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A twonky landscaping gravel find SOLVED goniatite


LabRatKing

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So you know those spots of cobbles and gravel they use for landscaping around the grocer's and such? I found this outside our local Kroger clone here in Nebraska a few years ago...and have been perplexed ever since.

 

Here is a mystery concretion fossil(?) I've been pondering for a long time:

 

Truthfully when I first saw it, I thought meteorite? Botryoidal hematite? Then I flipped it over and thought, "There is no way this should be here."

It doesn't make sense. I'm not even certain this is a fossil, but the microscope tells me it very likely is.

 

I have seen stuff sort of like but not quite like this out of Morocco, but that makes even less sense for a corner curb filled with river rock in Corn Country.

Perhaps some child dropped it? Some fellow fossil nut, seeding stuff for kids to find?

 

Usually I find a bit of sandstone and limestone cobbles with a fossil or two, but this is just strange. So, I'm calling twonky. (Those that know, nod. Those that don't, google.)

 

No clue, me.

 

Anyway, anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped at this one. If it is what it appears to be, I'm not even certain of the critter type. How it got to where I found it will likely be a mystery forever I suspect.

 

 

 

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What I do know is that Mohs is between 7 and 8,(which doesn't make sense to me as that's a bit harder than most hematites I am familiar with) and should in no way shape or form be where I found it or even be where the river rock was likely sourced from.

Did I get bamboozled by a prankster? WEird.

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My wild guess on this would be a Carboniferous goniatite.   :unsure:  :zzzzscratchchin:

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15 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

It doesn't make sense.

Without any background on my side, it makes sense!

Do you know where exactly the gravel came from? Maybe there is such type of fossilization known in that area? Any chance for long-distance glacial transport?

And: Can weathered Mazon Creek concretions look like this?
Franz Bernhard

 

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32 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

My wild guess on this would be a Carboniferous goniatite.   :unsure:  :zzzzscratchchin:

Goniatite was my first impression too (no idea of the age though).

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Tarquin

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27 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Without any background on my side, it makes sense!

Do you know where exactly the gravel came from? Maybe there is such type of fossilization known in that area? Any chance for long-distance glacial transport?

And: Can weathered Mazon Creek concretions look like this?
Franz Bernhard

 

Don't know what it is but I am intrigued. Maybe a blastoid?  

franzBernhard is correct.  Gravels are water transported rocks that can originate far from the source so age can be difficult to ascertain.  

 

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40 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Without any background on my side, it makes sense!

Do you know where exactly the gravel came from? Maybe there is such type of fossilization known in that area? Any chance for long-distance glacial transport?

And: Can weathered Mazon Creek concretions look like this?
Franz Bernhard

 

This is far different from the Mazon concretions I have seen...but anything is possible, I haven't personally made it to Mazon deposits yet, but they are on my bucket list.

 

Around here much of the landscaping cobbles and gravel come from the Nebraska Sandhills region, which is lots of igneous and metamorphics in sand from an ancient outflow from the Rocky Mountains west of here. We also get it in from the post glaciated areas of the Dakotas, and from similar post glacial deposits elsewhere.

 

The local geology is all sedimentary being mostly loess, limestones and shales from the Pensylvanian period (west banks Missouri river) any igneous and most metamorphics are pre-cambrian and down DEEP. 

 

This stuff was almost certainly imported, and the riverock is primarily pink and red granites, with various schists and porphyri. There is a small percentage of quartzites and relatives, sandstone, and ocassionaly other sedementaries.

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52 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

My wild guess on this would be a Carboniferous goniatite.   :unsure:  :zzzzscratchchin:

Very well could be. The triumvarate seams and central triangular pit with a point are really throwing me off, cant tell if structure or fracture artifacts!

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