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Show Us Your Algae


Missourian

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Upper Penn., Lansing group, Plattsburg fm.(thanks for the help, Missourian).

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Recognizing this piece as similar to a previous post in this thread, I was debating whether to post it or not.

But, while examining it, this little white speck caught my eye. That's it, right next to the 1mm mark.

post-5130-0-28221000-1330729022_thumb.jpg and, next to a dime post-5130-0-26230200-1330730368_thumb.jpg

So, that called for some deeper examination with the loupe. It's very tooth-like, but there is alot of white minerally looking stuff in the matrix, so it might just be a worn piece of mineral. I don't know.

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Either way, it literally pointed me to another first for me...a conodont! I've circled the 'tooth' in red, and the conodont in green (and labeled the circles for our color-blind friends).

The arrows point to a couple of polyp looking things, and the trapezoid is another thing that may be bryozoan. The holes look really irregular, though.

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Sorry if this gets too far off topic, but one thing led to another with this piece.

I'm still proud of my algae, though!

Steve

Edited by Bullsnake

Steve

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Nice algae, and great close-ups.

One possible id for the tooth-like object is a partially exposed fusulinid.

Speaking of conodonts, there are a few illustrated on figure 8 at the bottom of http://www.kgs.ku.ed...oore/index.html . As conodonts are critical for biostratigraphic correlation, there are many fine publications out there on them.

As conodonts are made out of calcium phosphate, they may be found in the residue of limestone dissolved with muriatic acid. They can be easlily spotted on the surface of black shales as they glint in the sun.

Edited by Missourian

Context is critical.

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Cool... there's another thing I dont get to find - conodonts.

I've been looking at the edge of this one piece I posted earlier, and have tried (not very successfully I suppose) to get closeups of the layers of shelly structure along the edge of of the mystery item. The preservation is much like that of bivalves like Inoceramus and Sphenoceramus around here, but the sculpture of these is not evident here - just looks like a series of blobs and overlapping layers, so the only thing I could think of was algae. I wonder if perhaps calcareous algae, having a similar composition to shells, will preserve similarly. Any insight will be appreciated.

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Here are a few of my Cenozoic algae. It ain't pretty but it's biological.

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Coraline algae, Upper Eocene, Tivola Limestone, Houston County, Georgia

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Coarline algae, Lower Oligocene, Bridgeboro Limestone, Mitchell County, Georgia

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Coraline algae, Upper Pliocene, Ochopee Limestone Member of the Tamiami Formation, Collier County, Florida

Mike, If there was Coraline algae in the Upper Devonian then you moved one of my "Helizits" from the coral , to the algae tray. You also ruined my next post entitled "Proof positive coral are hatched not born !!!!!" Soon as I steal a camera I'll post a pic to confirm.

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Cool... there's another thing I dont get to find - conodonts.

I've been looking at the edge of this one piece I posted earlier, and have tried (not very successfully I suppose) to get closeups of the layers of shelly structure along the edge of of the mystery item. The preservation is much like that of bivalves like Inoceramus and Sphenoceramus around here, but the sculpture of these is not evident here - just looks like a series of blobs and overlapping layers, so the only thing I could think of was algae. I wonder if perhaps calcareous algae, having a similar composition to shells, will preserve similarly. Any insight will be appreciated.

post-4372-0-55142200-1330759627_thumb.jpg post-4372-0-78748400-1330759634_thumb.jpg

post-4372-0-34185700-1330759643_thumb.jpg post-4372-0-05421000-1330759620_thumb.jpg

It's all new to me, but it kind of looks like stromatolite structure, just from pictures I've seen.

Steve

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Mike, If there was Coraline algae in the Upper Devonian then you moved one of my "Helizits" from the coral , to the algae tray. You also ruined my next post entitled "Proof positive coral are hatched not born !!!!!" Soon as I steal a camera I'll post a pic to confirm.

First I must apologize to the forum for mis-spelling Coralline. :)

Wikipedia has an excellent description of Coralline agae (it's a red algae) and dates as far back as the Ordovician. http://en.wikipedia....Coralline_algae

Here in the south it is associated with Cenozoic limestone, both indicative of warm seas.

Mike

Edited by MikeR

"A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington

"I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain

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It's all new to me, but it kind of looks like stromatolite structure, just from pictures I've seen.

I think I see what you mean, being a few layers of calcareous/'shelly' material with sediment in between?

I'm still not sure if this stuff is any kind of algae, it could just be some sort of nondescript, distorted Inoceramus-type shell, but it sure looks irregular and featureless compared to any shell I've seen. You can usually tell the Inoceramus with even just a small piece, it's obviously flat or dish-shaped. There is other stuff up at that site that comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and is quite abundant in spots, I'm not sure if it is even biologic in origin (there are 'fumarole'- and other types of structures of obvious tectonic origin as well), but if so, my best guess would again be algae, or perhaps ichno. I should have taken some shots, I was up there today. Maybe next time..

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First I must apologize to the forum for mis-spelling Coralline. :)

Wikipedia has an excellent description of Coralline agae (it's a red algae) and dates as far back as the Ordovician. http://en.wikipedia....Coralline_algae

Here in the south it is associated with Cenozoic limestone, both indicative of warm seas.

Mike

Mike, while we're on the topic, can you show us some pics of your Cenozoic coralline algae? Would appreciate that, thx.

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  • 3 months later...

Although I posted this in another thread, it belongs here as well....

Archaeolithophyllum sp.

Argentine Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Clay County, Missouri

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Context is critical.

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I was digging through my extended collection (i.e. 'piles' in the garage and basement) and out popped this:

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Archaeolithophyllum sp.

Raytown Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Clay County, Missouri

Some of this stuff would look nice cut and polished.

Context is critical.

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  • 4 weeks later...

OK. I was thinking if it were possible to prep down to one of those surfaces with the conceptacles, it might be worth doing since they're so hard to find.

Keep looking, Kyle, maybe you'll find one exposed by nature yet!

I found this piece in the Pennsylvanian Raytown limestone of Kansas City Jackson co. Missouri. The algae rock, or 'Calico Rock' is abundant in the area but most of it is embedded in huge boulders or still in the rock face of the cut but occasionally you find a fragment that has seperated itself from the mass! The more I look at it the more convinced I become that the crystalization you see in this piece is the material that makes up the 'lines' of algae present in this type of rock. Maybe I am way off base here and I am looking forward to some feedback from all of you! What do you think? Is this the 'surface' we had been talking about? Yea or nea, it is a really nice specimen and will go in my collection. My quandary is the ID, fossil algae or mineral formation? Have a look see and toss in your two cents! Thanks!

:)

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It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

Charles Darwin

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Seasonal growth bands of the red alga Solenopora jurassica Brown 1894

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This one’s from the Jurassic Bathonian at Foss Cross Quarry, Chedworth, Gloucestershire in England. Around 170 mya. Also known as “beetroot stone”. It's ancestral to the corallinales. It has large vegetative cells and external non-calcified sporangia. Specimens from this era might more properly be re-classified these days as chaetetid sponges, although the genus definitely contains algal taxa. The colouration is residual from the original specimen, produced by boron-containing hydrocarbons.

Edited by painshill

Roger

I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who [Rudyard Kipling]

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Seasonal growth bands of the red alga Solenopora jurassica Brown 1894

post-6208-0-91281900-1343149259_thumb.jp

This one’s from the Jurassic Bathonian at Foss Cross Quarry, Chedworth, Gloucestershire in England. Around 170 mya. Also known as “beetroot stone”. It's ancestral to the corallinales. It has large vegetative cells and external non-calcified sporangia. Specimens from this era might more properly be re-classified these days as chaetetid sponges, although the genus definitely contains algal taxa. The colouration is residual from the original specimen, produced by boron-containing hydrocarbons.

I find this to be a very interesting piece! Thanks for the education :)

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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My quandary is the ID, fossil algae or mineral formation?

The answer may be both. Some of the blades appear to have had voids beneath that later filled with crystals. Perhaps the lime mud was mineralized before the voids were pressed out.

Context is critical.

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Here is an odd, silicified specimen I picked out of a streambed in Southern Indiana. It could be Silurian or even Late Ordovician. Is this a dasyclad?

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http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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Good idea.

Nice piece, Mossourian, those are interesting. Maybe you could add a pic of a piece that has the algae surface exposed to go alongside the cross-section piece.?

I'll add these two even though I already posted them elsewhere:

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Early 'land plant' (freshwater green algae - Coleochaetales) Parka decipiens,

Lower Devonian - Old Red Sandstone, Carmyllie Series

Forfar, Angus, Scotland

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This has been classified as a Chlorophyte algae:

Receptaculites occidentalis Salter

Ordovician (Mowhawkian - Upper? Turinian) Black River Gp.

Mascot, Knox Co., Tenn.

Beautiful specimens!

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

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Thanks Herb, and Harry your piece is interesting too - I would have thought it was a coral. Also I wonder if you have the top/bottom reversed.. that hole maybe was the attachment point for some kind of stem that was not preserved? What you label the bottom could just be the younger part of the plant/colony. Just a thought

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Thanks Herb, and Harry your piece is interesting too - I would have thought it was a coral. Also I wonder if you have the top/bottom reversed.. that hole maybe was the attachment point for some kind of stem that was not preserved? What you label the bottom could just be the younger part of the plant/colony. Just a thought

Of course, anything is possible with this specimen. I assumed that the attachment point for a pedicel was the depression in which there are small, distorted (compressed-looking) structures that are relatively flat (rather than cratered). You can see the difference between the putative attachment point and the rest of the object in image three.

The putative top of the colony has a wrinkle and dimple, but the surface is rather uniformly cratered when compared with the other side. (These polygonal facets seem to me like craters, rather than living chambers.)

There are no structures that might be associated with a colonial coral - no septa, no tabullae, no growth lines, no remnant of a carbonate coral (or bryozoan) skeleton. The craters are not uniform in size, though I have the impression they are larger on the surface which I call the top.

The material seems to be massively silica -- I considered it to be a pseudomorph after something. Now, I'm thinking this may be a dasyclad, perhaps Cyclocrinites. What do you think?

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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I'm thinking of something like a Receptaculitid like the one I pictured above, though I'm not sure which side is the upper, maybe you can fill me in on that, but I guess it's not the side visible in my specimen, in which case you're probably correct about yours? but originally I was thinking of something analogous to a sunflower, which is the opposite - the side with the radiating polygons is the upper side, with a stem on the lower side.

Edited by Wrangellian
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I'm thinking of something like a Receptaculitid like the one I pictured above, though I'm not sure which side is the upper, maybe you can fill me in on that, but I guess it's not the side visible in my specimen, in which case you're probably correct about yours? but originally I was thinking of something analogous to a sunflower, which is the opposite - the side with the radiating polygons is the upper side, with a stem on the lower side.

Here's what FOSSILS OF OHIO (1996) says:

Order Dasycladales (calcareous green algae) [dasyclads]

... Family Dasycladaceae (extinct and recent)

... Family Receptaculitaceae (extinct)

........Tribe Receptaculiteae [receptaculitids]

........Tribe Cyclocriniteae [cyclocrinitids]

.............. Genus Cyclocrinites

"Fossils of this order [dasyclads] are only rarely recognized by

collectors.". . .

"Fossil dasyclads are globose to cylindrical or club shaped in outline. They grew on the sea floor to several centimenters in height.

"Internally, a central, noncalcareous structure, the stem or stipe, was surrounded by worled branches or protuberances (rays). . . . They are generally visible only in cracked or broken specimens.

"The primary branches or rays of some dasyclads are rounded at the tip; some have bristlelike or spinelike appendages; others have cuplike or prismlike tips that may be fused as an outer covering of small polygons.

"In cyclocrinitids, the end of each branch is expanded or branched to form a terminal rhomboidal plate. Each plate is one facet in a fused network of terminal plates of other lateral branches so that the surface of the whole body appears as a reticulate shell of calcareous prisms.

. . .

"Cyclocrinties is generally a somewhat flattened sphere that has an indentation there the stem (pedicel) was attached. The main central axis was short; lateral branches were very slender, almost rodlike, and arranged in whorls around the central axis. The distal ends of the branches were swollen, and adjacent swollen branch tips coalesced to form the heads, which were polygonal (generally six-sided) in outline at the surface of the spherical body. These polygonal facets were calcified." . . .

Edited by Harry Pristis

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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I'm not sure that clears it up for me, it still seems like the dimple/wrinkle on your 'top' could just as easily be the stem attachment point with the depression on the other side being just a younger part of the structure (or maybe a chunk of it was cleaved out of there before or after fossilization??), otherwise the dimple must be pathological. But I'm no expert and I'm often wrong so take that with a grain of salt. I won't bet against your interpretation! Interesting fossil in any case - hope the experts chime in if there are any.

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Well, I'll try posting again...lost the last entry somehow...

Nice topic and examples all! I wish I knew a bit about algae---got nothing really--pretty much Diddly! Harry, yours is an intriguing find--sure dont know..look forward to further discusions by others.

I do have a small 3cm sample of a Parka decipiens to share from the same location as Scott's which was posted earlier...Devonian, Carmyllie Series, Forfar, Angus, Scotland.

From what I have read about Parka---the round shapes that are characteristic of this guy are tiny spore containers each containing thousands of spores.

Regards, Chris

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I'm not sure that clears it up for me, it still seems like the dimple/wrinkle on your 'top' could just as easily be the stem attachment point with the depression on the other side being just a younger part of the structure (or maybe a chunk of it was cleaved out of there before or after fossilization??), otherwise the dimple must be pathological. But I'm no expert and I'm often wrong so take that with a grain of salt. I won't bet against your interpretation! Interesting fossil in any case - hope the experts chime in if there are any.

Here is an exhaustive (but easy to read) review of these algae: http://archive.org/details/northamericancyc21nite

There are pictures and diagrams aplenty.

After reading this review, I am more confident that my specimen is a Paleozoic (Ordovician - Silurian) algae, Cyclocrinites sp. I cannot pin it down to species, though I can eliminate some based on morphology.

This one might be described as a cushion-shape thallus which in life simply rested on a substrate -- in other words, there was no attachment point. The thallus may have attached itself to the substrate with a musilaginous film.

The crease or dimple on the dorsum may be evidence of some diagenetic compression. Or, it may be evidence of some healed damage, as from a predator. Both these phenomena are seen in other specimens.

I am pleased to have your feedback; I might never have learned about these algae without it.

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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It had crossed my mind that the smooth-ish depression in the bottom might represent a direct "attachment" point to some hard bottom feature.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I too am learning a bit - what a precious occurrence - nothing like a mystery item to spur research. I have yet to check out Fruitbat's library too..

I didn't read the text but had a quick look at the pics. I didn't see an exact match, most of the Cyclocrinites seem to have much more regular 'craters', but I'm sure you're in the right group.

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