aek Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Found in a quarry near Rockford, Illinois, Ordovician, Galena group. It looks like a sponge, but I can't seem to find a match. Any help appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izak_ Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Thats unusually well preserved o.O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoast Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Strange preservation. Doesn't look Ordovician but I am not familiar with the area. Could you show a picture of the other sides? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I think it is a mineral deposit and not a fossil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supertramp Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 1 hour ago, Al Dente said: I think it is a mineral deposit and not a fossil. Yes, some "coralloidal" specimen Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TqB Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I think the ramose structure with holes in the branches points to a sponge spicule network, perhaps lithistid. It's a beautiful specimen. 4 Tarquin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Chris Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Did you dissolve that one out with the pool acid in a piece of limestone? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona Chris Paleo Web Site: http://schursastrophotography.com/fossiladventures.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 This reminds me of tufa. A calcium carbonate deposit. It can precipitate around plant structures as plants can change the chemical environment leading to calcium carbonate precipitation. In this case it could have precipitated around plant roots. If it is Tufa, it could be modern. It would also react to acids e.g. Vinegar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Wow, whatever it turns out to be it looks exactly like a modern sponge. “...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin Happy hunting, Mason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aek Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Thanks for the replies everyone. It was found loose on quarry floor, I rinsed it with water and let it air dry when I got home. Here are some more pics. Thanks for any additional info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aek Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TqB Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 That's amazing! I think you need a sponge specialist here but browsing through the Porifera Treatise I came across this, Amplaspongia, an Ordovician lithistid from Australia that seems similar, with evenly spaced spikes (to give them their technical term ). (x1 in the original figure which is only a couple of inches high so about the right scale.) 5 Tarquin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abyssunder Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 B. Calcinai et al. 2005. Excavating Sponge Species from the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Zoological Studies 44(1): 5-18 2 " 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...
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