Help ID Please

[Fourstuarts]

I found “something” under a foot thick oyster bed in reddish sand near a gravel quarry in Denison, Texas. I first found the small piece while looking for ammonites. I went back later and found the larger piece under the bed I mentioned before.  The two pieces fit together. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as I have become somewhat obsessed trying to determine the fossil type.  Thanks. 

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.  

 

This looks to me like an infilled burrow. 

I'm not seeing any bone texture, so, not a vertebrate fossil, ...  nor ornamentation which might have indicated rudist.

Welcome again. 

Regards,

[Fourstuarts]

Thanks so much for taking time to answer this post. 

[BobWill]

I agree. Around here they come in all sizes and sometimes in huge tangled masses. I saw a big slab in Cooke County that stood on end was as tall as me with more burrows than matrix holding them together!

 

[Rockwood]

4 hours ago, BobWill said:

I agree. Around here they come in all sizes and sometimes in huge tangled masses. I saw a big slab in Cooke County that stood on end was as tall as me with more burrows than matrix holding them together!

 

Any idea what kind of creature made them ?

[BobWill]

19 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Any idea what kind of creature made them ?

I don't but I have heard the suggestion that the big ones are likely made by crustaceans. i suppose you would have to find the remains of an owner that died inside to say for sure. I saw where that recently happened with the terrestrial corkscrew burrows but I haven't heard anything about marine identifications.

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

15 hours ago, BobWill said:

I don't but I have heard the suggestion that the big ones are likely made by crustaceans. i suppose you would have to find the remains of an owner that died inside to say for sure. I saw where that recently happened with the terrestrial corkscrew burrows but I haven't heard anything about marine identifications.

 

And even then, you can't definitely state that the occupant is the original owner/builder.

[BobWill]

2 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

And even then, you can't definitely state that the occupant is the original owner/builder.

Good point. I wonder if that consideration was taken into account with the corkscrew burrow?

[Rockwood]

10 hours ago, BobWill said:

Good point. I wonder if that consideration was taken into account with the corkscrew burrow?

Sometimes the hole matches the shovel that dug it. 

[Fourstuarts]

So it won’t hurt anything to clean it up?  The top portion (top photo) from the break right is heavily covered in small shells. I told my son he spent two hours digging up a hole. He said it was fun any way and we went fishing in the quarry lake afterwards. 

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, Fourstuarts said:

So it won’t hurt anything to clean it up?  The top portion (top photo) from the break right is heavily covered in small shells.

Some creatures line their burrows. The shells could be evidence.