Large tube shaped fossil id help please

[hertzyinmn]

Hello, I found this on shoreline in water near calvert cliffs area Maryland. I found it was quite unique , It seems to have hollow tube areas with divided edges. I was hoping to know what this is, Its heavy but not like a rock heavy. and it is not iron. It is about 8" length but appears to be broken off . Thank you 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Looks like corroded iron to me. 

[sTamprockcoin]

Possibly Limonite aka "pipe ore"/ possibly stalatic in origin. Might also be a worm tube in hematitic sandstone.

[SailingAlongToo]

It's a ferrous based concretion. Quite plentiful in the local VA and MD Miocene exposures. At one point, it could have had water running through it or it possibly formed around plant roots as water "piped" along them. Either way, the ferrous minerals probably leached out of the water and solidified. At least that is the way it was explained to me by 2 Paleontologists who have extensive knowledge of the local VA & MD Miocene strata.

 

@MarcoSr might be able to explain it better.

[abyssunder]

[Innocentx]

That is quite the concretion! Especially with the little barnacles inside.

[abyssunder]

You can call it "sandstone pipe".Take a look here .

 

 

[InfoHungryMom]

Question, since barnacles were mentioned...   at what point are barnacles considered fossilized?

[SailingAlongToo]

13 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

 

Perfect illustration!!!    I'll give you an A+ for the effective use of the visual aid.

I hope you don't & won't mind as I "borrow" this photo for future use?  

[abyssunder]

7 minutes ago, SailingAlongToo said:

 

Perfect illustration!!!    I'll give you an A+ for the effective use of the visual aid.

I hope you don't & won't mind as I "borrow" this photo for future use?  

You can have all of them, here . 

[SailingAlongToo]

11 minutes ago, Innocentx said:

That is quite the concretion! Especially with the little barnacles inside.

 

To me, these type of barnacles simply mean this specimen was under water for some period of time, in the recent past. They grow in brackish water very quickly and easily attach themselves to everything. Without exaggeration, in the last 2 weeks while doing beach clean ups, I've seen these barnacles on aluminum cans, plastic bottles, ferrous concretions, tires, trees, pier & dock pilings, cardboard, styrofoam and a metal barrel, just to name a few items.

[SailingAlongToo]

These barnacles also like to grow on the bottom of my sailboat and even with anti-fouling paint, they easily attach themselves to the hull, rudder and propeller so well, it causes me to have the sailboat hauled, pressure washed, scraped and painted at least every other year.  

[SailingAlongToo]

11 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

You can have all of them, here . 

 

Wow! That's an awesome presentation. Thanks!!

 

Interestingly, some of the ferrous concretions here are locally referred to as "bog iron" and Dr. Weems and @MarcoSr are finding animal foot prints and track ways in it.

[abyssunder]

1 hour ago, InfoHungryMom said:

Question, since barnacles were mentioned...   at what point are barnacles considered fossilized?

It doesn't matter how they are preserved, if they are found in sediments or encrusting fossils from sediments older than Holocene, they are fossils, otherwise they might be considered recent (to say so) in geological time.

[abyssunder]

1 hour ago, SailingAlongToo said:

I'll give you an A+ for the effective use of the visual aid.

Thank you!

[hertzyinmn]

Thanks all for the information , I would consider this solved  .I appreciate all the information. Fun, 

[Raggedy Man]

1 hour ago, hertzyinmn said:

Thanks all for the information , I would consider this solved  .I appreciate all the information. Fun, 

Stick around! The fun never ends!

[DPS Ammonite]

9 hours ago, InfoHungryMom said:

 

Question, since barnacles were mentioned...   at what point are barnacles considered fossilized?

 

Anything over 10,000 years old is generally considered a fossil and is fossilized. The hard part is determining exactly how old something is if it is close to a 10k year age.

[MarcoSr]

18 hours ago, SailingAlongToo said:

It's a ferrous based concretion. Quite plentiful in the local VA and MD Miocene exposures. At one point, it could have had water running through it or it possibly formed around plant roots as water "piped" along them. Either way, the ferrous minerals probably leached out of the water and solidified. At least that is the way it was explained to me by 2 Paleontologists who have extensive knowledge of the local VA & MD Miocene strata.

 

@MarcoSr might be able to explain it better.

 

16 hours ago, SailingAlongToo said:

 

Wow! That's an awesome presentation. Thanks!!

 

Interestingly, some of the ferrous concretions here are locally referred to as "bog iron" and Dr. Weems and @MarcoSr are finding animal foot prints and track ways in it.

 

The specimens in the beginning of this post definitely look like Pleistocene bog iron.  Although a lot of this bog iron is found in MD/VA on beaches with Miocene fossils, the bog iron comes from Pleistocene deposits overlaying the Miocene formations. This bog iron erodes out of the Pleistocene deposits high in the cliffs and winds up on the beaches  These bog iron deposits formed in shallow waters rich in iron compounds, some of which became densely lithified soon after their formation.

 

We do find footprints in this bog iron at a number of locations along the Potomac River in Virginia.  My TFF post at the below link shows an example of the tracks and lists at the end of the post the recently published paper by Dr. Weems on these tracks.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/70061-pleistocene-bog-iron-track/&

 

Marco Sr.