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I found a prickly ball with an asymmetrical star and a raised rim on the top, a flattened bottom, and what looks like a short stalk. It measures 68 mm across including the stalk, 48 mm tall, and it is missing parts of its edge and side. Inside it is a pale beige chert. The exterior is very finely ornamented and covered with tiny angular holes that are making my camera pixelate. I have done my best to capture the fine detail, There are also some tiny pyrite ooids in the deeper areas on the face and on the bottom. The stalk feature is encrusted in bright white lime, and has resisted all attempts to photograph it. It is the piece that sticks out at the top of the pics. It is located at the same level as the lower edge and is 14mm in diameter and appx. 8 mm in length. It is segmented like an orange in cross section. As viewed from the top, the star face is mostly complete. The left arm of the star is broken away, and the rim is missing at the broken edges at bottom and right side. Thanks for looking!

This was collected north of Stillwater, Mn. It is a chunk of algal reef complex that has been replaced with silica. The front surface is completely encrusted in wormtubes and calcimicrobes, which are the bright white areas. The bottom is very flat, and has a large 6 cm x 4 cm, flat brachipod cast with an off center body cavity and a corrugated marginal outline. The back has two flat planes that are cross sections through something that grew in upward whorls, and another brachiopod in the lower right corner. The white spots are calcite, and calcite is filling in the voids between the whorls. Another large brachipod has been completed overgrown and preserved. It's hinge line and pedicle are all that remains besides an outline in the chert. Pencil points to the end of the pedicle. Whatever it was attached to has dissolved away. A view of the other side of the pedicle. My enter button is not working, and the formatting is doing odd things. I apologize if this is hard to read.