové called Les Království”. It’s placed on a hillside because it’s an emergency spillway. If the water behind he dam gets too high it’ll flow into that and keep the water levels from rising further.

Image credits: Frozen-Cake

#53 Medical Devices? But For What Kind Of Surgery?

Answer: the drills in the kit are called trephines, and sometimes the word “trephination” is used for this variation of the procedure. “Trepanning” is more of a catch-all term referring to surgery in which a portion of the skull is removed.

Image credits: NetAtraX

#54 We Had A Party The Other Night And Found This On The Kitchen Counter In The Morning. It Has White Powder In It And The Cap Just Comes Off, It’s Not Secured In Any Way. Bottle Cap For Size Reference. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It’s a refill container for a marking tool used in sewing. The tool dispenses a fine line of powdered chalk when drawn across fabric. I have some in several colors.

Image credits: mporso

#55 Weird Sealed Pouch Inside A Baggie Filled With Some Sort Of Gel And Some Metal Oval With Raised Lines On It. Randomly Appeared Inside Someones Backpack In New Zealand. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It’s a reusable handwarmer, ‘pop’ the metal and the gel with begun to crystallise creating heat then simmer it in hot water to reset.

Image credits: MyTeaIsMighty

#56 Found This Jar Filled With Red Liquid, Tied To A Tree In The Woods In France, What Is It Used For?

Answer: thick black liquid with a strong smell is used to attract wild boar. You smear it at the bottom of the tree and wild boar rubs their body against it, giving the hunter time to set up a good shot.

Image credits: aukerinsma

#57 What Are These Emergency Doors In Amsterdam Schiphol Airport? Do They Open An Exit To Another Dimension Or Something?

Answer: AFAIR, to the left and right, there are movable/extendable walls that connect to these doors. They can “reconfigure” the space, probably to modify the extend of different security areas like Schengen/non-Schengen.

Image credits: shiiyaa

#58 All-Wood Things Seen With Someone’s Trash Set Out For Pickup, About 1 Foot High. What Is This Thing?

Answer: we call em bee hotels, like many people already mentioned, it is for ‘solitary’ bees (solitary because they don’t love/work/do in hives, but clearly, they live close to one another in this setting) although it can also attract many other animals. These things help the ecosystem.

Image credits: sqqueen

#59 Found In A Garden Back In 1959, Still Haven’t Been Able To Identify What It Is

Answer: It’s a broche or pin featuring Napoleon.

Image credits: Nautaliski

#60 Can Someone Please Explain What Is Eating The Fish In This Video?

Answer: these are nassarius snails. They are scavengers and when they smell the dead fish, they pop out of the sand to eat. They will make short work of that fish, by the way.

Image credits: Ninja_Spi-D-er

#61 What Is This Thing? Entirely Matte Black And Had A Police Escort

Answer: It’s called a package wastewater treatment tank. They use them typically in areas without access to city septic systems and where the ground won’t pass test for a typical septic tank.

Image credits: zook312

#62 Found These Glass Goggles In The Wall Of Our 100 Year Old Home. What Is This Thing?

Answer: old safety glasses. Some had interchangeable lenses – clear for eye protection or dark tint for brazing. Neat intrinsic thing but aren’t worth anything.

Image credits: prodigyrun

#63 Me And My Brother Found This In Our Grandpa’s Garage (In France). There Is 3 Parts. Do You Have Some Information?

Answer: an artillery shell. The rings on top are for timing the detonation of a round. Looks like a 105mm.

Image credits: imgeekman

#64 Found On The Streets Of New York City (Chelsea). What Is This Thing?

Answer: it’s an art car, or more specifically these days, a mutant vehicle.

Image credits: Clarkson5forfighting

#65 It’s Been Submerged In Water For Years Near A Creek Where I Live. Can’t Google Because I Don’t Know Where To Start. What Is This Thing?

Answer: The Quester, the private submarine built to salvage the Andrea Doria, now in need of salvage itself.

Image credits: thrtysmthng

#66 I Believe Mercedes Dated 98/99, Anyone Know Which Type? Hit And Run

Answer: a Mercedes W202, an older C class model.

Image credits: Mayhooom

#67 Hit And Run Tail Light. What Car Model?

Answer: Acura RL MY2004

Image credits: lethal_defrag

#68 Just Moved To New Apartmant, Found This In The Living Room. What The F Is This?

Answer: this is an antique Turkish-style bell brazier. Referred to as a mangal. Typically used by nomadic peoples of the Middle East for heating and some cooking, since you cannot have a hearth in a tent. Instead, you burn charcoal in a specially designed brazier, which contains the fire and radiates the heat. This one is compact and plainly decorated, with a short base to hold the fire bowl and a simple cover. This style is known as a suleymaniye brazier, for the district in Istanbul in which is was popularized. Other designs feature a taller decorative base, a tray to catch sparks, and elaborately designed covers. It may have come with a pair of tongs.

Image credits: vasjuk

#69 South Korea – I’ve Tried Googling “Sponges In Plastic Baskets On Sticks” – No Luck. What Is This Thing?

Answer: the object in the picture is a leftover of a hwahwan (화환). It’s basically an oversized bouquet, used in some “big personal events” in Korea. “Big personal events” being weddings, funerals, opening of their own business, etc.

A group (a company, club, or even just a circle of friends) that has ties to the affected person(family members of the deceased, the bride/groom, etc) orders these hwahwan to congratulate or show their support as a group. Sometimes ordered by an individual if they can’t personally come to the event.

After ordering, the hwahwan will be delivered to wherever the event’s taking place at a specified time. You can often see dozens of these in a line near weddings, funerals, or newly-opened shops.

Image credits: figtoria

#70 What Is This Tool On Swiss Army Knives?

Answer: It’s like a needle for thick material, like canvas. It’s called a sewing awl.

Image credits: Anonymously-done

#71 Found This In My Backyard, Is It Like A Hatch? (Tennis Racket For Scale)

Answer: Septic cover.

Image credits: Alex-why–

#72 Found In Grandfather’s Basement. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Ocarina! Musical instrument, you blow into it.

Image credits: Draimen_

#73 A Shadow In The Sky?

Answer: Shadow of a contrail. The plane is probably above you. The shadow is being cast on the low level haze, you can see it in the distance ahead.

Image credits: Ganon_Morph

#74 4in By 4in Scissors. Uncomfortable To Hold, In Either Hand, Two Or Four Fingers. What Is This Thing?

Answer: they’re childrens’ training scissors. Like for pre-schoolers. The extra holes are so a grown-up can co-scissor and help the kid.

Image credits: raybobobob

#75 Looks Suspicious But Has Several Interchangeable Sized Tips And Appears To Have A Purpose. What Is This For?

Answer: It’s a snowman kit.

Image credits: simplemath

#76 A Concrete Thing On An Empty Property. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It’s a hot tub upside down. I’s a concrete hot tub.

Image credits: motion_through_event

#77 Found This Door At An Empty Hospital Floor That Leads To The Patient Room. What Is This Smaller Door Used For?

Answer: The small door swings the other way from the main door. The main door swings into the room so as not to impede traffic in the hallway. The small door swings opposite so that if patient barricades themselves into room staff can gain access.

Image credits: SecretTwilight

#78 My Friend Sent Me This, Was Found In An Oil Mine. What Is This Thing?

Answer: a thrombolite fossil.

Image credits: SRT64

#79 What Is This Thing? Found It Clearing Out My Great Grandfather’s Loft

Answer: MG-42 that can fire 1200 rpm. This is an exceptional original WWII fully functional German MG42 light machine gun. These were probably the most feared WWII German weapon on the battlefield. They were mass produced, highly effective, had a high rate of fire and were easily transported by the average German soldier and they were the corner stone of every German Infantry company. These MGs were actually a wartime improvement over the early fully machined MG34, in that they utilized new and innovative mass production techniques of stamped steel parts that were welded or riveted and combined with limited machined parts. Together they allowed the German factories to manufacture well over 400,000 of these MGs during WWII.

Image credits: eurasianpersuasions

#80 This Shower Knob Marked With An H Is Behind The Bathroom Door. We Just Bought This House And Have No Idea What It Is For. Water Rushes Through Pipes When We Turn It On But Have No Idea Where The Water Is Going

Answer: heated floors in the bathroom.

Image credits: Sorrypuppy

#81 Found This Weird Screw Looking Thing Whilst Hiking In The Alps. What Is This Thing?

Answer: the fuze from a Swiss “7,5 cm Befestigungs-kanone 1939 L 30” a Swiss fort gun. The fuze itself it’s what’s known as a “Doppelzünder”, or in English, a “combination fuze” or “time and percussion fuze”. The round thing in the middle of the image is the delay setting plug, where you can choose between the percussion and time delay settings, where “VZ” is “Versögerung-Zünder” (Delay fuze) and MZ is “Momentan-Zünder” (Percussion fuze).

Image credits: Finnick420

#82 Silver Capsule Camouflaged Inside A Wooden Container Hanging In A Tree In A Public Park. What Is This Thing?

Answer: it’s a geocache. Judging by the size, it’ll likely only have a list inside for people to sign that they found it.

Image credits: fallingfigtree1254

#83 Found This In A House Built In 1930’s. Colored Part Made From Glass, Handle Is Brass And Screwed Into It. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Candle cover, possibly home made. You’d have a glass or metal tray with a candle or two on it, put this over it to diffuse the light and make it prettier. They’d slowly snuff the candles as the flame ate up whatever oxygen was under the dome, so it was kind of like a night light that would ‘turn itself off’ after a couple hours.

Image credits: ImReallyPrettyFam

#84 Bony Marine Skeleton Found On A Beach Near Charleston, Sc. About 3.5 Feet Long And Slightly Leathery In Some Places. Dog For Scale. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Sturgeon. Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae.

Image credits: touch-the-cactus

#85 Anyone Know What This Is From? My Grandmother Recently Passed And We Are Going Through Her Memories. She Stole It From Paris When She Visited, Yes Stole Lol. Believe It Was From A Game Of Some Kind

Answer: It’s a pétanque (boule) ball. It’s a game similar to Bocce ball. Players throw metal balls like this at a small wooden ball and score points by getting closer than their opponents. It’s a pretty popular game, if you live in or near a major metro area you can probably find a group that plays near you.

Image credits: StinkySteinke

#86 Found This In My New Apartment Kitchen, What Is This? It Says Something With Radioactivity. Could This Be Dangerous?

Answer: a tube of Strontium 90. It has quite a lot of uses, but I can’t ID exactly what that format is from. Depending on where you live there may be rules and regs about disposal, you’ll have to check with your local council/equivalent.

Image credits: -_mo_-

#87 Found In Some Old Stuff. Can Be Opened To Reveal This Piece Of Paper. What Is This Thing?

Answer: A prayer neckless. You put a prayer in it and carry with you for various reasons.

Image credits: dni3816

#88 Found At Luzon In The Philippines, Taken At 5:30 Pm. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Cloud iridescence or irisation is a colorful optical phenomenon that occurs in a cloud and appears in the general proximity of the Sun or Moon

Image credits: EmpireSugar

#89 Bought This At A Estate Sale, The Owner Wasn’t There So I Couldn’t Ask Him What It Was But It Looked Really Cool. What Is This Thing?

Answer: a Korean scroll box.

Image credits: lann12

#90 What Is This? I Passed It On My Way To Work And Usually There Is A Cover On It. It Has The Days Of The Week On It And It’s About 6ft Tall

Answer: we had these on the walls of each fire station in my city. Those were for recording water pressure in the municipal water system at various points in the system.

Image credits: msk9811

#91 Saw This In The Work Break Room. What Is It? Why Would It Be Illegal To Use It?

Answer: It is a base for a pneumatic control. Likely a thermostat for a heater, although there are other possibilities if its in a larger building that would have a more complex control system.

Image credits: GoodOlJonesy

#92 Whats This Elastic Band Under My Shoe’s Velcro Strap?

Answer: It’s for when you don’t strap your shoe. You can fold the Velcro strap in and let it just hang open and show off the Nike brand Logo.

Image credits: i-like-to-be-wooshed

#93 Literally Any Explanation Will Do. What Is This Thing?

Answer: a giant snowblower.

Image credits: maxl3t

#94 These Two Notched Yellow Hooks Made Of Plastic, Found In A Geocache

Answer: tick remover tools. Used to help get ticks off your pet (or yourself).

Image credits: aerovistae

#95 Found On My Patio, Approximately The Size Of A Walnut. Minimal Blood Around It And No Other “Pieces” Found. Located In North Texas. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Looks like a rabbit’s stomach, filled with grasses and herbs. Animals often throw up the stomachs of their prey. Could have been dropped by a bird.

Image credits: tootsmcgoober

#96 On A Kitchen Cabinet, Above The Sink. The Piece Only Swivels Side To Side. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It is a recipe card holder… It swivels down to clamp on the card (or sheet of paper), so you can read your recipe and not worry about getting it dirty or stealing counter space away from you cooking efforts.

Image credits: CounterproductiveBox

#97 A Ring My Sister Picked Up Of The Ground In The Woods, The Writing Is All Around It And There Are Two Pool-Green Jewels On Either Side. Anyone Have Any Idea What The Symbols Mean?

Answer: OM MANI PADME HUM – Indian mantra (Sanskrit). The blue green stone is most likely turquoise. Turquoise and silver are common combinations in Tibetan jewelery.

Image credits: kyxina

#98 A Knife I Recieved From A Friend. His Grandparents Had Owned It. Seems Pretty Old And Rustic! Any Ideas?

Answer: an early 20 C. Moroccan Koummya dagger.

Image credits: themightymeatflute

#99 What Is The Porpuse Of These Floors? They Have No Windows, Only This Clylindrical Thing On Them, There Are More Throughout The Building

Answer: mechanical voids to get extra height to the building. City zoning regulations have put restrictions on them. Tall buildings would typically need a plant room every 25 storeys or so (of which one may be rooftop). Because of the way planning floorspace typically works though there’s no real limit until now on building more mechanical plant rooms (unlike normal floors) so more space is being put in them than necessary to help with some other issues like here they are a bit open to help reduce wind loading and also just to increase the height of the building because higher units sell for more money.

Image credits: Rodzp

#100 What Is This Thing That My Friend Found In The Water?

Answer: this is a figure of the Santerian Orisha Olokun. One hand holds a snake, the other a mask. They typically come off because these figures are kept in water 100% of the time. If you found this in the ocean, then this is more evidence towards that as Olokun is tied to the ocean. This was probably disposed of ritualistically and replaced with a new one.

Image credits: Saaintt

#101 A Fish Like Object Found In A River. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Created object from rather fine clay. You can see this by the facets: its sides are flattened where it lay on a surface to be decorated/fired, and those flattened spots are heavier where the decoration was pressed into the piece. Additionally the “teeth” are exactly the same, evenly spaced: a tool made these indentations. Most telling, the areas along the spine that were pinched have less wear than the rest of the spine. This indicates compression of microscopic clay plates (increases density). The round thing on the bottom might be a maker’s mark.

Image credits: Hazzah02

#102 My Dad Just Calls Them His Brass Knuckles, But Considering The Engraving And Slot, I Think This Could Be The Grip To A Wwi Trench Knife. What Are Your Thoughts?

Answer: U.S. 1918 brass knuckle trench knife’s handle. Replicas have been made for at least 40 years of that exact knife. Odds are it’s a replica.

Image credits: includedlynx

#103 What Animal Is This?

Answer: Meerkat. Native to Africa.

Image credits: gmtloot

#104 A Friend Of Mine Saw It Swimming This Morning. What Is This Thing?

Answer: The common shovelnose ray, giant shovelnose ray or giant guitarfish is a species of fish in the Rhinobatidae family found in the central Indo-Pacific, ranging from India to the East China Sea, Solomon Islands and northern Australia.

Image credits: eve2468

#105 Found This Earlier Today, It Says Silver On The Back. Is It Navy? Australia, Victoria

Answer: royal naval aviator pin or sweetheart’s brooch.

Image credits: TTT334

#106 At My Local Jack-In-The-Box. Nobody Knew What It Was. It Looks Straight Out Of Whoville. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Agave in flower. Agave rosettes are mostly monocarpic, though some species are polycarpic. During flowering, a tall stem or “mast” (“quiote” in Mexico) grows apically from the center of the rosette and bears a large number of short, tubular flowers and sometimes vegetatively produced bulbils (a form of asexual reproduction).

Image credits: Crush409

#107 What Is This Fish With Strange Writing?

Answer: The Lucky Iron Fish. I recall hearing that iron deficiency was a serious problem in developing countries due to improper diets that consisted of mostly pastas and rice, which are a poor source of iron.

The solution was to boil chunks of iron with food to increase the iron content but many were skeptical and hesitant to cook with chunks of metal in their food. The iron was shaped into a ‘lucky fish’ that would provided addition health benefits when you boiled water with the fish in it.

Image credits: plong42

#108 Found In The Yard Of My Old House (Agra, India). What Is This Thing?

Answer: they’re clay, but pretty small. Could be idols of some kind. The jar is probably for perfume or oils

Image credits: NotYoshii

#109 Grandpa Says A Russian Soldier Left It During Ww2, What Is It?

Answer: Кирюхин Николай (Kiryuhin Nikolay) portcigar.

Image credits: KuropatwiQ

#110 Really Weird Chiansaw That Was In The Shop Today, Any One Know What It’s Used For?

Answer: It’s a bow bar chainsaw, used to push into brush and limbs.

Image credits: Swanky-Dank

#111 These Weird Green Things We Found In Our School Fountain. They Move Around And Have Pinchers. What Is This Thing?

Answer: water beetle larvae.

Image credits: reddit.com

#112 I Found This While Fossil Hunting At Lyme Regis In The UK, Looks Like A Clam Or Something?

Answer: It’s a steinkern, a fossil that it’s formed from sediment entering a hollow structure, of a rather large bivalve.

Image credits: _LZ_

#113 My Parents Saw This Rubber Looking Thing Strapped To A Truck In A Parking Lot And Haven’t Been Able To Identify It. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Art, “Molecule 2”, By Mario Martinez (Mars-1).

Image credits: Cabwollop

#114 Found This Thing In The Street Years Ago And Have Never Been Able To Figure Out What It Is. What Is This Thing?

Answer: I found a item similar (I would rather say identical): It looks to me to be part of a mechanical calculator, more specifically the pick-up gear assembly. The arms should be attached, then the outer “teeth” will engage appropriately with buttons or display figures.

Image credits: RowanBee

#115 World War Ii Or Later? Found In A Polder In North Holland. What Is This Thing?

Answer: MAT 49: Iconic SMG of Algeria and Indochina.

Image credits: deco50

#116 Found In My Grandfathers Garage, They Appear To Be Hand Stamped. What Is This Thing?

Answer: These are the work of Kawase Hasui. The one on the left is titled, “Kasuga Shrine in Nara.” 1933. The one on the right is, “Snow at Hie Shrine (New Years Day).” 1931

Image credits: passw

#117 Found On The Sand In Nsw, Australia. Slowly Moving, Floats In Water. What Is This Thing?

Answer: A Blue Dragon Sea Slug. About the size of a 50c coin.

Image credits: Davismism

#118 Miltary Background, Don’t Know More. What Is This Thing?

Answer: The 20×110mm USN (also known as 20×110mm US Navy and 20mm Mk-100 Series) is autocannon cartridge developed by the US Navy after World War II for use in Mk 11 and Mk 12 autocannon. Red and yellow means don’t drop it.

Image credits: WimeyBug

#119 Oregon Coast Range, Found Poking Out Of The Forest Duff Near My Home. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It’s a broken part of a candle holder.

Image credits: echinops

#120 I Found This In A Monastery In Prague. What Is This Thing?

Answer: Maybe something like a Jenny Haniver: a mummified fish, manipulated and lacquered to look mysterious and ancient. It’s an English corruption of the French jeune d’Anvers, “Youngling of Antwerp.

Image credits: Floydra

#121 It’s Metal, And Feels Like It’s Hollow. Has Three Little Bumps On Each Side. Doesn’t Appear To Be Able To Open In Anyway (Although It Might Just Be Seized) Found In An Old Garage. Anyone Have Any Idea What It Is?

Answer: it’s a piece from an old school cream separator machine.

Image credits: Kurt_Smith_02

#122 Found On Ny Beach- Definitely Metal, Maybe Jewelry?? Sunglasses For Scale

Answer: part of a kerosene lamp. The style of Argand kerosene lamp was generally used as a desk lamp and is often called a reading, student, or study lamp. It was made by Kleeman of Germany who held several patents on lamp improvements. 

Image credits: bigolpigear

#123 My Dad Bought These At A Garage Sale. They’re Solid Brass And Open On The Inside. Any Ideas?

Answer: Modern (i.e., tourist) versions of the old-style Mexican “caballero” stirrups. You often seen them in gift shops in San Antonio & San Diego.

Image credits: supafreak23

#124 What Are The Blocks For On The Back Of These Shoes? Blocks Were Attached To Both Shoes. Saw A Man Wearing Them

Answer: It is the A-COLD-WALL* and Nike collaboration, ZOOM VOMERO 5. The actual box is an oversized heel counter, which is there to reinforce the heel cup of a shoe and increase support. As for the reason it is that size, the lead designer at A-COLD-WALL* says it expounds on his interest in brutalist aesthetics.

Image credits: timmy0101

#125 Roof Was On Fire, And Repaired 2 Years Ago. Just Found This Device Peeking Out In The Attic’s Roof. It’s About The Size Of An iPad. What Is This Thing?

Answer: It appears to be a fan. “Honeywell QuietSet Whole Room Tower Fan”

Image credits: bobbygian92

#126 Kill Devil Hills, Nc. Found Thousands Of These Things Right Along The Shore. They Have Little Fins, Tails With A Little Red End And What Looks Like Two Eyes. What Is This Thing?

Answer: sea angels (extremely small, swimming sea slugs), they seem to be popping up all over the East Coast lately.

Image credits: chuck7797979

#127 Iron Medal. Can Someone Recognize It? Or At Least The Man On It?

Answer: the shape is a Maltese cross and the man bears a resemblance to Gerard Tom but most of the official medals appear to have enamel and/or more decoration.

Image credits: Merianica

#128 What Do Those Tiles Above Exit Indicate?

Answer: The lights correspond to calls placed to the flight attendants.

Here are the usual colors:

• Pink or Red – Cabin Interphone call.
• Blue – Call from passenger in seat.
• Amber – Call from passenger in lavatory.

Image credits: Citizen404

Source: boredpanda.com