Fossil?

[dhiggi]

My daughter is currently interested in fossils after finding the small collection I put together as a child. Whenever we get for a walk by our local river I end up with as many of these as she can make me carry. Are they actually fossils, and if so, what are they?

Thanks in advance 

[Monica]

Welcome to the forum!

 

Those look like corals to me - perhaps solitary rugose (horn) corals if the rocks are old enough (these corals lived from the Ordovician to the Permian).

[Kane]

Those would be rugose (“horn”) coral showing some very nice detail.

 

Edit: Monica was quicker on the draw. 

[dhiggi]

Thank you both so much, she’s very happy 

[TqB]

Rugose corals indeed, specifically Carboniferous ones which mostly look like Dibunophyllum bipartitum - are they from NE England by any chance?  

[dhiggi]

They are indeed TqB, River Wear. Thanks

[TqB]

38 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

They are indeed TqB, River Wear. Thanks

Part of my stamping ground too.  The rock is "Frosterley Marble" - not a true marble but ornamental Great Limestone (the main limestone in the dale). It has quite a few coral species in it, D. bipartitum being the most abundant. Your daughter has good taste!

[dhiggi]

22 hours ago, TqB said:

Part of my stamping ground too.  The rock is "Frosterley Marble" - not a true marble but ornamental Great Limestone (the main limestone in the dale). It has quite a few coral species in it, D. bipartitum being the most abundant. Your daughter has good taste!

My daughter always seems to find loads of these coral when we’re along the riverbank, which makes me wonder; is there anything else that we could be looking for?

[TqB]

5 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

My daughter always seems to find loads of these coral when we’re along the riverbank, which makes me wonder; is there anything else that we could be looking for?

Loads! But to get you started:  

the other corals are very interesting (and one of my favourite groups) - quite a few from there in my topic here (mostly cut and polished to show the fine structure):

 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/39471-carboniferous-corals-from-the-uk/&

 

Large brachiopods are common, especially as cross section views, often abundant (especially Latiproductus latissimus - a search will show plenty of images).

 

You also find gastropods and small brachiopods of various kinds. And various rarities are always possible - nautiloids (straight and coiled) and fish teeth for example.

 

From the sandstones above the Great Limestone, pieces of the lycopsid plant rooting structure Stigmaria quite often turn up as river cobbles (again, plenty of images online).

 

Basically, look out for anything that looks like something, and post it here and we'll try to ID it.

[dhiggi]

Thanks TqB; I’ll be sure to keep an eye out next time we go for a walk along the Wear. Some great images in the topic you linked to. 

Looking at going to Kettleness next though, one mention of dinosaur bones and she’s been desperate to go for a while. Tides are looking good this Sunday 

[TqB]

18 minutes ago, dhiggi said:

Thanks TqB; I’ll be sure to keep an eye out next time we go for a walk along the Wear. Some great images in the topic you linked to. 

Looking at going to Kettleness next though, one mention of dinosaur bones and she’s been desperate to go for a while. Tides are looking good this Sunday 

Good luck - and be very careful about tides there of course, it's quite a walk along by the beach so start 3 hours before low water. There are ropes up the cliff but only a good idea if you really know what you're doing. (Sorry if I'm preaching to the experienced!)

 

I'm afraid there aren't dinosaur bones there but marine reptile bones (ichthyosaur and, more rarely, plesiosaur and crocodilian) quite often turn up. Gyrosteus bone is generally the most common (a giant sturgeon-like fish) - it really looks like bone too so hard to miss.

[dhiggi]

3 minutes ago, TqB said:

Good luck - and be very careful about tides there of course, it's quite a walk along by the beach so start 3 hours before low water. There are ropes up the cliff but only a good idea if you really know what you're doing. (Sorry if I'm preaching to the experienced!)

 

I'm afraid there aren't dinosaur bones there but marine reptile bones (ichthyosaur and, more rarely, plesiosaur and crocodilian) quite often turn up. Gyrosteus bone is generally the most common (a giant sturgeon-like fish) - it really looks like bone too so hard to miss.

Thanks. Not so experienced but have done a bit of reading. High tide is around 7am so aiming to get there between 9 & 10.

 

Pardon my ignorance, I hadn’t realised Ichthyosaurs weren’t dinosaurs 

[dhiggi]

Back in the same spot as last week, found plenty more rugose, but also found this, is it anything other than mineral formations?

[dhiggi]

Just found this too, only a very small fragment but different to what we’ve been finding so far

[Mark Kmiecik]

Both fossils. I'll let the experts from your neck of the woods ID them for you. The shell imprint will not be identifiable down to species, but the first one may be.

[dhiggi]

Thanks Mark. I know the shell isn’t much to go on but it’s the first thing like it that I’ve found at this site. 

I also had another interesting find until a bit of research showed it to be a bovine tooth