micro organisms encased in clear glass-like "rock"

[BILL GROMMES]

We have a fist-sized glass-like object that contains 22 microscopic organisms from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods.  We theorize that it was produced by a meteor impacting sand and water resulting in perfectly preserved organisms, some of which also have soft tissue preserved.  We do not have equipment to investigate this object any further and are seeking someone to help validate this finding.  Does anyone have knowledge of a clear glass "rock" with encapsulated 500 mya organisms ever being found?    

[Harry Pristis]

The melting point of sand (silicon dioxide - SiO2) is 1713 degrees centigrade (3115 degrees Fahrenheit).  What sort of organisms, with soft tissues, could leave traces in this glass? 

 

When you say "clear" glass, do you mean colorless glass?  AFAIK, colorless glass is rare-to-nonexistent in nature; common minerals, especially iron, give glass a color cast.  Human glass-making requires a de-colorizer such as lead oxide or manganese dioxide or selenium to produce colorless glass.

[ynot]

Welcome to TFF!

Can we see pictures of the rock and (if possible) the inclusions?

How did You determine the age?

[PaleoRon]

The only glass-like material I have seen encasing real fossils is gypsum.

[BILL GROMMES]

Over the last three years I have taken over 1400 35mm pictures so I will try to post a picture of the rock as well as the little critters inside.  The rock itself has a light blue cast and the organisms show up colored in the photos.  I have no clue how these little guys survived all the heat during "glass" formation.  (In my notes there has been some small chards of glass that were found with perfectly preserved grass in them.   A lab experiment verified that this could occur!)  The organisms match perfectly with known fossils from 400 to 500 mya periods down to the smallest detail.  I used the Historical Geology Laboratory Manual published by W.C. Brown Co 1969 to identify the organisms. Stay tuned for pictures as soon as I figure how to do that as everything I have done so far has only been with film and writing letters to various universities and individuals.  

 

   

[doushantuo]

Your identification database/source  leaves something to be desired,but hey,that could be just me.

I agree with Tony: taphonomic/stratigraphical/petrographical/ additional data are sorely needed.

Not every coccoidal, spheroidal or filamentous inclusion is necessarily biogenic.

[Harry Pristis]

Pictures!  Evidence!  This thread is shaping up as one of those hopeless arguments which pits belief against facts, but I'll play for a moment.

 

Grass?  Maybe rutilated quartz, but not grass.  Rutile in quartz is needle-like crystals of titanium dioxide.  It is a common inclusion in colorless quartz.  Rutile needles occur in gold color and in black.

 

[BILL GROMMES]

Here are two pictures of the glass-like rock.  One is the rock itself.  The other is a 200x magnification of a very tiny area.   The age was determined by finding micro organisms that only existed during the Cambrian and Ordovivian period.  

[Kane]

What are the names of these organisms? 

[ynot]

Your "rock" looks like a chunk of glass.

Would like to see pictures of it that are under normal light, not back lit with colored light.

Also please take the pictures from all sides and on a solid white background.

[doushantuo]

Filamentous inclusions are found in miscellaneous lithologies,like pillow lavas.

They are ,of course, post- solidification.

As yet,pictorial documentation by the originator of this thread is sorely lacking

 

[DPS Ammonite]

8 hours ago, BILL GROMMES said:

Here are two pictures of the glass-like rock.  One is the rock itself.  The other is a 200x magnification of a very tiny area.   The age was determined by finding micro organisms that only existed during the Cambrian and Ordovivian period.  

Glass, natural or otherwise, is unstable and divitrifies in a short time (< 10 million years). There is no glass that exists from the early Paleozoic.

 

EDIT: some tektites may be up to about 40 million years old.

[Bobby Rico]

47 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Glass, natural or otherwise, is unstable and divitrifies in a short time (< 10 million years). There is no glass that exists from the early Paleozoic.

I thought  Libyan Desert glass has been dated as having formed about 26 million years ago but I can’t be sure  . 

[Kane]

I have considerable doubt about this piece being as claimed for many of the reasons my esteemed forum colleagues state. Assuming for the sake of argument that it was the result of some meteor impact, there would likely be more than just this solitary piece. If so, it would be expected that other pieces would have been collected from this site, including associated rocks. Looking at the picture, I find it somewhat suspicious that the leftmost edge is completely planed flat, as if manufactured. 

 

There are a number of questions and recommendations posed above, and with a few of my own, that I hope you will endeavour to answer for us:

 

1. Where was it found?

2. What specific organisms were identified (please give names and, if possible, references and figures so that we can compare)

3. Please provide more images of the piece, under normal lighting conditions, from other angles (as per ynot's post above).

4. Please provide images of any associated materials collected in proximity to this piece.

5. Why is one of the edges conspicuously so perfectly flat?

[DPS Ammonite]

15 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

I thought  Libyan Desert glass has been dated as having formed about 26 million years ago but I can’t be sure  . 

Thanks Bobby. The 10 million year figure was for obsidian. I now see that some tektites are up to 40 million years old. I still have found no evidence of any glasses that are older than the Cenozoic.

[Bobby Rico]

Thank you did not know about obsidian cool fact. 

[Al Dente]

1 hour ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Thanks Bobby. The 10 million year figure was for obsidian. I now see that some tektites are up to 40 million years old. I still have found no evidence of any glasses that are older than the Cenozoic.

I have read where the oldest glass tektites are associated with the Chicxulub impact (66 mya) and that they are only partially glass, the majority have weathered to clay pseudomorphs.

[Scylla]

Seems like this glass is green. It is backlit by a normal flashlight. I thought the original post said it was clear, but the green color might be uneven. I have heard the glass is always greener on the other side.

[BILL GROMMES]

It was recently suggested that my rock may be Obsidian, a type of volcanic rock.  My rock has a very close resemblance to one of the obsidian varieties.  Does Obsidian have life forms embedded within?  Some of the creatures within the rock I have are Trilobites, Grapolites, Carpoids, Ostracods, Echinozoans, Radiolarians, Blue- Green Algae.  Of course these sea creatures within the glass are much older than the glass itself  (according to previous posts).  Still a puzzle. 

[JohnJ]

4 minutes ago, BILL GROMMES said:

It was recently suggested that my rock may be Obsidian, a type of volcanic rock.  My rock has a very close resemblance to one of the obsidian varieties.  Does Obsidian have life forms embedded within?  Some of the creatures within the rock I have are Trilobites, Grapolites, Carpoids, Ostracods, Echinozoans, Radiolarians, Blue- Green Algae.  Of course these sea creatures within the glass are much older than the glass itself  (according to previous posts).  Still a puzzle. 

 

What evidence do you have for your assertions these creatures exist within your rocks?  Photos?  Correspondence from a paleontologist?

[DPS Ammonite]

Obsidian never has fossils embedded in it. The heat would destroy a fossil. Your green rock is a piece of glass and not obsidian. We would love to see photos of the fossils that you mentioned in your last post.

 

Sincerely,

John

[Al Dente]

This is man made glass. You can buy it by the metric ton and use for landscaping. It comes in a variety of colors.