Tiny vertebra?

[jshclvrt1]

I got bored not finding anything while walking along the gravel banks of the lower Brazos(SE,Tx). The river is still a little high and there isn't much exposed yet. I thought I'd sit down and have a closer look. I wonder if this might be a tiny fish vert or some part of a larger specimen. What do y'all think?

[Fossildude19]

Looks more like a water worn Crinoid columnal.

Regards,

[jshclvrt1]

Cool! That's got to be it. I haven't found very many marine specimens this far south. I should have guessed that after finding crinoid segments with my dad as a kid in a north Texas road cutout. Thanks.

[grandpa]

Interesting find! Actually photo 2 leaves me to think that it is a crinoid cup. The question is "What is a nice crinoid cup like that doing in the lower Brazos River?" That area of the river typically yields up terrestrial fossils, not marine fossils. Also the fauna found there is typically Pleistocene in age. While there certainly were Pleist. age crinoids (They exist today after all.), there is no known source for Pleistocene crinoids in Texas that I am aware of - and certainly not in terrestrial deposits. Assuming it is indeed a crinoid cup (not a given), and that it is from say the Carboniferous period (which it resembles) it would have had to travel a long way downstream (say from below Possum Kingdom lake and above Lake Waco - before it was dammed I would posit) to arrive in the lower Brazos. Very interesting!!

[jshclvrt1]

Maybe you can help me pinpoint its age. I sometimes find these worn shells that could have come downriver from the carboniferous like the crinoid. I dont know what they're called but i know ive seen something like them before when searching those same road cuts. But then I also found this coral once that I beleive to have identified as a septastrea marylandica from the Pleistocene. So could they all three be Pleistocene?

[jshclvrt1]

Had troubles croping the coral small enough to upload.