Help please. Is this a sea urchin fossil?

[Fredpalazzo]

Found this after the huge rain a couple miles from the ocean in Cardiff California. There are sandstone hills nearby and I'm also trying to classify what may be a fish. Is it an urchin? Or a barrel cactus. Thanks in advance

[Rockwood]

1 vote cactus.

[Fredpalazzo]

At least I'm keeping an open mind - this stuff's very cool, intense, exciting, but hard too! Thanks

[Pemphix]

+1 for cactee

[Fredpalazzo]

But it only looks green in the close-ups. It looks the color of sand in real life. Don't let that be the decider ( keep an open mind Fred, keep an open mind...) Thank you Pemphix

[Pterygotus]

I agree, cactus .

[Rockwood]

18 minutes ago, Fredpalazzo said:

But it only looks green in the close-ups. It looks the color of sand in real life. Don't let that be the decider

Couldn't if I wanted to. When I was a child I colored the tree brown and the trunk green.

Red green colorblind. 

[Fredpalazzo]

Thanks. Here's another picture to maybe change your mind

[Rockwood]

Sorry. Nope. Not enough room in the file for that. 

[Fredpalazzo]

1 minute ago, Rockwood said:

Sorry. Nope. Not enough room in the file for that. 

Sorry, but do you mean my picture's too big, or something else?

[Rockwood]

Too small. I can't make out any more helpful detail.

[Fossildude19]

Barrel cactus. 

[Randyw]

Actually I’m a bit confused by the pictures. There are pictures of barrel cactuses yes but this photo I’m not so sure about but the pictures are not clear enough. Could I get a close up in focus picture of this? Use a white background and well lit but without the black ring. But it must be in focus and not color washed out.

[Fredpalazzo]

2 minutes ago, Randyw said:

Actually I’m a bit confused by the pictures. There are pictures of barrel cactuses yes but this photo I’m not so sure about but the pictures are not clear enough. Could I get a close up in focus picture of this? Use a white background and well lit but without the black ring. But it must be in focus and not color washed out.

All of the pictures are of this thing. This one was taken by my phone and the others with a phone magnifier and plug in digital microscope. I'll take one outside when the sun pops out thru the clouds. Thanks for looking

[Fredpalazzo]

Mouth and anus of urchin or roots and flower of cactus that I'm keeping an open mind to. I'll try the iPad when it charges and see if they get crisper to see.

[Fossildude19]

I think the consensus is cactus, at this point. 

[Randyw]

 

24 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

I think the consensus is cactus, at this point. 

Agreed these clearer pictures are definitive. Cactus.

[digit]

Does not show the 5-fold symmetry that an urchin would have (this cactus has 11 segments to it and not 10 which would be more normal). The tiny spines shown in some of the photos are what you would expect from a dried-up desiccated cactus and are not the kind of spines you'd find on an urchin. Urchin spines disarticulate shortly after death and are rarely found in association with the underlying test.

 

I suspect this piece was a surface find and you did not remove it from a rock matrix. That is yet another reason why this is a small dried-up cactus. I suspect that if you soaked this item in some water that it would soften up and disintegrate. Fossil urchins won't do this but a dried-up cactus will.

 

You have the opinion of several of our members here (many who have seen large numbers of fossil urchins) and the consensus is that it is modern dried cactus and not fossil urchin. There is no more to learn here so this topic will be locked to cut-off any further discussion which will not add anything useful to this conversation.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[JohnJ]

46 minutes ago, Fredpalazzo said:

Mouth and anus of urchin or roots and flower of cactus that I'm keeping an open mind to. I'll try the iPad when it charges and see if they get crisper to see.

 

 

 

This is not a urchin.  It does not have the diagnostic characteristics of an urchin.