String of beads from the Pennsylvanian of Texas

[BobWill]

We found these in the Willow Point formation of Wise County Texas. They are in Late Pennsylvanian, Canyon Group limestone found near Lake Bridgeport. My first thought was Girtycoelia sp., a sponge often found in the Jasper Creek formation from the same area but these were too large and not connected together either directly or by the tiny shafts as in Girtyocoelia sp. There are 4, or maybe 5  strings of 3 to 4 beads each and they didn't seem to align with each other. Fossils found nearby were mostly crinoids with a few fenestrate bryozoans. There were also slabs with oscillation ripples and a single  Asterosoma impression. Finger for scale.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by BobWill

[minnbuckeye]

If this was a piece of matrix from Minnesota, I would call it a steinkern of a gastropod like hormatoma. But we are in the Ordovician bedrock, not Pennsylvanian.

 

 

 

 

[BobWill]

13 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

If this was a piece of matrix from Minnesota, I would call it a steinkern of a gastropod like hormatoma. But we are in the Ordovician bedrock, not Pennsylvanian.

 

 

 

 

 

You may be right but I don't know of any gastropod that would fit the size with a spire high enough to fit the little ( if any) increase in diameter these segments exhibit. They also don't seem to be joined at all and show none of the slant that would suggest coiling.

[Rockwood]

This is a boulder on the edge of a coal shale dump in St. Clair, PA. The photo isn't the best, but there were stacks of not quite spherical shapes all through it. I remember seeing stacks of concretion at the Joggins Cliffs in NS Canada as well.

I don't know if it means anything, but it would probably be about the same age. 

[BobWill]

1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

This is a boulder on the edge of a coal shale dump in St. Clair, PA. The photo isn't the best, but there were stacks of not quite spherical shapes all through it. I remember seeing stacks of concretion at the Joggins Cliffs in NS Canada as well.

I don't know if it means anything, but it would probably be about the same age. 

 

The idea of concretions did occur to us since we often find them in clumps. I guess it was the uniformity of the pattern of balls in a straight line that caught out attention. I was exploring with a retired geologist who has asked his paleo friends about these with no results yet.

[Missourian]

I found these structures in blocks of grainstone/bioclastic (almost certainly Pennsylvanian) limestone in the landscaping at my place of employment. I figure they are traces of some kind:

 

 

[Rockwood]

This looks a lot like worm poop to me. Ingested sediment feeder.

[BobWill]

I found this rock in the Willow Point Formation, Canyon Group, Pennsylvanian of Texas at Lake Bridgeport. The average size of the flattened spheres is about 18mm across. They all appear in a straight line of 4 to 6 beads, not quite touching and not connected by anything. There are no obvious features showing on the surface of any of them. They are larger than the Girtyocoleia sponges we find in the Bridgeport Shale nearby, which range fro 5 to 10mm.

 

[connorp]

Could these be remains of cephalopod siphuncles?

Example:

[BobWill]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:35 PM, Missourian said:

I found these structures in blocks of grainstone/bioclastic (almost certainly Pennsylvanian) limestone in the landscaping at my place of employment. I figure they are traces of some kind:

 

 

On 12/20/2022 at 12:08 AM, Rockwood said:

This looks a lot like worm poop to me. Ingested sediment feeder.

Missourian, those are similar except that the spheres are touching. Maybe mine have eroded some. Your idea and the reply from Rockwood  tell me I should probably post these on the ichnology group on Facebook. Since most people don't bother with trace fossils many of the folks there are professionals in that field. I will leave a comment if I get results there.

 

edit: I completely forgot that I had posted these back in December when we originally found them. We went back recently and broke off a chunk to take to the Dallas Paleo meeting but got no answers there.

[DPS Ammonite]

You might want to clean this one up better and retake the picture. Is that “fur” algae from being in a lake? I almost see a series of dark pits on either side of the balls.

 

To get rid of algae and lichen use a strong bleach solution and then scrub with nylon brush.

[JimB88]

"Girtyocoelia beedi" sponges id say..maybe a larger form.

Edited January 18, 2023 by JimB88

[BobWill]

16 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

You might want to clean this one up better and retake the picture. Is that “fur” algae from being in a lake? I almost see a series of dark pits on either side of the balls.

 

To get rid of algae and lichen use a strong bleach solution and then scrub with nylon brush.

 

Yes, I got the algae of the piece we broke off and took home. You can see in the photos of it that there are really no features to help with an ID.

 

7 hours ago, connorp said:

Could these be remains of cephalopod siphuncles?

Example:

 

 Maybe, but I would expect to find examples of a cephalopod that was big enough. The only other fossils in this area were bryozoans and fusulinids with the occasional piece of broken brachiopod.

[BobWill]

2 minutes ago, JimB88 said:

"Girtyocoelia beedi" sponges

My first thought but those are much smaller and the beads are attached to each other by a small tube. The beads on the similar Girtycoelia are touching and also much smaller.

[RJB]

Very interesting

 

RB

[JohnJ]

@BobWill 

 

I merged your new topic with the old one about the same fossil.  

[BobWill]

I think I have an answer for these from the Ichnology group on Facebook:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1306892?fbclid=IwAR1Eojt4kLqIkp6BJaXC-H94o3-2IPcF9SAKQ-27SE1HlTWVY3cDWkdmrsE

A New Ichnospecies of Nereites from Carboniferous Tidal-Flat Facies of Eastern Kansas, USA: Implications for the Nereites. Neonereites Debate.”

[westcoast]

Hmm, I Don't think so.

[BobWill]

4 hours ago, westcoast said:

Hmm, I Don't think so.

What do you think rules that out? The main difference I can see is that the pads on mine do not merge or even touch like the specimens in the images in that paper but with all of the apparent lumping in that genus and these being the closest thing in size to mine I have seen so far, I am comfortable with that on the label for now. I am okay with changing the label to anything better that comes along though

Edited January 20, 2023 by BobWill