Dominic444 Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 (edited) Went to one of my local spots in the northern part of Davidson County last weekend and found a few unknown things within the shale. I know the strata is Chattanooga Shale and the era is from the Mississipian period, but these things are very different from what I have found in other areas of the same strata. Anybody familiar with these? Thank you. Edited October 27, 2022 by Dominic444 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 The third one is carbonized plant material. Likely the others are also, but they are less identifiable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connorp Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Closer pictures from multiple angles would help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic444 Posted October 27, 2022 Author Share Posted October 27, 2022 (edited) 5 hours ago, connorp said: Closer pictures from multiple angles would help. Here's some better pics hopefully: first piece:second piece:third piece: Fourth and 5th piece( i believe these are the same kind of fossil): Edited October 27, 2022 by Dominic444 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNDevonian Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 Possibly Graptolites? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 I believe the third piece contains fenestellate bryozoan fragments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic444 Posted October 31, 2022 Author Share Posted October 31, 2022 9 hours ago, ClearLake said: I believe the third piece contains fenestellate bryozoan fragments. I do believe you are right as I noticed some fenestellate fragments myself, but as TNDevonian suggested some of those pieces kind of look like graptolites and I wasn't sure if I was just being hopeful or they actually were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 2 hours ago, Dominic444 said: pieces kind of look like graptolites and I wasn't sure if I was just being hopeful or they actually were. They do in a general sense, but graptolites are usually very flat, not 3-dimensional like your specimen appears to be (yes, I'm aware that they can be 3-D, but that is much rarer). The main clue in my mind is the piece right in the middle of the rock that looks like a more complete section of bryozoan lattice but with similar looking individual "ladders" to the ones you circled. If you can, look very closely with magnification and see if you can see the zooecia (tiny openings) on the bryozoans. Of course this hopefully assumes they are facing zooecia side up as the other side is usually bare of them. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic444 Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 9 hours ago, ClearLake said: They do in a general sense, but graptolites are usually very flat, not 3-dimensional like your specimen appears to be (yes, I'm aware that they can be 3-D, but that is much rarer). The main clue in my mind is the piece right in the middle of the rock that looks like a more complete section of bryozoan lattice but with similar looking individual "ladders" to the ones you circled. If you can, look very closely with magnification and see if you can see the zooecia (tiny openings) on the bryozoans. Of course this hopefully assumes they are facing zooecia side up as the other side is usually bare of them. Thank you will do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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