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Joanne0864

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13 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Possibly no one can. If the members of this forum are unsure -- and this includes many professional paleontologists -- then the chances are good that not enough of the fossil is there to allow precise identification. "Coral" might be as close as it gets, simply because there are so many different species of coral that are very similar to each other and can only be identified by certain features that are not present on this specimen. I agree with the others that it is most probably a coral. It is definitely not a morel or any other kind of mushroom because of the features it does exhibit, a striated "stem" being one of them. Also the "cap" is completely wrong for a morel and fossil mushrooms are so very extremely rare and 99.99999999% not likely to be found anywhere near the area where you found this. The types of preservation common among fossils of that area would not have been enough to preserve a mushroom and would have turned one into a featureless blob of squished muck.

 

It is a very nice and intriguing specimen. I'm sure not all of the 28,000 members of this forum have seen it yet so someone may yet recognize it. You can take it to the closest natural history museum that has a paleontologist on staff. A hands-on ID is more likely to be accurate than one made from photos of a specimen but I doubt it will be possible in this case.

If no luck locally, is there somewhere I can mail it in for identification?

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33 minutes ago, Joanne0864 said:

If no luck locally, is there somewhere I can mail it in for identification?

A worn, solitary rugose coral is an extremely good likelihood, septa are visible going through it and the appearance is typical of one. A clear photo of the flat end might help to narrow it down towards genus level, though without good stratigraphy it might not be possible. 

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Tarquin

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They indicated that it was from Southern Indiana which is Pennsylvanian, Mississippian and some Devonian and Silurian.  Chert replaced rugose mound coral is very common in the Mississippian of Indiana and Kentucky.  It was probably found in float material and has been transported since it was a single coral, the chert allows it to be very resistant.   

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