Could that be a octopus?

[cyprusmax47]

I photographed that today and wonder what it is. Could it be a octopus?

 

Max

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Not likely to be an octopus.

Where in Cyprus was this found? 

Also, what is the size of this?

 

I would guess at branching coral or bryozoan. 

 

Geologic Map of Cyprus.

[Wendell Ricketts]

Definitely not, unfortunately. Soft parts don't fossilize in that way. My best guess, in the absence of additional photos, is coral.

[Auspex]

Was is stone-hard?
It almost looks like a plant rizome of some kind. If it is rock hard, maybe some kind of branching coral?

[cyprusmax47]

Hi, thanks for your quick respond.

 

Just 2 meters apart was another similar fossil. Both ca 25 cm long.

The location is inland, ca 800 ft sea level, steep hillside ca 10 m high, full of shells mainly Mediterranean scallops, position too high to reach without ladder...

 

 

Max

 

 

[MrBones]

Think I see fish/shark verts in the 1rst pic of the last post

[cyprusmax47]

Hi MrBones, another close up.... can you confirm that it is fish verts after seeing that pic?

 

 

Max

[grandpa]

The close-up helps.  The concentric rings of the broken "fingers" that would be sticking up indicate to me that the rock is geological, not fossil.  Specifically it looks like a broken collection of stalagmites.  Does it fizz if you place a couple of drops of vinegar on the surface?

[westcoast]

Neither fish verts nor stalagmites in my view. Looks like it would fall out quite easily to reveal all.. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

I also see other interesting spheres around the items of main focus. Like the black one in the upper right, first photo. If you look around you'll see other "spheres" in this and the other photos. There's a lot going on in these photos that I would like to see in more detail.

[Plantguy]

I'm sitting here having a late night snack and the imagination goes wild with the 2nd photo...I can see the resemblance to verts but could that actually be a partial

vertebrate jaw of some kind with the concentric rings possibly being sheared off teeth? Looks like a pretty high engery deposit/conglomerate so you can have all kinds of cools things associated in those deposits...

 

Wish we could see some closeups as the others have said but understand the logistics/height may not allow that...Very interesting indeed!

 

Regards, Chris 

[hemipristis]

I concur w/ @Plantguy.  I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete. I'd love to crawl around that formation a bit!

[cyprusmax47]

As the original photos are relatively high resolution (ca 8 MB) I could do some more close up snippets like this one....?

 

 

Max

[FossilNerd]

On 8/8/2019 at 5:02 AM, cyprusmax47 said:

As the original photos are relatively high resolution (ca 8 MB) I could do some more close up snippets like this one....?

 

 

Max

This looks to me to be branching coral of some type. 

There is a lot going on in your pics. I agree with @hemipristis. I’d love to crawl around on that exposure! 

[grandpa]

In the lower left corner of the photo, the four circular holes on the white mass appear to have radial groves around the top edges of the holes.  I would think that this would be diagnostic of something biological.

[abyssunder]

It suggests a jaw, but I'm not sure if the symmetry is OK for that.

Crinoid holdfasts may have similar features, but I'm not convinced if the geologcal time may fit, so I can go with rhizolith(s) as a possibility.

I could be wrong.

[Stingray]

I'm with @Fossildude19 branching coral of some type. 

 

Maybe A Spartan.....

 

[grandpa]

1 hour ago, Stingray said:

I'm with @Fossildude19 branching coral of some type.

 

I too get a coral vibe out of the radial markings I referenced above.

[cyprusmax47]

As there are so many different opinions what it could be: below some photos from items of this hill site which were already on the floor or came off easily with an brush...and hundreds more are poking out at higher levels!

 

 

 

 

Oyster and Med.scallop, palm-sized

 

Max

[Ludwigia]

I'm leaning toward branching coral as well, but it's the concentric circles within the branches in the 2nd photo which is confusing the issue for me.

[Plantguy]

 

On 8/7/2019 at 12:52 PM, Fossildude19 said:

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Not likely to be an octopus.

Where in Cyprus was this found? 

Also, what is the size of this?

 

I would guess at branching coral or bryozoan. 

 

Geologic Map of Cyprus.

 

23 hours ago, grandpa said:

In the lower left corner of the photo, the four circular holes on the white mass appear to have radial groves around the top edges of the holes.  I would think that this would be diagnostic of something biological.

 

Yep I agree with you all...still eating here again and the lovely oatmeal breakfast says those small holes w/radial grooves of the first specimen/closeup photos sure must be corallites of some sort and the concentric features in the 2nd specimen/photos must be coral growth rings.

 

Regards, Chris 

 

[Plantguy]

9 hours ago, cyprusmax47 said:

As there are so many different opinions what it could be: below some photos from items of this hill site which were already on the floor or came off easily with an brush...and hundreds more are poking out at higher levels!

 

Max

Thanks for the additional photos....I'm in the coral camp now as well. Looks like a great selection of other stuff similar to the Mio/Pliocene beds we have here in Florida. Nice big scallops...Be safe if you try to retrieve more!

Regards, Chris 

[abyssunder]

Very interesting!
The concentric features visible in this photo give me a headache.

 

Can we have higher resolution clear images of pic 1 and 2?
Also, you can prep the specimen easily (I think) to show it's entire beauty.
I'm going with holdfast / root of some sort, at this point.

[HansTheLoser]

The coral is a member of the family Madreporidae, probably Madrepora itself.  

[cyprusmax47]

Yes, I am convinced now that it is a coral, specific a Madrepora oculata, after so many answers in that direction. I googled it and it looks exactly like my first photo.

 

Thank you all for your answers as I will produce a little Blog on our PaphosLife website, and this will be the introduction...

 

If anybody is interested what one can find in Cyprus, here a link from a local website :

 

http://biodiversitycyprus.blogspot.com/search/label/Fossils of Cyprus

 

Max