DaftCharlie Posted May 6, 2021 Share Posted May 6, 2021 (edited) Hi everyone! Nice to meet you! I'm a bit of a beach comber and recently stumbled across one of my most unique little finds yet. I found it on the shore of Fire Island in New York exactly as is. The outer crust is delicate and would clearly flake off easily if I scraped it. Otherwise, I nearly confused it for a rock (see the underside) when I was walking by. The barnacles and scallop shell are pretty clear, the rest are a new mystery to me. I posted elsewhere and the leading thought is a layered colony of bryozoans. Before I found this and reached out, I'd never heard of bryozoans before, so I'd love further confirmation and whatever other information I can learn from this for my own education. Thanks very much for your time and have a great day! **Edit** Meant to add: I love to know the best way to clean and preserve it as well so any help is greatly appreciated! Edited May 6, 2021 by DaftCharlie 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Yes, that is a stunningly beautiful bryozoan colony encrusting those other creatures. Amazing. However, I'm leaning more towards it being recent rather than a fossil, though I may be wrong. 3 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilNerd Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 I agree with @Tidgy's Dad. A stunningly beautiful bryozoan colony. I also don’t think it is a fossil. They are colonial marine dwelling animals. Each animal or zooid lives in a small hole on the support structure that they create. What you see is the support structure. If it were alive, there would be thousands of tiny zooids living in holes all over. They are very small and you may or may not be able to see them with the naked eye if they lived. I have many fossils of them that the orifice where the animal would have been cannot be seen without magnification. Bryozoa come in various forms. Branching, mounding, and encrusting to name a few. Yours appears to be a type of fenestrate. Which just means the support structure for the colony is formed into that lattice, lace, net (or whatever you want to call it) look. Yours has multiple layers. Just Google fenestrate bryozoan to see what I mean. 1 The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 1 hour ago, FossilNerd said: Yours appears to be a type of fenestrate. Sorry. I don't agree. These are the zooids. Fenestrates checked out in the Mezozoic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Hunter Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Help me understand this, I thought zooids are what make up the bryozoa colony? So why wouldn't this be fenestrate? It looks like a foliaceous colony to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Yes. I realized the mistake. Good catch. I meant zooecia. The zooecia in fenestrates are tucked into the window like structure as opposed to being the structure, as I see here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Hunter Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Still might be confused, wouldn't you need magnification to see that or to see the aperture? I was also under the impression that the zooecia didn't preserve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Nope. No magnification needed in some modern genera. I find them, stripped of the frontal walls, here on the Maine coast. They look like a kelp wood rasp. It's the zooids (animals) that almost, maybe never, preserve. The zooecia are the structures that housed them. With fenestrates one may need magnification to see the zooecia. They are smaller and found along what would be the sides of the casing, using the window analogy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Hunter Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Got it. So are fenestrates only found in fossil form? Since this one looks rather recent it would be what then, just bryozoa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas.Dodson Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 2 minutes ago, Lone Hunter said: Got it. So are fenestrates only found in fossil form? Yes. As Rockwood mentioned Fenestrates (the entire order Fenestrata) went extinct in the Mesozoic (early upper Triassic). I quite like this specimen. Encrustation on encrustation, etc... To answer your question on cleaning, is there a need to? It looks pretty clean to me. You probably want to soak it in freshwater to purge some of the salt content though. For the fragility you can try using a consolidant such as paraloid B-72 like we use in fossils. This (and ones like it) are mixed with a solvent such as acetone and the specimens are soaked for a short time and removed. The plastic penetrates and reinforces the structure. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilNerd Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, Rockwood said: Sorry. I don't agree. These are the zooids. Fenestrates checked out in the Mezozoic. 6 hours ago, Rockwood said: Yes. I realized the mistake. Good catch. I meant zooecia. The zooecia in fenestrates are tucked into the window like structure as opposed to being the structure, as I see here. I stand corrected. Good catch Rockwood! Tired Wayne should not open his big mouth! I need more sleep or coffee... Edited May 7, 2021 by FossilNerd The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Late Start Fossil Girl Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilnut Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Not only is the bryozoan gorgeous but the picture quality is superb. Thanks for sharing. Keep on beach combing and welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Wow, thats a beautiful thing. Hope you can preserve it. Just a little additinal bit: zooecia is literally "animal housings" in Greek, its the same root as in ecology and economy, refering to the knowledge about living spaces of one sort or another. best Regards, J 2 Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifbrindacier Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 (edited) That's a beautiful assemblage of epibiont animals, there's really no need to clean it except soaking it in fresh water as said @Thomas.Dodsonand once dry, soaking it in paraloid. I think it's beautiful enough to have its chances in the fossil of the month contest. Edited May 7, 2021 by fifbrindacier "On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) "We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes." In memory of Doren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted May 7, 2021 Share Posted May 7, 2021 Very nice! If it's not brittle with pieces falling off as you handle it, I would not think it would need any glue. If you do need to use glue, paraloid would probably be the best thing if you can get some, but I would recommend using a thin solution rather than thick. Thought I should mention that, as I might have made that mistake when I was starting out, too! Nothing worse than a glossy, plasticky coating on a nice specimen such as that. Just make sure it's clean of salt as Thomas suggested, and put it in a drawer or display case to keep dust off it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifbrindacier Posted May 8, 2021 Share Posted May 8, 2021 Hear spray could also be a good solution, it is a bit shiny but if so, to put it off, you just have to rince with tepid water. You spray very near the fond of a recipient, you'll have a liquid you can spread on the fossil with a paintbrush. "On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) "We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes." In memory of Doren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerseygurl Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Amazing find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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