Jump to content

Missouri Ozarks fossil


Ozarkia

Recommended Posts

I found this fossil today in the Missouri Ozarks - we find fossils from the Mississippian period here. It is small: for scale I could probably just fit the tip of my pinky in it. We have lots of brachiopods, bryozoans and crinoid fossils around here but I have never seen this sort of interlocking "spine" (I know its not a spine). Does anybody know what this is a part of?

 

 

20210301_140815.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:popcorn:Fascinating! Can't wait to see the verdict!

"Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell" :ammonite01:

-From The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Other images might help.

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think this may be a fracture pattern in a cephalopod shell. It looks like a crushed cylinder.

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just realized where I've seen this before. Some old steel road culverts are heavier than would be expected to lift with an excavator. The bottom was filled with tar to slow it's loss to rusting. Sometimes when one looks in them this is what the tar which was cast into the ridges looks like as the steel structure collapses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

I just realized where I've seen this before. Some old steel road culverts are heavier than would be expected to lift with an excavator. The bottom was filled with tar to slow it's loss to rusting. Sometimes when one looks in them this is what the tar which was cast into the ridges looks like as the steel structure collapses.

Interesting idea but apparently this is small, about the diameter of your finger.  Maybe some geologic oddity?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no idea but wow! That is a very interesting piece. Can't wait to hear the verdict. 

  • I Agree 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Light up the interior and show us. Show us what is on top and out of focus, the circled area.

 

Two ideas: a trilobite shell and some of the filtering structures in a brachiopod.

4AA9C8C7-E8EC-44DF-975F-407305E3A96A.jpeg

  • I found this Informative 1

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very interesting! Could it be interlocked marginal spines on closed brachiopod commissures? Which brachiopods occur there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Interesting idea but apparently this is small, about the diameter of your finger.

Why would the scale be relevant ? Sediment in the ridges would do the same thing.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting fossil. Are those two similar projections on the upper right side of the specimen? Explain the depth of this specimen. Does the structures seen continue into the shadowed area? If so, how far?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Light up the interior and show us. Show us what is on top and out of focus, the circled area.

 

Two ideas: a trilobite shell and some of the filtering structures in a brachiopod.

 

 

Something like this?  From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lophophore

 

lophophore.thumb.jpg.87ced27e3ced8ca2d718f1763277227e.jpg

  • I found this Informative 3
  • I Agree 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brachia would explain the shape, and arrangement relative to each other within sets, but explaining the way they interlock and relate to the overall shape ? :headscratch: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think this is part of the brachidium. It is forsure a steinkern though. A picture with the insides lit up could help a lot to determine what this is. The Ozarks as a location found is a pretty broad term, more specific locality info would also help. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you everybody for your thoughts, I really appreciate it. I will attach a few more photos. I just have my cell phone camera and I'm no photographer but hopefully they will help a bit. I found it in Ozark, Missouri which is in south west Missouri.

fossil1.jpg

fossil2.jpg

fossil3.jpg

  • Enjoyed 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Ozarkia said:

Thank you everybody for your thoughts, I really appreciate it. I will attach a few more photos. I just have my cell phone camera and I'm no photographer but hopefully they will help a bit. I found it in Ozark, Missouri which is in south west Missouri.

fossil1.jpg

fossil2.jpg

fossil3.jpg

Wow. That is nuts. I am tempted by the first picture to think brachiopod with the filtering structures suggested above. But that is awesome!!

"Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell" :ammonite01:

-From The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i would love to spray it with cooking oil and fill it with dental inpression pvs and see what the internal shape looks like.  I was thinking shrimp or even trilobite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no idea, but I'll unashamedly comment to keep this at the top. Hoping for a verdict soon, this is looking pretty interesting.

“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve never seen anything even remotely similar. Far too regular to be geologic.

 

that interlocking structure is mind blowing.

 

I tagged tdgy’s dad as I suspect this may the a brachiopod interior or the like.

 

as others have stated we will need more detailed locality data to further investigate this fossil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As mentioned before, it would be nice to get a light all the way to the back and see what's down there.  That might be hard to do with a camera but a description would be nice.  Also, might as well get all of the outside too.  I find the glossiness of the inside to be intriguing.  Almost like it's wet and fresh. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fascinating. 

In many regards it does look like a brachiopod spiralium, used to support a lophophore. However, as the name suggests, each one is a single spiral, they don't have an interlocking structure like this. 

Perhaps the spiralium was clean broken in half and the two halves then were pressed together and interlocked at that point before fossilization?

Just guessing and I too am very intrigued. 

  • I found this Informative 2
  • I Agree 1

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...