Fossil conifer?

[Yuanls]

Hi all,

 

I found this piece of mudstone at Besom Hill in Oldham, near Manchester. The rocks here are Upper Carboniferous in age.

 

One side has unusual lineations, but not the type caused by bedding as seen in the shales that are very common in the area. The reverse side is typical of the mudstones found here. I'm thinking it's a fragment of Walchia trunk, though there isn't any mention of Walchia in any literature or by any other collectors.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Cheers

 

Yuanls

[Fossildude19]

Pictures of the edges might help to confirm or deny. 

[westcoast]

Top pic looks like slickensides

[Yuanls]

11 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Pictures of the edges might help to confirm or deny. 

The edges are quite plain, uniform mudstones like the bottom. It's one of the things that makes me doubt its identity as a Walchia specimen.

 

11 hours ago, westcoast said:

Top pic looks like slickensides

I'm in agreeance with this. There is a definite direction to the groove lineations that could have been caused by fault displacement going from the right to the left in the first image. I was under the impression that the area was not faulted at all but it turns out it's quite the opposite and faulting is extensive according to the BGS map.