Rare and Overlooked

[Carl]

The biggest joy is in the rare and overlooked.

 

Burrows filled with invertebrate coprolites. Late Cretaceous, New Jersey. 22 September 2019.

[sharkdoctor]

Wow! Great find! I wonder what they look like under magnification? Signs of manipulation, etc?

[Carl]

2 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

Wow! Great find! I wonder what they look like under magnification? Signs of manipulation, etc?

Nothing additional (at least to me) under high mag.

[Manticocerasman]

are those the so called fecal pellets? I've seen simmilar ones in the miocene deposits here in Belgium often on the inside of fossil shells . one theory is that they are from schrimps.

[Manticocerasman]

I knew I've seen them before  

 

https://www.fossiel.net/forums/viewtopic.php?page=0&TopicID=26075

 

[Jeffrey P]

Very interesting specimen Carl. I'll keep my eye out for more. Any idea what invert made them?

[caldigger]

Fecalicious!  Neat piece.

[sharkdoctor]

We see those in the Calvert Formation as well. Sometimes they have evidence of an even smaller critter boring in the side. 

[sharkdoctor]

2 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Fecalicious!  Neat piece.

You just coined my new favorite fossil adjective! 

[doushantuo]

Manticocerasman was on the verge of calling your piece Ophiomorpha puerilis,I think 

[Carl]

1 hour ago, Manticocerasman said:

are those the so called fecal pellets? I've seen simmilar ones in the miocene deposits here in Belgium often on the inside of fossil shells . one theory is that they are from schrimps.

Definitely fecal pellets. AS you say, they may be from shrimp, but they are very different from ghost shrimp pellets.

[Carl]

1 hour ago, Manticocerasman said:

I knew I've seen them before  

 

https://www.fossiel.net/forums/viewtopic.php?page=0&TopicID=26075

 

Incredible! Yep: same type of thing.

[Carl]

1 hour ago, Jeffrey P said:

Very interesting specimen Carl. I'll keep my eye out for more. Any idea what invert made them?

Not really. bivalves, shrimp, and worms have all been implicated.

[Carl]

12 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

Manticocerasman was on the verge of calling your piece Ophiomorpha puerilis,I think 

These often get confused with Ophiomorpha but they are significantly different:

• These pellets are oval and in Ophiomorpha they are spherical
• These pellets are phosphatic and differ from the matrix and in Ophiomorpha they are the same as the surrounding sediment
• These are each sub-millimeter in size and in Ophiomorpha they are a few millimeters each

[daves64]

That is one crappy fossil there... (but in a good way). 

[fossilnut]

@sharkdoctorCould you post pictures of the one from the Calvert formation. Would really like to see. Thanks

[Randyw]

This is the only forum I know of where people gets excited about photos of poop!

great specimen too!

[Darktooth]

Interesting find, Carl!

[frankh8147]

Well, that specimen was found by the right guy!

 

Nice one Carl!

[erose]

Too cool for school...!

[Suvi]

Thank you for posting, Carl! These look very similar to North Texas poop burrows!

 

 

 

This is interesting! And, very funny with automatic translation for the page 

Quote

10 hours ago, Manticocerasman said:

I knew I've seen them before  

 

https://www.fossiel.net/forums/viewtopic.php?page=0&TopicID=26075

 

 

 

[The Jersey Devil]

Sweet piece Carl. It seems like individual burrows with coprolite infill are fairly common but a matrix piece with many is pretty rare.

[Carl]

12 hours ago, Suvi said:

Thank you for posting, Carl! These look very similar to North Texas poop burrows!

 

 

 

This is interesting! And, very funny with automatic translation for the page 

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

[Phevo]

On 25.9.2019 at 4:13 PM, Manticocerasman said:

are those the so called fecal pellets? I've seen simmilar ones in the miocene deposits here in Belgium often on the inside of fossil shells . one theory is that they are from schrimps.

 

Same theory prevails in Denmark

[sharkdoctor]

On 9/25/2019 at 12:38 PM, fossilnut said:

@sharkdoctorCould you post pictures of the one from the Calvert formation. Would really like to see. Thanks

@fossilnut Not the best photo, but favoring speed over perfection. A mix of what I assume are reworked pellets (black) and non-reworked (lighter). All from the basal Calvert Formation (Popes Creek Sands equivalent)