Devonian Mystery Invertebrate

[I_gotta_rock]

I'll be darned if I can figure out what type of life form this is. At first I thought brachiopod, but no. Middle Devonian, Hamilton Group, New York.

 

[FossilDAWG]

I can't place it either.  

 

Don

[marguy]

??? coral ????

[marguy]

https://archive.org/details/illustrationsofd00hall/page/n6

 

[Auspex]

Is the orientation presented 'top-side-up', as far as the sediments show?
Were these sediments disturbed pre-lithification?

[Fossildude19]

Looks like a squish-out, ... possible a gastropod, or pelecypod.

I find many like this from Deep Springs Road. 

The shell filled with mud, then successive layers of mud/sediment buried the item quickly, and weight was so much as to fracture the shell, and cause the mud inside to "squish-out". 

[I_gotta_rock]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:34 AM, Auspex said:

Is the orientation presented 'top-side-up', as far as the sediments show?
Were these sediments disturbed pre-lithification?

Hard to say. It was in a pile of scree.

 

[I_gotta_rock]

On 8/13/2019 at 11:36 AM, Fossildude19 said:

Looks like a squish-out, ... possible a gastropod, or pelecypod.

I find many like this from Deep Springs Road. 

The shell filled with mud, then successive layers of mud/sediment buried the item quickly, and weight was so much as to fracture the shell, and cause the mud inside to "squish-out". 

I haven't ruled it out, but wouldn't that structure on the underside then be distorted and flattened?

[I_gotta_rock]

@marguy, It DOES look like a button coral of some sort, except that there is no evidence of coat structure. No pores of any shape or description. It's smooth, with faint signs of lines radiating from the center, mostly visible at the edges.

[Fossildude19]

11 minutes ago, I_gotta_rock said:

I haven't ruled it out, but wouldn't that structure on the underside then be distorted and flattened?

Not necessarily. 

While many of the ones I find have the fossil as a part of the loose piece, I can see where the loose piece might have broken in such a way

as to leave some of the fossil in the host rock. They are, after all, crushed/broken "shells".