Fossil

[Pamela George]

Can anyone identify this. My daughter and I found it yesterday while hiking in the Sandia mountains. We were at around 9,200 feet. 

[Miocene_Mason]

I'd guess calcite soda straw, but it could be a burrow fossil.

[FossilDAWG]

Hi Pamela,

 

Welcome to the Forum.  Could you possibly post a couple of photos showing the specimen from a couple of different angles?  Also please make sure the specimen is in focus.  The photo you posted is so out of focus I cannot be sure what I am looking at.  I have an idea but it could be 2 or 3 different things.  Also, include something to give us a sense of scale: is this an inch long or a foot?

The Sandia Mountains are a good place to look for fossils, especially from the Pennsylvanian period.

 

Don

[ynot]

This is a crinoid stem / column. They are very common in the Sandia mountain limestone.

[Pamela George]

Okay, Thank you!

[Kane]

As best as I can make out from this photo, I agree with @ynot that this may be a crinoid stem.

 

EDIT: This second photo confirms it. The little nodules are cirri: 

[Miocene_Mason]

Now I see it with this picture.

[FossilDAWG]

I had thought it most likely to be a crinoid stem, but with the blurry photo there was a chance it could have been a straight-shelled nautiloid.  The better photos confirm the crinoid stem ID.

 

Don

[abyssunder]

No doubt, that's a crinoid column fragment with cirri scars.