Large Devonian Branching Fossil - It's A Burrow!

[hitekmastr]

On the way back from Tully NY, we stopped briefly to look at a roadcut about 45 miles south of Tully - the shale is grey and exceptionally hard. Didn't find any distinct smaller fossils, everything seemed indistinct and not well defined - I turned over a block of shale and discovered a "large branching fossil" that is 15 inches long. Part of the main stem is broken off horizontally along the stem. I outlined the shape in image 1.4 with a black broken line. This is our largest fossil to-date and was an unexpected discovery.

UPDATE (7/15): The consensus is that this is the filled in "burrow" of some Devonian creature. Hm. What creature makes burrows this large and extensive? We are more intrigued than ever since this was a quick find during a 5 minute stop at a road cut.

Edited July 15, 2012 by hitekmastr

[Auspex]

My immediate impression is that these are filled burrows; if so, the maker was a pretty big critter!

[Bullsnake]

Looks like a burrow to me. Very much like the ones I find in the shale (Pennsylvanian) around here, but alot bigger!

[ghost1066]

Yep burrows I have some that size and bigger thrown out in the yard right now. Have a spot where you just kick them out of the way there are so many. Some you don't kick......must weigh 80 lbs or more.

[Malcolmt]

Looks like burrows to me too, we get huge ones at Arkona down by the river.

[Shamalama]

Yeah, burrows in the Upper Devonian rocks south of Tully are fairly common.

[Herb]

Borrows, but very nice ones.

[hitekmastr]

Thanks for solving the mystery. What makes these burrows?

The more intriguing point is, we only took 5 minutes to explore this roadcut, we're wondering what else is there? We are thinking of doing just a Pennsylvania roadcut trip, for fun.