ID - Besom Hill, Oldham

[Yuanls]

I went collecting at Besom Hill in Oldham recently, and found some interesting fossils I couldn't identify. The rocks here are are shales from the upper Carboniferous. They don't show up massively well on camera so I've increased the brightness and contrast. The original photos on the left, with edited photos on the right. All apart from specimen A are from what I believe is the Listeri Marine Band. The ruler I used is a mm-cm scale ruler.

 

 

Specimen A:
About 2cm wide, 1.2cm long. I'm unsure of its provenance as it was found it loose in the scree, so I'm unsure whether it is from an animal or plant. The rightmost picture was taken in sunlight to better illustrate its ridge structure. The line down its centre that causes a change in direction of the grooves appears to be a preservational artefact, rather than something biological.

 

Specimen B:

- B1 is about 1cm by 1cm. My first thoughts was that it's a fragment of goniatite.

- B2 is just under 1cm long. It is a tapering triangular indent into the rock. I've heard you get fin spines at Besom Hill, though I've never seen one for sure and most fossils other fossils in the rock are preserved in 2D.

- B3 is slightly over 1cm by 1cm. It's smooth, with broad ridges. In the image, they run downwards diagonally, left to right. I suspect some kind of shell, or carapace.

 

Specimen C: 

The object that makes up most of the upper centre of the rock. It looks segmented, but it also looks fern-like. I'm not sure what this one is.

 

Specimen D:

This one might not be a fossil at all. It contains a small, circular depression within a piece of shale. To my knowledge, it's unusual for a piece of shale to naturally weather like that. 

 

Any IDs are appreciated! Some fossils don't show up massively well, even with enhancement. If you need better photos, just ask and I'll redo them.

 

Cheers

 

Yuanls

Edited August 9, 2020 by Yuanls
Formatting adjustments

[Strepsodus]

I think these are probably all from the listeri marine band, apart from D (looks a bit different to listeri marine band shale to me, but I could be wrong.)  I suspect B and C are likely to be Dunbarella fragments, though there may be other fossil fragments present.  With the fossils being fragmentary its difficult to be sure of the identifications though.

[Yuanls]

11 hours ago, Strepsodus said:

I think these are probably all from the listeri marine band, apart from D (looks a bit different to listeri marine band shale to me, but I could be wrong.)  I suspect B and C are likely to be Dunbarella fragments, though there may be other fossil fragments present.  With the fossils being fragmentary its difficult to be sure of the identifications though.

Oh great, thanks for helping with the IDs!