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Showing results for tags 'marine worm'.
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Just looking to identify this rock I found on a beach in southern Ireland. I have no clue about fossils but thought this looked interesting and wanted to know more. Thanks!
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- fossil
- justarock?
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I found this at St. Clair in a pile of small rocks and boulders on top of a hill at the fossil fern site at St. Clair PA - obviously these are not Pennsylvanian swamp fossils - I believe this was part of a load of older rocks and boulders dumped there from when this was an active mining pit. The rock is hard sandstone or silicate - burrow/fossil was replaced by quartz). The tunnel or fossil starts on one side and makes a U-shape to the other side. One side looks like it is filled and the other side looks hollow. I've found other specimens showing the same pattern, as well. Update (26 Oct)! - Since posting this, several Forum experts have formed a consensus that this is a quartz vein rather than a burrow - I'm personally still a bit skeptical, but respect the experts on the forum who have seen many more fossils than me. Here is an illustration on page 215 in Donald Hoskins' excellent book (Fossil Collecting in Pennsylvania) - which looks like this - showing a burrowing "marine worm" (annelid) that is found in hardened sandstone and is thought to have inhabited both marine and freshwater sand. It is always U-SHAPED - the creature lived in the burrow and obtained food that circulated through the U shaped burrow. This fossil looks like it wraps around the rock. I added several photos (number A, B and C below) to show the end of the rock (the bottom of the "U"). A, B and C walk you around the rock. HOWEVER - Forum advisors suggest that the "burrow" is actually a vein of quartz running completely through the rock. This is exactly why the Forum exists, to clarify misconceptions by new fossil hunters (and veterans, too!) - so the input from Forum regulars is MUCH appreciated. Whether this is a quartz vein or Arenicolites, here is a 2005 research paper entitled: TREPTICHNUS AND ARENICOLITES FROM THE STEVEN C. MINKIN PALEOZOIC FOOTPRINT SITE (LANGSETTIAN, ALABAMA, USA) by ANDREW K. RINDSBERG and DAVID C. KOPASKA-MERKEL - this is available free online.
- 14 replies
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- annelid
- arenicolites
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