Jump to content

fossil gifts requiring identification (and one rock)


Monica

Recommended Posts

Hello once again!

 

What follows are pictures of gifts that I recently received for various occasions, and I was hoping to get your input...

 

Specimen #1: One of my colleagues gave me this rock for my birthday.  She collected it when she visited the Rocky Mountains (Canadian side) a few years ago.  I think it's a bunch of bryozoans - what do you think?

DSCN1410.thumb.JPG.eb6f47274649539807f84db6f800b612.JPG

 

Specimen #2: My husband's best friend was at a rock/mineral show (he's a geography/geology teacher) and he picked up this trilobite for me for Christmas.  The guy who sold it to him included a card with some information regarding the location where it was found as well as its identity - is it correct?

DSCN1415.thumb.JPG.3cb26d3f6d2c62a872f3b9e18e42235a.JPG

 

Specimen #3: One of my students gave me this rock (with a section cut off so you can see the inside) as a Christmas gift - it's very interesting-looking, and he wrote a pretty funny card to go along with it (please excuse the spelling and grammar - teenagers these days don't seem to care about that stuff, unfortunately - I'm not his English teacher, by the way!):

DSCN1416.thumb.JPG.97c720ca601590a0efa36a5e3efeb823.JPG

 

Thanks so much!

 

Monica

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 bryozoan seems a good guess, but looks a little big for My taste - maybe a coral(S)

2 yes

3 an iron rich gneiss that has an oxidized outer layer.

  • I found this Informative 1

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

#2 looks like Flexicalymene ouzregui, but I believe the date is not Devonian, but upper Ordovician (but the species may have spanned into the Devonian, so nothing major).

  • I found this Informative 2

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They may have been eroded out a bit, but I would still go with bryozoan on the first one based on the cross sectional shape and orientation of the living spaces. 

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, GeschWhat said:

I can't help with identification but I LOVE the note from your student. Priceless!

I know, Lori - I love the note, too - it made me laugh out loud when I read it (and it still gives me a chuckle every time I read it!).

 

 

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jpc said:

I can't help with Indonesian ID, but I am also at the age where I am hygenic.  

It's nice to know I'm not alone!

 

BTW - The student mentioned cooking for me because he knows I love to bake AND he knows that I'm an avid hand-washer, which is why he thought it better not to cook/bake anything for me since teenagers don't seem to care too much about having clean hands before handling food (which I observe every time I offer them my home-baked cookies each semester - I teach science, so there are sinks in my classroom, which might lead you to think that students would wash their hands before eating - I'd say only about 25% of them bother to do so - kids these days... :P)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

#1 has a lot going on, but the large specimen that bisects the rock, with the relatively large pores, looks like a branching tabulate coral, Thamnopora, that is characteristic of several Devonian formations in the Rockies and elsewhere.  There is also a small hemispherical tabulate coral that looks like a tiny Favosites colony, about dead center in the rock.  The twig-looking fossils to the left side may be bryozoans.

#2 id definitely a Flexicalymene ouzregui , as Kane suggested.  The species is confined to the Ordovician, and the genus is Ordovician and Silurian but does not extend to the Devonian.  If you do a search for Flexicalymene ouzregui , you will find some informative posts by Piranha.

 

Don

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Edit: I somehow missed reading Don's comment before posting this, looks like we agree.) 

 

The pores in the most obvious branch on the first one are too large for bryozoan. It looks like a Thamnopora type tabulate coral.

 

The ones with smaller pores could be another tabulate such as Parastriatopora.

 

It looks like a typical Devonian assemblage, if that's appropriate for the find spot.

  • I found this Informative 2

Tarquin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While we have the attention of a couple heavyweights here, does the orientation of corallum relative to the colony axis in these branching tabulates vary from being near normal (90') to that more typical of a bryozoan ?

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All clonal organism can exhibit indeterminate growth ,which is kinda useful when your environment is variable

Being clonal,their genetics and development are different.

and given the large disclaimer i see,please download this very very soon

edit:done,as promised

 

  • I found this Informative 1

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Rockwood said:

While we have the attention of a couple heavyweights here, does the orientation of corallum relative to the colony axis in these branching tabulates vary from being near normal (90') to that more typical of a bryozoan ?

 

I'm no tabulate expert but have a few references... :).

 

The corallites in the ones I mentioned usually diverge at an acute angle from the axis and then bend out sooner or later to roughly 90 degrees, by the time they reach the surface.

Parastriatopora typically diverges more quickly than Thamnopora, as well as being narrower.

(By the way, according to the Treatise, corallum is the exoskeleton of the whole colony (or solitary coral). Corallite is the exoskeleton of a solitary polyp.)

 

From Walkden, 2015, Devonshire Marbles: their geology, history and uses, vol. 2, p. 455:

IMG_2319.jpg.abc13383f59f1e29cf9a9474e340c39e.jpg

IMG_2320.jpg.76ec315b9bc0599bbe0c2c77e8ff113c.jpg

  • I found this Informative 4

Tarquin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Tabulate coral for sure. Some other examples here .

 

DSCN1410.JPG.5ab29ad67180fe05fcb5eedf645dc563.thumb.JPG.7485af1782aff649edc44a6bbe504c5a.JPGdi.thumb.jpg.b0dba07087fc3ce073f9887ef51dc2da.jpg

 

  • I found this Informative 1

" 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

several fossils, an interesting rock with a cool back story, and one very adorable card ^_^

 

 

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...