Jump to content

NateW

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone! I’m not a collector or even a hobbiest (yet!) but I came across this forum looking for a way to start learning and to help me ID some interesting things I found the other day. I was walking with my dog in Cranberry Township PA (20miles north of Pittsburgh) and noticed a number of darker, reddish, oddly shaped stones that stood out against the hillside of crumbled gray shale that had been pulled out (possibly from as far as 50 feet down or so) in digging a drainage pit for a new development. Most of what I saw just looked like concretions formed around river stones or something like that (some were split in half so they almost resembled clams) but in one area there were pieces that looked different, some with fairly conspicuous tooth or bonelike shapes. I rinsed mud off of them with warm water and started scrubbing a bit with a brush but I noticed that the lightest areas on a couple pieces are fairly soft (I can scrape them with my fingernail) so I thought I'd better stop until I figured out what was what.

 

I don’t really know anything about this stuff yet, but I loved looking for ferns, etc and even found a trilobyte once as a kid and so I was kinda thrilled to have maybe found something interesting. Of course, they could just be a pile of neat rocks too, haha...  So what do you think I have here? Just organic looking concretions or something cooler?  Thanks!

 

(note: I embedded the images instead of directly attaching them, so if you click on them you'll be able to see higher-resolution versions)

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2029%2004%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2032%2039%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2029%2053%20PM.jpg  Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2031%2014%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2039%2001%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2030%2037%20PM.jpg   Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2031%2007%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2037%2031%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2040%2054%20PM.jpg

 

Photo%20Nov%2021,%203%2041%2001%20PM.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the Forum. :) 

Unfortunately, I am not seeing any fossils here. 

The odd one looks like either a concretion, or an example of Liesegang rings.

Regards, 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forum from south of you! Hope you stick around, maybe we can infect you with the fossil bug:muahaha:

I agree no fossils here, but where there are con regions, there may be fossils. I haven’t looked at a geologic map of your area, but I reckon there would be some good spots for fossil hunting. Good luck!

“...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

I agree with no fossils. They appear to be ironstone/siderite concretions, but that gray shale might be worth poking around in!

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some really neat rocks, I agree. I love the one with the yellow bits in the middle. 

welcome to the Forum and better luck next time.:)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Tim. They have concretionary structures look. Maybe they are ironstone or iron-content concretions, or maybe some of them infilled burrows. It's hard to say. The below one looks close to concentric ironstone concretion:

 

5a14c801a7333_PhotoNov2133901PM.thumb.jpg.f6ab5ab28c8477d85d29dc5bb0b3e752.jpg1.thumb.jpg.63920c7830bb49d09383aa668af29527.jpg

" 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

11 minutes ago, GeschWhat said:

What is the geological age of the area? While most look like concretions, I see some things that peak my curiosity. 

 

Papers I've read on the particular site Don found this "button tooth" is ~77 - 73 MYA.

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about science books.........

Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, GeschWhat said:

What is the geological age of the area? While most look like concretions, I see some things that peak my curiosity. 

The OP found these in an area that is Carboniferous, conemaugh or Allegheny group according to a map I found.

“...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

These are carboniferous rock.  I only see two or three pieces that have a fossil resemblance -- One looks like a possible horn coral, which SHOULD be in your area.

One piece looks a BIT like a blastoid - although I never found any here!  It may be a nodule - We'd find them here in Johnstown in some layers! But I agree... the rock looks promising!  You may just have hit the wrong strata. A few minutes from my home, we'd walk along a road cut and find great fossils!  But the further EAST you went... the fossils petered out, even though the strata LOOKED the same.  Then after a bit - MORE fossils!

Here's a site not far from you!  Up in Ambridge, PA - http://nautiloid.net/fossils/sites/ambridge/ambridge.html

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not familiar with the area, but these remind me of coprolites I work with from the Triassic. They are often coated in siderite concretion.  Sometimes they are are degraded to a point where they are more siderite than calcium phosphate (the primary mineral in carnivore coprolites), and look kind somewhat marbled like the broken fragment you have here. I don't know if that is what you have here. These could also be burrows or just concretions. If you care to break one in half and photograph the end, I could rule out coprolite.

Photo Nov 21, 3 29 04 PM-small.jpg

Photo Nov 21, 3 31 14 PM-small.jpg

Photo Nov 21, 3 37 31 PM.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I'm from the Pittsburgh Area and I am familiar with a type of Wurtzite bearing concretion that bears some similarity to the concretion that you are holding in your hand in one of the photos.  They are iron concretions, and some have microscopic wurtzite crystals.  It is a messy process that involves hydrochloric acid and the crystals are microscopic.  And there may be no crystals, but if you want to try, I will tell you how.  

 

As for the other concretions, some are supposed to have fossils.  You can find pictures of concretions bearing fossils on ebay.  When they discovered the wurtzites back in the 1950's they were busting up concretions in order to find fossils.  Wurtzite bearing concretions have been found in cuts throughout Westmoreland County, and they may be in cranberry as well.  Cranberry roadcuts are famous for "fern" carboniferous fossils.  Use a paint scraper and chisel.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

×
×
  • Create New...