Ordovician Coprolite or Concretion?

[Bev]

SE MN

Galena Formation

Ordovician

Coprolite or Concretion?

Thanks for taking a peak! :-D

[MeargleSchmeargl]

One vote for coprolite, but beyond that, I haven't a clue.

[doushantuo]

The morphology doesn't offer much clues.

Jury's out on this one

[Rockwood]

Bev,

Cows hadn't evolved yet in the Ordovician

[GeschWhat]

I have personally never found nor seen an Ordovician coprolite...but have always been on the look out! They must exist. The only thing I know of living in that period that are large enough to have created something that size would be a cephalopod. Modern cephalopods have long, stringy fecal matter. Can anyone think of another other creatures large enough to make something that size? The folds on the underside make me wishful. But I see no sphincter marks. If you have or have access to a microscope, you may want to scan it for visible inclusions. Another thing I look for is consistency. Aside from undigested materials, "most" coprolites are pretty homogeneous. If it looks really granular, my guess would be that it is not a coprolite. I would definitely hang on to it. It is not something you see often in our area. Put me down in the hopeful category.

When looking for coprolites in the Ordovician, keep an eye out for pellet shaped structures or things that look like silly string known as Lumbricaria intestinum. My guess is that is the type of poo that would have been created by the known critters of that time.

Happy hunting!

[Bev]

I have personally never found nor seen an Ordovician coprolite...but have always been on the look out! They must exist. The only thing I know of living in that period that are large enough to have created something that size would be a cephalopod. Modern cephalopods have long, stringy fecal matter. Can anyone think of another other creatures large enough to make something that size? The folds on the underside make me wishful. But I see no sphincter marks. If you have or have access to a microscope, you may want to scan it for visible inclusions. Another thing I look for is consistency. Aside from undigested materials, "most" coprolites are pretty homogeneous. If it looks really granular, my guess would be that it is not a coprolite. I would definitely hang on to it. It is not something you see often in our area. Put me down in the hopeful category.

When looking for coprolites in the Ordovician, keep an eye out for pellet shaped structures or things that look like silly string known as Lumbricaria intestinum. My guess is that is the type of poo that would have been created by the known critters of that time.

Happy hunting!

There were fish in the Ordo, this reminds me of fish corpolite, but they didn't fossilize well because they didn't have bony jaws. The ceph shells can get as long as 16' (that we have found so far) which would mean potentially 32' with the tentacles which would produce a large corprolite. Loved you knowledge of long and stringy corprolite. :-)

[GeschWhat]

There were fish in the Ordo, this reminds me of fish corpolite, but they didn't fossilize well because they didn't have bony jaws. The ceph shells can get as long as 16' (that we have found so far) which would mean potentially 32' with the tentacles which would produce a large corprolite. Loved you knowledge of long and stringy corprolite. :-)

Ha...long stringy coprolites are kind of my new favorite. The folds do look fishy...just wasn't aware there were fish back then. Learn something new everyday! Have you found any Ordo fish parts in MN/WI? In the past I did a lot of digging in the old St. Paul brick yards, but the area is pretty treacherous these days. Water flows have caused lot of sloughing, so you can't get very close to the banks. I never found anything but bryozoa, brachiopods, cehphalopods, crinoids, trilobite bits, and burrows. The area is off limits now, but I have thought about trying to get a special permit to look for coprolites.

[Bev]

Do you have any pics to share on Ceph corprolites???

[GeschWhat]

Do you have any pics to share on Ceph corprolites???

This is my largest pile from the Jurassic, Solnhofen Limestone, Germany. the diameter of the fecal string is about 1.5 mm. Because of the ammonites found in the area, they are usually attributed to them, but no one really knows. Best we can usually do with coprolites is figure out what was eaten. This one has what looks like bits of floating crinoid inclusions. From what I have read, extant octopuses make similar piles. Whatever made this, it was probably an ambush predator because it was sitting in one place for a while. I have quite a few smaller piles from the same formation, but the file sizes are pretty big. If you would like to see them, click HERE.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

I have personally never found nor seen an Ordovician coprolite...but have always been on the look out! They must exist. The only thing I know of living in that period that are large enough to have created something that size would be a cephalopod. Modern cephalopods have long, stringy fecal matter. Can anyone think of another other creatures large enough to make something that size? The folds on the underside make me wishful. But I see no sphincter marks. If you have or have access to a microscope, you may want to scan it for visible inclusions. Another thing I look for is consistency. Aside from undigested materials, "most" coprolites are pretty homogeneous. If it looks really granular, my guess would be that it is not a coprolite. I would definitely hang on to it. It is not something you see often in our area. Put me down in the hopeful category.

When looking for coprolites in the Ordovician, keep an eye out for pellet shaped structures or things that look like silly string known as Lumbricaria intestinum. My guess is that is the type of poo that would have been created by the known critters of that time.

Happy hunting!

Eurypterids sounds resonable. They were around in the Ordovician.

[GeschWhat]

Eurypterids sounds resonable. They were around in the Ordovician.

A couple of years ago, I tried contacting some folks on the east coast that specialize in finding Eurypterids. I can't remember if they had their own quarry or what. Anyway, I emailed them asking if they ever came across anything that would vaguely resemble coprolites. No reply...probably thought I was nuts.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

A couple of years ago, I tried contacting some folks on the east coast that specialize in finding Eurypterids. I can't remember if they had their own quarry or what. Anyway, I emailed them asking if they ever came across anything that would vaguely resemble coprolites. No reply...probably thought I was nuts.

Youch. That sounds harsh. But I could understand where they are coming from, as I would believe few coprolites would survive that long.

[CraigHyatt]

Nice patina and crackleture.

What? I was trying so sound sophisticated. ;-)