Wheeler Shale Mysteries.

[Tidgy's Dad]

I was recently sent some Wheeler Shale material from the Antelope Springs area of Utah, Middle Cambrian age. Thanks to my good friend Debra @Paleome

It's all rather splendid stuff, not the usual Elrathia kingii or Itagnostus interstrictus, but a selection of wonderful more unusual things.

But what about this one? A trace fossil of a burrow? Some sort of sponge or algae? 

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as always. 

Thank you.

The inside of the object is an orange brown colour, while the outside and surrounding regions are sort of beige. It reminds me of some of the staining around fossils where bacteria have done their work of decomposition and left their waste behind as iron sulphides etc. 

Snake's head?  Lots of little black crystals. Pyrite ? 

This is the inside of the 'burrow' and the divide between the object and the staining :

The 'stained' area : 

Join between stained area and ordinary shale : 

Looking down into the tube ; 

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

There's another one, about the same size, on the same side of the same piece of rock ; 

 

[daves64]

I've got some of the same stuff in some Wheeler shale, only mines a bit smaller. I think it's one of the algae that's found in the shale. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This is on another piece of shale. 

It's smaller, only a couple of cms long and 2 to 3mm wide and the staining is less obvious, just a lighter grey than the surrounding matrix. 

It looks like it might be segmented :

And it has a kink in it. Bristles? 

 

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, daves64 said:

I've got some of the same stuff in some Wheeler shale, only mines a bit smaller. I think it's one of the algae that's found in the shale. 

 

Interesting. 

Thank you. 

Yours seems almost segmented in places, a bit like the one I've just posted above. 

 

[TqB]

In the first one, a lot of the little black crystals are stellate, possible sponge spicules? Or they may just be crystals.

[Tidgy's Dad]

These two bits of shale don't contain any obvious trilobite bits, but there are a number of oddities which are the usual shiny black and maybe trilobits .

This one seems slightly spiky at the bottom. 

 

Crushed cranidium? 

These two, 1 to 2 mm wide seem to be six sided and the better quality one has six ridges running from the apex down to the rim. 

But from this angle it seems divided in two and has a ridge around the outer rim. 

Mr. Blobby. Trilobit? 

10 minutes ago, TqB said:

In the first one, a lot of the little black crystals are stellate, possible sponge spicules? Or they may just be crystals.

Thanks, Tarquin, it all helps and gets the conversation going. 

[daves64]

Mr. Blobby may be an Agnostid (Itagnostus interstrictus). The 2 six siders may be brachiopods, which are known in the shale. I've found some of the agnostids that are only about 1 mm long, with them complete.

Edited May 9, 2021 by daves64

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 minutes ago, daves64 said:

Mr. Blobby may be an Agnostid (Itagnostus interstrictus). The 2 six siders may be brachiopods, which are known in the shale. I've found some of the agnostids that are only about 1 mm long, with them complete.

Thanks again. 

You may well be right about Mr. Blobby. 

I'm not sure about the brachiopods, I'll have a look at the species found here. I have some nice Acrothele subsidua, but not any of the others, I don't think. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Any thoughts, please, Scott? @piranha

[Wrangellian]

Nice to receive a package of Utah Cambrian stuff! I especially like the Acrothele brachs in your other thread.

My best guess for the tubelike things is coprolites, but I'm not sure as I've never seen them from the Wheeler Shale before (but no reason they shouldn't exist, right?)

[Tidgy's Dad]

8 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Nice to receive a package of Utah Cambrian stuff! I especially like the Acrothele brachs in your other thread.

My best guess for the tubelike things is coprolites, but I'm not sure as I've never seen them from the Wheeler Shale before (but no reason they shouldn't exist, right?)

Indeed. I'm open to any suggestiosns. (except dinosaur eggs and lizard head). 

Thanks, Eric. 

[daves64]

14 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Indeed. I'm open to any suggestions. (except dinosaur eggs and lizard head). 

How about lizard eggs & dinosaur heads then? 

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 hours ago, daves64 said:

How about lizard eggs & dinosaur heads then? 

Yeah, you are probably right. Why didn't I see it before? 

But which one? Or one of each? 

[daves64]

48 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yeah, you are probably right. Why didn't I see it before? 

But which one? Or one of each? 

6 of one, a half dozen of the other...  We'll probably see at least one blurry one on here within a couple weeks. 

Edited May 13, 2021 by daves64

[fifbrindacier]

Lizard eye is my guess.

[Sjfriend]

#1 is definitely a fossilized dragon tongue. Very common from there 

 

I too have collected some "what the heck is this?!" from there. Some we'll probably never be able to pin down.

 

I have a few tiny black blobs in my Wheeler shales pieces and some I wonder if they are poorly preserved folded Agnostids???

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

#1 is definitely a fossilized dragon tongue. Very common from there 

 

I too have collected some "what the heck is this?!" from there. Some we'll probably never be able to pin down.

 

I have a few tiny black blobs in my Wheeler shales pieces and some I wonder if they are poorly preserved folded Agnostids???

Yes, several of the Mr. Blobbys are probably agnostid bits, I think. 

A dragon's tongue is new to my collection. Brilliant!