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Tiny Tubes


fowells

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I found this on the shore of Lake Caballo, central NM. The entire piece is composed of tiny tubes. The outside tubes are crumbly and get harder toward the center of the piece, till they finally fuse together into chacedony looking dense rock. I've coral in some books with parallel tubes being the main structure, but nothing like this.

Any ideas?

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Guest solius symbiosus

That area has some very complex geology. If the stone is from Paleozoic rocks, it is probably a tabulate. Can you get a close up of a cross section of one of the tubes?

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Some species of Chaetetes?

"don’t you lock up something that you wanted to see fly..." chris cornell / soundgarden

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If you don't have a microscope, try to hold a hand lens to the lens of the camera.

SS - Good tip but very difficult to hold the lense and camera still enough in relation to each other to get clear focus. Here's the best I could do with the walmart hand macro:

FF - I went to Google Images for Chaetetes and I can see the parallel tubes in many of the images but there is a rounded form to most of the specimens imaged. This thing weighs 11# and just shows broken tube ends at both ends. As a lapidary in a previous life, the first thing that occurred to me was could this be a fragment of a palm trunk? Could it be plant?

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Guest solius symbiosus

It appears that the attachments were deleted. Are the structures along a plane, and parallel, or are they at angles to one another? If along a plane, I have an ideal.

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It appears that the attachments were deleted. Are the structures along a plane, and parallel, or are they at angles to one another? If along a plane, I have an ideal.

SS - See if they appear this time. The tubes comprise the entire structure they are parallel and dead straight. They have been broken into sections but appear to have been continuous before fracturing occurred. I can't wait to hear your idea.

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Hi fowells

We have found some corals that are very similar to yours from south-central Tennessee. The specimens we collected are around 30 to 50+ cm wide, the specimen pictured is 35 cm wide. From the U. Ordovician, and agititized. I have made paper weighs out of them and they adorn my garden.We were told by many paleontologists that ours were Favosites most likely, and many distinct forms have been lumped into the coral Genus Favosites. The corallites are uniform in size, hexagonal, about 1 mm in diameter, throughout their length and we thought they might be Chaetetes but Chaetetes has corallites about .3 mm. in diameter. Corals are very difficult to identify many times and much work needs to done on the group. Any help on these is also welcome.

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Guest solius symbiosus

If they are from Mid to Upper Ord., I would think Tetradium. Though, really need a pic of the individual corallite to determine.

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Hi fowells

We have found some corals that are very similar to yours from south-central Tennessee. The specimens we collected are around 30 to 50+ cm wide, the specimen pictured is 35 cm wide. From the U. Ordovician, and agititized. I have made paper weighs out of them and they adorn my garden.We were told by many paleontologists that ours were Favosites most likely, and many distinct forms have been lumped into the coral Genus Favosites. The corallites are uniform in size, hexagonal, about 1 mm in diameter, throughout their length and we thought they might be Chaetetes but Chaetetes has corallites about .3 mm. in diameter. Corals are very difficult to identify many times and much work needs to done on the group. Any help on these is also welcome.

post-385-1249596116_thumb.jpg,post-385-1249596137_thumb.jpg

post-385-1249596157_thumb.jpg

I alos have several chunks of coral like that i am almost positive that it is a tabulate coral. Here is a nice close up pic of one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/arlspider/3584721964/

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The last three replies have given me the clear impression that I need to buy a new camera. My old Sony has no macro capability. Any suggestions for something specifically good for this close work (without breaking the bank)?

SS - You said this region has complex geology and indicate that Ordovician rocks can be expected? The people sharing our campsite were gold prospectors and were looking upstream in the same arroyo this piece was found. Complex indeed.

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The last three replies have given me the clear impression that I need to buy a new camera. My old Sony has no macro capability. Any suggestions for something specifically good for this close work (without breaking the bank)?

SS - You said this region has complex geology and indicate that Ordovician rocks can be expected? The people sharing our campsite were gold prospectors and were looking upstream in the same arroyo this piece was found. Complex indeed.

There are a couple of posts on here about that (cameras). Search for them on here and you will get some good info.

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There are a couple of posts on here about that (cameras). Search for them on here and you will get some good info.

Thanks, MikeD, I will search for them.

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Nice. Here is something similar. I didnt know what it was until now :D

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I like crinoids......

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If they are from Mid to Upper Ord., I would think Tetradium. Though, really need a pic of the individual corallite to determine.

I finally got my reference out on corals and looked at the corallites and indeed my specimen from the Ordovician of south central Tennessee is a Tetradium, and has been reported as occurring in the M. & U. Ordivician of Tennessee. Thanks

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Thanks, MikeD, I will search for them.

I use a Cannon G9, 12 megpix, alot in the field and some at the house, it takes wonderful pictures

and in the macro mode you can get within .5 inch of a fossil to take a picture.

Also consider a photo editing computer program.

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The last three replies have given me the clear impression that I need to buy a new camera. My old Sony has no macro capability. Any suggestions for something specifically good for this close work (without breaking the bank)?

Perhaps instead of getting a new camera to do close-ups, you could just crop your image to the relevant parts. Just remember to shoot at the highest resolution the camera will allow-with no sharpening. I've found with shooting too close to a fossil, it's often hard to get good lighting and distortion is sometimes a prob. I use Nikon Coolpix 5400 when forced but flatbed scanner is my tool of choice.

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Very similar. Where did it come from, C1?

It came from N. Alabama. I think it is Chesterian age.

I like crinoids......

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Perhaps instead of getting a new camera to do close-ups, you could just crop your image to the relevant parts. Just remember to shoot at the highest resolution the camera will allow-with no sharpening. I've found with shooting too close to a fossil, it's often hard to get good lighting and distortion is sometimes a prob. I use Nikon Coolpix 5400 when forced but flatbed scanner is my tool of choice.

Arch and MM, Thanks for your help - Fowells

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