Unknown fossil?

[Beautifulxlie]

I found this while visiting Missouri over Easter. I’m hopping someone could lead me in the right direction to finding out what this could be. 

[abyssunder]

Welcome to the forum! 

I'm not sure what it is, but reminds me of Liesegang rings.

Please wait other opinions.

[Mark Kmiecik]

It is geologic in origin. Not a fossil. Liesegang rings are similar, but I think this is formed by a different process.

[piranha]

For comparison:

 

8.3. Counter septaria structures
As a last and most perplexing example of diagenetic self-organization, the patterns shown in Fig. 15 are so regular and complex that one might mistake them for fossils or for artifacts of an ancient culture: polygonal fields are filled with regular spirals, whose segmentation resembles the vaulted septa of a Nautilus shell. Yet there is no doubt about a purely physical origin. I was made aware of this phenomenon by a photograph (Fig. 15(a); courtesy of Prof. C. Mendelson, Beloit). It shows the lower side of a hard crust that developed on the drying mud in residue ponds of a Surinam bauxite mine. Fossil counterparts (Fig. 15(a) and (b); courtesy of Prof. S. Kidwell, University of Chicago) come from a concretionary layer in the Pliocene near Tucson, Arizona. Here the patterns developed on both surfaces, with some of the polygonal cracks penetrating the core layer. In all cases the boundary of the hardened layer was gradational, so that the adhering mud could not simply detach when it dried out. In addition, crack propagation was constrained at every step by the pattern of the previous crack generation. In a less spectacular version of such counter septarian structures, the tangential cracks did not propagate spirally. Instead they formed a round knob in the center of each first-order polygon, thus mimicking the nuclei in a cellular tissue (Fig. 15(d)). This suggests that the defoliating cracks started from the polygonal cracks of the previous order and propagated towards the center of the enclosed area. It would be interesting to simulate this hierarchical process in the computer.

 

 

text and figures from:

 

Seilacher, A. 2001. Concretion Morphologies Reflecting Diagenetic and Epigenetic Pathways. Sedimentary Geology, 143(1-2):41-57

[HuckMucus]

priranha:  That just blows me away!

[Fossildude19]

8 minutes ago, HuckMucus said:

priranha:  That just blows me away!

 

 

Read this for mind blowing content.

 

 

[HuckMucus]

Awesome thread.  The mercenary in me wants to know $ value (I know we don't talk money here) and if it ended up in a museum and if more have been found or is it *that* rare?  Anyway, GO Ma Nature!

[Mahnmut]

I just phantasized about an experimental array of mudponds with varying clay mixtures drying in the sun...

[abyssunder]

In my opinion it's Not a counter septarian structure, at least none of the known forms.