Fossilized worms

[Shimmeron]

I'm new on this site and have a few fossilized rocks that I need to ID. This first rock (from Tooele County Utah) looks to have fossilized worms on it. My town of Tooele sits on the ancient dry remains of Lake Bonneville, so I'm always finding rocks with shells and fossils. The rock has some florescent properties, but I think this maybe due to the saturated caliche in the soil (not sure though).  

[Miocene_Mason]

Geologic map says almost fossils in your area should be from the Mississippian part of the Carboniferous. My top three candidates (and hopefully others will be able to help as well) are, from most likely to least:

1) Worm burrows, ancient invertebrate burrows get infilled and fossilize that way. These are pretty common in fossil bearing rocks of all ages and would make sense with the squiggles.

2) plant material, very common during this time period, though I would expect straighter lines and striations, some plant bits could have ender up in those shapes and carbonized

3) very unlikely, but if it’s from recent deposits of a lake (judging by the type of rock this is not the case) then they could be fossil aquatic insect larvae. 

 

 

Again others will confirm or deny.

[ynot]

37 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

1) Worm burrows, ancient invertebrate burrows get infilled and fossilize that way. These are pretty common in fossil bearing rocks of all ages and would make sense with the squiggles.

I agree with this.

Also - this rock did not get formed in lake bonneville, it is much older..

[Shimmeron]

Good to know. I wonder how common worm burrow rocks are in Utah. After a simple google search I can't seem to locate deposits. Is there a fossil deposit data base site you can refer me to? 

[doushantuo]

I think the Ferron Sandstone is ,generally speaking,well researched ichnologically(trace-fossilologically)

[piranha]

The transverse (scalariform) ridges are characteristic of: Scalarituba isp.

 

 

[GeschWhat]

Since the squiggles seem to differ in composition from the matrix, they could also be coprolites.  Can I see a close-up shot of them?

[Shimmeron]

I'll see. My camera broke, but I'm in the process of getting another one.