Please help ID Coprolite?

[Deborah S.]

My kids or I found this rock in a stream near our house. It was in late cretaceous green marl. It seems coprolite shaped to me and seems to have impression fossils in it. Coprolite is a common find at the Rowan Fossil Park a few miles away in Sewell, NJ.

[JohnBrewer]

@Carl @GeschWhat will know. Does look coprolitey to me. 

[Rockwood]

I'm afraid it looks a bit too shelly to be coprolite to me. Just very fossiliferous rock I'm afraid.

[Kane]

Agree with Rockwood: a heavily eroded sedimentary rock with brachiopod impressions. 

[Rockwood]

28 minutes ago, Kane said:

brachiopod impressions.

That would put strong odds on this being an eratic in that area wouldn't it ?

[Plax]

this is a paleozoic pebble. A common find in gravels in the area. This one is exceptional though in it's almost identifiable content. If you are in Sewell or Barnsboro there are good Cretaceous fossils in your streams including exogyra and belemnites.

[Deborah S.]

5 hours ago, Rockwood said:

I'm afraid it looks a bit too shelly to be coprolite to me. Just very fossiliferous rock I'm afraid.

I'm just thrilled it's not chert again I did test it with vinegar and don't think it's limestone, but I assume there are other types of fossiliferous rock.

[Deborah S.]

5 hours ago, Kane said:

Agree with Rockwood: a heavily eroded sedimentary rock with brachiopod impressions. 

Well, that sounds pretty cool to me. They're my first confirmed brachiopod impressions.

[Deborah S.]

5 hours ago, Rockwood said:

That would put strong odds on this being an eratic in that area wouldn't it ?

 

That sounds interesting. Would it being an erratic be consistent with the paleozoic pebble ID below? Perhaps carried by glaciers?

 

4 hours ago, Plax said:

this is a paleozoic pebble. A common find in gravels in the area. This one is exceptional though in it's almost identifiable content. If you are in Sewell or Barnsboro there are good Cretaceous fossils in your streams including exogyra and belemnites.

Thank you for this extremely informative post! Would the content be more identifiable with better pictures?

 

My 13 year old daughter got into looking up paleozoic pebbles, exogyra, and belemnites when I showed her what you wrote. Then she looked through my fossil boxes. We found a few items we may post. And now she wants us to put our gear on and go digging in the stream for fossils tomorrow in 40 degree Fahrenheit weather. I homeschool the kids, and I'm thrilled to see her getting into science even if it means getting really cold tomorrow I'm planning to post a picture of what I hope is a broken quartz cast of a belemnite tomorrow (I hope I wrote that correctly). It's awfully big though, and doesn't have the markings at the top and bottom that we saw in pictures, although they could be eroded. I want to wait for daylight to take the pictures. Thank you for giving us ideas of what we might be able to find in our area.

[Rockwood]

5 hours ago, Deborah S. said:

That sounds interesting. Would it being an erratic be consistent with the paleozoic pebble ID below? Perhaps carried by glaciers?

Yes. Glaciers were most likely the carrier for the majority of the distance. 

Brachiopods like this are common in many areas to the north of you. I have a "pebble" that has thousands in it. It made a complete pickup truck load all by it's self. 

[Plax]

It is probably a chert pebble Deborah but it has fossils in it. Chert is only "just a rock" if it doesn't have fossils in it. Keep in mind that shale and limestone can just be "rocks" also if they don't have fossils in them.

[Carl]

I agree with the others: not a coprolite and likely much older than Cretaceous.

[Deborah S.]

1 hour ago, Plax said:

It is probably a chert pebble Deborah but it has fossils in it. Chert is only "just a rock" if it doesn't have fossils in it. Keep in mind that shale and limestone can just be "rocks" also if they don't have fossils in them.

Yes, thank you. I'm glad that there are at least fossils in the chert

[Deborah S.]

9 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Yes. Glaciers were most likely the carrier for the majority of the distance. 

Brachiopods like this are common in many areas to the north of you. I have a "pebble" that has thousands in it. It made a complete pickup truck load all by it's self. 

That sounds like an amazing find!

[Deborah S.]

1 hour ago, Carl said:

I agree with the others: not a coprolite and likely much older than Cretaceous.

Thank you for helping to confirm the ID.