toadstone

thumb|Collection of a Toadstone, illustrated in Hortus Sanitatis, published in [[Mainz in 1491.]] thumb|Lower jaw fragment of Scheenstia, showing the teeth in situ The toadstone, also known as bufonite (from Latin , "toad") and crapaud-stone, is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is like batrachite, supposedly formed in the heads of frogs. Toadstones were actually the button-like fossilised teeth of Scheenstia (previously Lepidotes), an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They appeared to be "stones that are perfect in form" and were set by European jewellers into magical rings and amulets from Medieval times until the 18th century.

==Beliefs== thumb|right|Toadstones from Jurassic sediments in Oxfordshire, England From ancient times people associated the fossils with jewels that were set inside the heads of toads. The toad has poison glands in its skin, so it was naturally assumed that they carried their own antidote and that this took the form of a magical stone. They were first recorded by Pliny the Elder in the first century.