Georgia Conasauga Formation- More Than Just Trilobites

[Nimravis]

At this Murray County location, trilobites are not the only thing that can be found. Last April, I contacted Dr. David Schwimmer, who is a Professor of Geology at Columbus State University in Georgia. Dr. Schwimmer has also published a couple papers on the fossils from the Conasauga Formation. I wanted to see if he could identify a small piece of matrix that contained something that I have not found before, or since. I was thinking that it was some type of algae, so I sent both halves of the fossil down to him so he could examine them and see if he could come up with an ID.

 

Here are the two halves-

 

 

A couple months later, I was contacted by Dr. Schwimmer and he provided the below response.

 

"We put your anomalous specimen in the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) finally, and it turns out there was no image!  That means it has no relief, its a color feature, almost certainly iron oxide colors.  My interpretation is that it must be some sort of relict carbon-based plant material, which would suggest, as you first assumed, some sort of algae.  Since there is no tissue I would rule out red algae, which usually have carbonate crusts, leaving a green alga as the likely source". 

 

I let him keep whatever piece that he wanted and he returned the other piece.

 

Here are close ups of the piece that I have in my collection.

 

[KimTexan]

Interesting and curious.

[Nimravis]

2 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

Interesting and curious.

That’s me Kim, interesting and curious.

 

[Raggedy Man]

Nice! I love it! Congrats!

[Fossildude19]

Very cool, Ralph. 
Congratulations on the unusual find.   

[Plax]

really weird that the part and counter part have no relief whatsoever. Particularly; the bottom center of your last pic looks to be laminated. Reminds me of an anellid but since Dr Schwimmer is a local authority I'm sure that's been ruled out.

[Tidgy's Dad]

9 hours ago, Nimravis said:

That’s me Kim, interesting and curious.

 

Ahem! 

I love this piece and it was great that Dr. Schwimmer was so very helpful. 

[ynot]

Way cool find (and detective work), congratulations.

[FossilDAWG]

That is very interesting!  I agree with Plax that the fossil seems to be annulated, somewhat like an annelid or some sort, but I'm sure Dr. Schwimmer would have good reason to discount that possibility.  He does report soft-bodied preservation in one of his papers, so anything one finds in, say, the Burgess Shale could possibly pop up in the Conasauga.  However such preservation is very rare (only a small handful of examples), and the quality is far inferior to the Burgess.

 

Don

[Nimravis]

@Fossildude19 , @Plax , @Tidgy's Dad , @ynot and @FossilDAWG thanks for the nice comments. I had it on a shelf in a membrane frame and saw it yesterday. I knew I sent out a couple PM’s on it, but did not recall if I ever posted anything on it, so I wanted to get it out there.

[FossilDAWG]

I'm glad you did.  I'm hoping to make a trip up there sometime soon, and I will definitely keep an eye out for anything "strange" like that.  I'd like to think that I would have noticed something like your fossil, though, especially with the suggestion of segmentation.

 

Don

[Al Tahan]

Now there you go! Very interesting . Super exciting to have your fossil examined like that . Congratulations 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

Very nice! A little diversity in a collection can’t hurt especially if it’s rare diversity. 

[jdp]

Is the yellow impression on the one block part of a large trilobite?

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, jdp said:

Is the yellow impression on the one block part of a large trilobite?

Yes it is a partial trilobite, and a bad one at that.

[jdp]

is it possible this is trilobite soft tissue?

[Nimravis]

4 hours ago, jdp said:

is it possible this is trilobite soft tissue?

No, I think they ruled that out.

[jdp]

Well then.