Jump to content

KimTexan

Recommended Posts

These may be nothing, but as I have gone around fossil hunting I will often see little clumps like this.

The gray one is from Finish Shale in Jack County. The other is from SE Johnson county Texas in a limestone looking formation that may be either Ft Worth or Duck Creek, but I think Ft. Worth is more likely.

They often have these little hollows in them as if some animal made a burrow out of them. They seem to be comprised of bits and pieces of shells and tiny pebbles and mud. I think I’ve seen modern crabs make burrows of tiny things with mud mixed in. I find it hard to believe those little burrow structures would survive through the ages, but I’m curious if anyone knows what they are.

These have crumbled quite a bit.

E614F277-CE4E-4B9A-93AC-4EFB0CB76F29.jpeg

DDD55CD9-DE23-4409-8A97-C9D5AB5FE200.jpeg

E2B3755D-BAD0-41BE-9FB9-DA46C46FBA43.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t have experience in those locations but if they are from an unconsolidated alluvial deposit of the older material (AKA from clay or dirt on a river bank) then it could be clumps of material (or maybe concretions) from the original bedrock that have been worn enough to show there contents but have yet to break down into clay or dirt.

“...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

That may be. I considered that, but the unusual thing is that they have these little hollows in them. You can see one in the last pic on the bottom left. The matter arranged around the hole is in a circular pattern.

I also have a few pieces that don’t look as defragmenter as this where it is a conical hole in the top of the cluster. I didn’t think the two forms were associated until I started wondering if these were possibly made by a critter as a habitat.

I don’t know what the other forms are either though. On my last trip I saw a giant one of the kind with the conical hole in the top of the cluster. It was about 8-10 inches across, but the hole was still quite small, maybe 1-2 cm.

I will have to find those and take some pics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is one in situ, at least where it was found and it doesn’t look like the surrounding material.

133683C5-2787-407B-9576-3E9FDB73E041.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

looks like expelled diggings from a tunnel, something like the entrance tunnel around a crayfish hole

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I was thinking of something like that. There are no crustacean remains around here that I have ever seen, but that is not evidence of their absence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...