GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Hi everyone, Here is another mystery fossil we found last June while on a Forest Service dig in South Dakota. It was found in an area that we think was once a shoreline, since the matrix ranged from sandy to iron-rich conglomerate layers with both aquatic (rays, gars, turtle, etc.) and terrestrial fauna (hadrosaur, T. rex, thescelosaur, etc.). Our best guess is some kind of seed, but we really have no clue. I forgot to take measurements when I was at the lab and no longer have ready access, so I apologize in advance. It is pretty small - you should be able to get an idea of the size from the adjacent Xacto knife (8 mm dia.). Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Here's another view. Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Very nice. Any chance it could be a portion of a pine cone given the ribbing. Would not a seed be smooth or lightly textured? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Possible, I guess...but the pine cones in the area (at least the ones I've seen) don't look anything like this. They are more spherical when whole. Here is a picture of broken sections of pine cones from Hell Creek in Wyoming. We found these while removing matrix from a frill section a couple of years ago. Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Correct oval like the one you are showing a Metasequoia sp. I've see much bigger ones and was just wondering if it was a piece of one. Sorry nothing else to offer just taking a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Any guess is appreciated. I haven't seen the larger ones, do you happen to know a species? Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 No I don't. Here are two from my collection that appear to be in the same family as the one above just much larger. The biggest one is 5cm tall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Nice...those look like the ones I've seen out there. Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 It does look like a piece of seed or a plant impression to me. (Just to keep you honest, in WY, we have no Hell Creek, we call it Lance Fm). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 21, 2015 Author Share Posted July 21, 2015 Isn't it technically the Lance in SD too. Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 It's all about the same fauna anyway but my understanding is that the lance is only in WY and turns into HC at the border. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Perhaps a chunk of abraded wood, or a mold of it, as with the cones. The ribbing corresponding to the tougher growth rings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 Lori,it's a very intriguing find.For me don't looks a Metasequoia seed.I'm inclined to Rockwood supposition, or, going to extreme... a tooth root. Probably, I'm wrong with the last. " We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. " Thomas Mann My Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 It had everyone at the lab totally baffled (and a lot of them know way more than me). Based on the side view, it looks like the outer shell of something. That is why we were thinking part of a seed pod. However, there wasn't any other vegetable matter (other than modern roots) found in the vicinity. The petrified wood that we find in upper layers (away from the site) looks very different. Maybe we will find a bigger piece of whatever it is next year. Can anyone recommend a good reference book(s) (or papers) on Hell Creek (or Lance) Fm Flora? Here is another interesting seed pod we found a few years ago at triceratops excavation site in Wyoming. I don't think this one was ever identified either. Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted July 22, 2015 Share Posted July 22, 2015 It could even be a deeply impressed footprint, with 'claw-slip'. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 (edited) I just came across this while I was looking for something else...any thoughts? Sagenodus dialophus looks to have parallel rows similar to this. LINK It was found in what is believed to have been a freshwater shoreline area. Edited August 30, 2015 by GeschWhat Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Lung fish tooth plates have the ribbing which is spaced, at angle and tapered. Your specimen the sections are very close and perpendicular to the base. So IMO no, but A for effort Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Hmm...still a mystery then! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I once thought it was a seed but with the flat bottom I ruled it out but who knows. Earlier today went through my excess Hell Creek containers to see if anything matched but no luck. It is a mystery indeed. I will show the images to a couple of my collecting buddies on my next trip to South Dakota in September, will see if they can solve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Good deal! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFOOLEY Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Maybe a Taxodium cone. "I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 I don't have access to this paper but it might help? Megaflora of the Hell Creek and lower Fort Union Formations in the western Dakotas: Vegetational response to climate change, the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary event, and rapid marine transgression Geological Society of America Special Papers, 2002, 361, p. 329-391, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeschWhat Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I'll request the paper from the library. Thanks! Lori www.areallycrappystory.com/fossils www.facebook.com/fossilpoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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