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Is it a fossil? (first post)


Jesse510

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Hello fossil enthusiasts!

 

Is this a sea grass fossil?

 

I recently found this stone while digging for earth pigments, on a hillside that was a former ochre pigment quarry.

 

The hillside itself contains a lot of black and green serpentinite and lizardite, and lots of dense blue-gray clay. There is also ample hematite and ochre further up the hill. Oaks and grass thrive here, plants grow thick and fast on this hill. 

 

I don't know how to read USGS maps, but according to a USGS map I found (if I read it right), the site is in a pocket of "Alluvial fan and fluvial deposits (pleistocene)" (labeled "Qpaf" on the map)

 

The rock was about three to six inches beneath a 45 degree angled surface, surrounded by black serpentinite and blue clay.

 

If it isn't a fossil, what is it?

 

Any insights are very welcome. Please let me know if the photos do not convey enough information, I will gladly supply more. 

 

You all ROCK!

 

Thanks!

Jesse

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I don't think this is a fossil.  It may be cone in cone structure. A type of concretion.

Serpentine is a hydrothermally altered rock, however, so it may be something that just looks similar.

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Crystal dendrites! That's got to be it, looks exactly like that. Thank you VERY much. 

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Fine dendrites! Welcome to the forum, and thank you for your excellent photographs and locality information. :)

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Tarquin

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Likely the mineral pyrolusite, manganese dioxide.  Very common on fracture faces of serpentine bodies

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'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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Nice pseudofossil!  :) 

    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  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
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Nice dendrites!

If they are black, they are manganese dendrites, if they are brown, they are iron oxide dendrites. :)

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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