KimTexan Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I found this rock about 20 years ago while hiking a piece of property I was considering buying, which was perched on a high bluff over looking the Illinois River. I picked it up because of the beautiful druzy crystals on it. I have been cleaning quartz crystals this week, which I found a few weeks ago near Hot Springs, AR. I was using Iron out to remove the iron stains. Anyway, I have kept this rock in my kitchen window so it could catch the sunlight and sparkle for me all these years. It is not the finest home decor, but definitely my style. I picked it up today to see if it had any iron stains on it that might need to be removed. As I was looking at it something in the chert caught my eye! I’ve had this rock all these years, but never realized, to my great delight (squeal!!!), there were fossils in it until today. That just makes it all the more special and cool. The formation there is Keokuk and Reed, which is Mississippian. I think these may be Bryozoa, but I’m not certain. I’m not sure I’ve ever hunted a Mississippian formation and found much besides crinoid pieces. Note the little rice grain size/shape dark spots on the top right side. I saw them and began to wonder if they were fossils. I turned the rock around to look at all sides and saw these rice grain size and shapes that were clustered together. See top center just below the crystal. These look flat, but in the next pic they have more dimension. Rice grain size and shape center of pic. The bottom of the rock. Note bottom center it almost looks like a plant leaf of sorts, but I assume Bryozoa. I have not found many fossils in the area. I found a couple crinoid fragments on the nearby land that I ended up buying instead. So, I’m pretty sure these are marine fossils. A few miles away to the east in Arkansas, in the Boone Formation, I found 3 Spirifers and abundant crinoid stalk fragments. Can anyone confirm that these are Bryozoa and if so what type they may be? Thank you in advance for your comments and input. Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 Nice rock, but I do not see any bryozoan. Sharper focused pictures may change that opinion. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innocentx Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I like your story and idea that an old rock buddy might hold a surprise. Living in the Flint Hills I see a lot of chert with a variety of things in it. Some of these things are exquisitely detailed fossils and some are unidentifiable inclusions. I've seen these rice grain looking things. I could never make out a feature of these 'grains' that would say a creature was involved. There seems to be so much jumbling up of various materials in the formation process of chert. These may once have been parts of something else that had a life, but I couldn't say for sure even when using the 10x loop. They may be broken parts of mineral formations or haphazard patterns produced during diagenesis. As @ynot said, 44 minutes ago, ynot said: Sharper focused pictures may change that opinion. However it turns out, I dig your rock. "Journey through a universe ablaze with changes" Phil Ochs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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