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A Strange Cambrian "spider"


hammada

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This "spider" diameter 15 mm, a fossil not exactly beautiful, has imprinted even a trace of creep; in the same layer are found also Hallucigenia and Opabinia, but no one trilobite.
I'm curious to know what it really is.
Thanks

:fingers crossed:

post-15933-0-66310800-1416345617_thumb.jpg

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Sorry, but can you maybe highlight what you think you are seeing?

I am not seeing anything in your photo that looks fossil-ish to me.

Also, a larger picture might help.

I tried to enlarge and contrast your picture, but I still can't make out any fossil? :unsure:

post-2806-0-16407500-1416349395_thumb.jp

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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:popcorn:

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Hey Herb, if you are going to have popcorn you need to make sure you have enough for all of us.

A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey

http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com

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Low-angle illumination might help things stand out.

Here is a shape that catches my eye:

post-423-0-07816600-1416351683_thumb.jpg

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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This?

post-15927-0-67883000-1416353272_thumb.jpg

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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either your eyesight or imagination are much better than mine :D

Plenty of popcorn, stop over anytime :P

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Don't tempt me. I love popcorn. It's about 3200 Km to fern creek from my place. See you in a couple of days. Lol

A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey

http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com

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Perhaps you could try a photo with the light to one side, so it makes shadows that bring out the specimen. With the light directly on the specimen, and no shading, there isn't enough contrast for us to see what you are seeing.

Also, could you post photos of the Hallucigenia and Opabinia? And, where is this material from?

Don

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Nope. Still not seeing it.

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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You need

1.) Sharper focus

2.) Increased resolution (more pixels)

3.) Possibly lighting at an angle

All of the above.

For the angular lighting, take a light source and change the angle of the light and the fossil until what you are interested in jumps out at you. Then use that angle for shooting your photo.

You might have to borrow a better camera for the increased pixels and better focus.

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My question was intentionally very simple and generic to prevent problems, but I was wrong.

The fossils in this layer are really hard to see immediately, but under proper lighting conditions (very little natural oblique light), with a lens they cant escape; Unfortunately, these are not easy conditions for photographs.

This fossils are not pseudofossils or random shapes that can look something like some flints or the clouds in the sky. I think it needed a little too much imagination to see (where does not exist) fauna as strange as that of the Cambrian ......... where a simple spider should not be there.

I Try again with two other photos.

Thanks to all

post-15933-0-28147100-1416435426_thumb.jpg

post-15933-0-15717000-1416435509_thumb.jpg

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If anything, it might be a trace fossil of "something"...but a spider? I'm not seeing enough of an image to conger up a vision of a spider.

Hey Herb, I like a lot of butter on my popcorn, I too will be there in a few days if I leave right now. Got any sodas in the fridge?

 

 

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Those are good photos now.

I've highlighted what I think you are calling the spider.

post-16101-0-96874300-1416438081_thumb.jpg post-16101-0-87866700-1416438205_thumb.jpg

I don't think this is a fossil. I think it is just a coincidence that these ridges create this shape. The fossil has no substance that differentiates it from the rest of the rock. Notice that there are ridges and bumps all over this surface, and it is possible to imagine many shapes and figures out of them.

If this where a fossil, I would expect to see some difference in the composition in the rock; there seems to be none.

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Within which formation are Hallucigenia and Opabinia found in Italy? Are those occurrences reported anywhere... or something you have self-identified?

Roger

I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who [Rudyard Kipling]

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For example, I see a creature in this rock that looks like a frog, or a cat, I'm not sure.

post-16101-0-25539400-1416438923_thumb.jpg post-16101-0-76841400-1416438984_thumb.jpg

I'm not trying to be funny or anything like that. I'm just demonstrating what is possible when you look at the shapes that these ridges, valleys, and hills.

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I do not think that our friend was actually suggesting this to be a spider, but was using an image suggestive of the shape in question. The rock's surface is fairly rough, and images on a computer screen might not adequately convey all the nuances.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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More information is needed on location of the formation this comes from so we have an idea of what we are looking for, I have looked long and hard, but can't make anything out.

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