Possible Algae Fossil?

[FossilShrimp]

Found this in a creek bed behind my house.  It's a piece of shale I found about 6-8 inches deep in sediment. It was about to open up on its own so I sprayed some water into it with the garden hose and it popped right open.  That's when I noticed the black spot towards the center of it.  I didn't think anything of it until I wiped it off and noticed what looked like fibrous ends jutting off along the edges.  I know it's possible to find plant material in the area but I didn't notice any obvious stems.  That's when I thought it could be an algae of some sort.  It practically disappears when dry so I have to wet it to take photographs of it.  I don't want to keep messing with it since it seems very fragile.  If it is in fact algae, I figured the darker area towards the bottom and center would be more of the "matted" area, while the fibrous sprouts would be the edges.  If it wasn't for the perfect symmetry, it's in shale, and the fibrous ends I wouldn't have given it a second look.  It's nothing spectacular but it would definitely be a very unexpected find if it turns out to be plant material.  It is 5cm tall at it's longest and 3cm at its widest. There is some more randomly placed black areas and what appears to be more fibrous ends.  Some of it totally disappears when its dry.  I was hoping someone here could either confirm or deny if it is algae or at least plant material.  I live in the Waynesville/Anheim Formation if that helps.  Thanks!

 

P.S.  It was very hard to get decent images of the specimen since it is practically only visible while wet which caused glare.  The fibers are very, very small.  Some of the images are at 250x magnification.  Because of this, some debris may be visible in the images.

[FossilShrimp]

I'll try to get some better pictures up soon.  Essentially, it just looks like a big, organic shape blob of what is visible in the above photos.

[TqB]

Hi, I believe that what you have there is a nice example of a  dendritic mineral formation, often mistaken for plants when people first see them.

[abyssunder]

I agree! I'm pretty sure those are manganese dendrites.

 

[FossilShrimp]

Awesome, thanks guys!