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Hi, I have this mystery piece of what appears to be anomalocarid appendage of sorts. The problem is I did not receive any information with it and it came out of an old collection from Maine, Usa. I'm not to sure what else it could be from the appearance but I am also very uncertain of the exact species. The piece of a very laminated sparkly shale If I had to guess it could've came from either Burgess Shale, Utah, or Nevada but I not sure what locality it could be from so if anyone if familiar with these shales and can tell from the preservation it would be a huge help, thank you and looking forward to seeing peoples opinions, and if anyone can recommend an expert to show that would also help.

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I agree, looks geological.

Radiodont raptorial appendages are not this uniform, and are generally segmented. The "spines" also do not look like those from radiodont appendages, there are too many of them here and they are not distributed in the same way you would see on an appendage

 

Could this have resulted from an unusual fracturing of the rock?

Edited by Misha
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11 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

It looks more like mineral stain than a fossil.

I agree .. it looks to me to be a stained fracture pattern. 

 

800px-Plumose_Fracture_2.jpg.7144e9696e24892b72ff6ff51e2811be.jpg

 

Cheers,

Brett 

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I agree that it is not organic, i.e. not a fossil, but it sure is a good mimic.  It would definitely get my attention.  What convinces me is the lack of evidence of joints or articulations, which you would expect in an arthropod limb.  Also the bifurcation of the traces is inconsistent from "limb" to "limb", and not "arthropod-ish" where it does occur.

 

Don

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Thank you all for the insightful opinions! After some more looking into I do have to disagree with everyone here, but appreciate the replys. I found some better comparisons with the radiodonts of the fezouata formation in the first 5 photos, the shale/preservation seems also more consistent with fezoutata shales than others. The rest of them are various other great general comparisons to anomalocarids which I'm now alot more doubtful of, but are still similar in some aspects. These all are alot stronger comparisons than geological ones, which I struggled to find anything. I will try to find a paleontologist who specializes in this material for a second opinion, as it's important to explore all avenues before making a sound conclusion, but once again thank you.

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It has a very suggestive shape, but I also think it's geological, the appendix shapes don't seem to keep the same pattern.
I leave you some images in case they can be worth to compare.

 

20191221_Radiodonta_frontal_appendage_Anomalocarididae_Amplectobeluidae.png.0db7aa72836309b772bcc05a27155a02.pnganoarms.gif.572ef9c5eaded0c4d66fa68f53c5cdd5.gifAnomalocaris_Mt._Stephen.thumb.jpg.ef92238a0b99afdcf0098d0a498cf4b1.jpgROM2007_9601_6.jpg.e103e36af0e9ae3b5f31c30f2b6d2fbf.jpgtumblr_inline_obktrlgp691sjbhmc_1280.thumb.jpg.2d157144e8ae2085bb6e348de2c88ef4.jpg

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