Found this fossil in the Haw River of Chatham County, NC

[NCHOME]

Could anyone here help educate me on what I found? I am guessing that the objects in this river rock are either aquatic plant parts of some sort, or terrestrial plant seeds. Just two wild guesses on my part. I never find fossils in this river, so I was surprised when I spotted it. Any help would be appreciated. - Thanks!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very interesting find. 

They certainly do look like plant fossils, don't they? 

[Top Trilo]

Seeing as they aren't on a single bedding plane but go over the whole rock I would think it is something mineralogical and not a fossil but what it is I do not know.

Its interesting indeed.

[Fossildude19]

It could be plant material - Chatham County has exposures of the Late Triassic Cumnock and Peckin Formations.

Plant material is known from the area. This does not resemble anything I have seen online, but could be something new.

[Plax]

plus one for plant from the Triassic

[sixgill pete]

Very interesting. Plant? Maybe. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

I'm in the plant camp, but I have no clue what plant. 

[westcoast]

Very strange. Does look superficially like plant...Some kind of lateral sporangia maybe??

[FranzBernhard]

Welcome to TFF from Austria!

 

Looks like a very interesting specimen, thanks for sharing!

 

- Please provide sharp and high-resolution pics from all angles of the specimen. Be sure, that the specimen is well-lit and the pics properly exposed. Please do not overcompress the pics.

 

- Of what kind is the rock? At the moment, it looks like a fine-grained quartzite to me. Is there any difference in texture between the plant part and the matrix part? At the moment, they appear to be the same.

 

- At the moment, I am concluding paint job.

 

Franz Bernhard

[Ludwigia]

@paleoflor? @Plantguy?

[NCHOME]

Franz, definitely not a paint job. I found it in the Haw River. Please see other pictures. I am not a fossil collector, I am simply trying to figure out what this is a fossil of.

[FranzBernhard]

26 minutes ago, NCHOME said:

definitely not a paint job.

Ok! And thanks for the extra pics. Clearly 3D .

 

Another question: Do the black things have negative or positive relief compared with the matrix?
And what happens when you poke one of the black things with a needle? And whats the behaviour of the matrix when treated in the same way?

 

Thank you!
Franz Bernhard

[DPS Ammonite]

What happens when you dab acetone on the possible plant fossils?

[NCHOME]

I can try the needle test and possibly the acetone ideas this weekend. The whole thing is so smooth that there is only one spot where the round things look like they stand out very very slightly. There is also one of the objects that has a brown color in the elongated part. Other than that, it’s all greenish in color with the black objects in it. The river has done a good job tumbling it smooth. Thanks for the help.

[Carl]

This is wonderful! I agree that it is fossil and that plant is a possibility. I'm also wondering about sessile marine invertebrate as another possibility. I feel like I've seen images of such things but I can't get closer than that at the moment. Excellent mystery!

[Fossildude19]

2 minutes ago, Carl said:

This is wonderful! I agree that it is fossil and that plant is a possibility. I'm also wondering about sessile marine invertebrate as another possibility. I feel like I've seen images of such things but I can't get closer than that at the moment. Excellent mystery!

 

The Newark Supergroup is lacustrine in nature, and therefore more likely to produce plant fossils.

[Plax]

They have a lot of Triassic research going on at NCMNS in Raleigh. You might try to contact someone there through their website.

[westcoast]

Can you get a clear close up image of that specimen with the brown 'stalk' in the last image and also image 3. The two lobes appear to have symmetrical dots near the inner margins.

[Plax]

Looks too 3D for plant parts but can't make a piece of vertebrate anatomy out of it nor a freshwater invert of any sort.

[NCHOME]

Here are the two pictures. I can’t get any better quality with my iPhone. Sorry. I will try the needle test and the acetone test over the weekend. What exactly am I looking for in each? Thanks

[NCHOME]

Sent the images to the head of paleontology at the NCMNS in Raleigh. Thank you for the suggestion. If she replies with any info, I’ll post it here for anyone interested. Thanks again.

[FranzBernhard]

4 hours ago, NCHOME said:

needle test

If they two different areas behave differently (crumbling, flaking, scratching etc.).

 

4 hours ago, NCHOME said:

acetone test

If the black spots come off .

 

3 hours ago, NCHOME said:

I’ll post it here for anyone interested.

Please, very interested!

 

Franz Bernhard

[Plantguy]

Wow, really intriguing for sure! Nice! 

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the contrast of the worn/smooth features of the rock and the crispness/sharpness of some of the darker plant? material/shapes and how they have survived abrading/tumbling...the lighter colored dots within some of the lobes as westcoast pointed out are especially interesting. I like reading everyone's takes and observations...

 

You got me with just these photos. Cant wait to hear what the local experts have to say! 

 

Regards, Chris 

[NCHOME]

No reply from the museum in Raleigh yet, but a museum paleontologist in Florida is passing around the photos to his colleagues for ideas.

[Fossildude19]

Brightened, cropped and rotated:

 

 

 

 

 

I will say, the oval objects do sort of resemble conchostrachans I have found in the Triassic of the Newark Supergroup.

I'm wondering if some of the oval objects are those, specifically the second picture middle and bottom right.