TSCannon Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 Hi all - any ideas on this fossil I found today? Google image search is giving me photos of snake skin. Is this coral, sponge, bone, or something else? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyvaldez7.jv Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 I have no idea but I just brought up snake wood the other day they say is pretty rare and I'm curious if this could be that...or perhaps it's just something else. Pretty cool find tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Cole Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 Looks like a piece of permineralized bone to me. Regardless of ID, it's a beautiful piece! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 Colonial (tabulate?) coral. Could be Paleozoic. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulata 1 2 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 It is a fragment of the rudist, Durania. 3 5 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 arrow mine,image from Bayle(1848) well spotted,JohnJ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 John is probably right if this is Cretaceous; thanks. I missed the best clues. Rough pieces are easier to ID as Durania than polished pieces as they have distinctive fracturing and ripples. The tell is the curvature shown in red. Plus, I must remember that the feature in Durania that looks like horizontal tabula all line up in long planes. Coral tabula don’t usually line up that way. They are parallel, but are not at the same level in every corallite. I remember how mystified I was when I first saw a piece of Durania. Coral was one of my guesses as was petrified wood. Bivalve was not one of them. 3 2 1 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 I must remember that helpful phrase: it you can’t ID it and it is from Texas than it is a rudist. 4 2 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSCannon Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 34 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said: John is probably right if this is Cretaceous; thanks. I missed the best clues. Rough pieces are easier to ID as Durania than polished pieces as they have distinctive fracturing and ripples. The tell is the curvature shown in red. Plus, I must remember that the feature in Durania that looks like horizontal tabula all line up in long planes. Coral tabula don’t usually line up that way. They are parallel, but are not at the same level in every corallite. I remember how mystified I was when I first saw a piece of Durania. Coral was one of my guesses as was petrified wood. Bivalve was not one of them. Yes, it is Cretaceous. Thanks for the help all! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) TScannon: you have found a (piece of) a cretaceous bivalve(mollusc), a canaliculate RUDIST. So it is related to clams. Its shape is a departure form the usual shape of bivalves, the cause of that aberrant shape usually attributed to hinge migration. They formed buildups ("REEFS") that are important oil reservoirs. The large crystallites are attributed to fast growth, and their oxygen isotope content can be used to infer Cretaceous environmental conditions. edit : the last (I sincerely hope) of many grammatical and spelling corrections Edited March 29, 2023 by doushantuo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSCannon Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 Just now, doushantuo said: So TScannon: you have found a (piece of) a cretaceous bivalve(mollusc),a canaliculate RUDIST. so it is related to clams Its shape is a departure form the usual shape of bivalves,the cause of that that aberrant shape usually attributed to hinge migration The formed buildups("REEFS") and are important oil reservoirs. The large crystallites are attributed to fast growth,and theur isotope content can be used to infer Cretaceous environmental conditions Thank you! How did I end up with such a nice, polished looking slice, I wonder? The other images I’m finding of Durania look very different. (I’m a newbie, just curious). Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 At some point in the geological past, your piece might have been submerged and polished by the action of water. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 4 minutes ago, TSCannon said: How did I end up with such a nice, polished looking slice, I wonder? Their fossils are primarily calcite. They are commonly fractured and eroded over time. 2 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 8 hours ago, JohnJ said: It is a fragment of the rudist, Durania. Wow! This is extremely good to know. I was certain it was Favosites. Now all I have to do is remember this info... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 That is very neat looking! And, as usual, I would have never guessed rudist, I still have not adequately learned the "Texas Rule" - haha!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared C Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 cool stuff. Fun fact that I enjoy about rudists is that they were the dominant reef building organism in the cretaceous, corals were not. Nice find 2 1 “Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 I put "reefs" in quotation marks . There are those (Skelton) who don't think "reef" is the proper nomenclature for a rudist buildup 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 34 minutes ago, doushantuo said: I put "reefs" in quotation marks . There are those (Skelton) who don't think "reef" is the proper nomenclature for a rudist buildup Nice websites about rudist “reefs”. https://alchetron.com/Rudists https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/rudists/ 1 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 (edited) the image on the ferrebeekeper site should be credited to Steuber,BTW edit :see below Edited March 30, 2023 by doushantuo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 57 minutes ago, doushantuo said: the image on the ferrebeekeper site should be credited to Steuber,BTW Both sites need to credit all their diagrams and photos. 2 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted March 30, 2023 Share Posted March 30, 2023 (edited) apologies to everyone concerned: I was working from memory The rudist accumulation shown on the Ferrebeekeeper site was the cover of volume 32/1 of facies,and accompanied an article by Schumann on the rudist/stromatoporoid facies of the cretaceous of Oman. If you don't hear from me ever again: a big gaping hole opened up in the floor of my dwelling ,and is about to swallow me up Farewellll,cruel w... ok; the hole just spoke to me and forgave me Still ,it was a close call Edited March 30, 2023 by doushantuo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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