Possible bryozoan from Jacksboro Texas

[BobWill]

This came from a bucket of material from Jacksboro Texas donated by @GaryTurner for the Dallas Paleontological Society fund-raising auction, so it's Late Pennsylvanian, Graham Formation. The surface resembles a bryozoan but I haven't seen one with this shape. Scale is millimeters.

[DPS Ammonite]

Could it be encrusting something with that general shape. If so what?

 

BTW, I really like your needle scale; very easy to place in photo.EDIT: I see that it is a regular ruler that is cut off. I like my new idea of creating a scale on a needle.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by DPS Ammonite

[Missourian]

Interesting

 

Could it be an echinoderm ossicle, perhaps ophiuroid?

[DPS Ammonite]

9 minutes ago, Missourian said:

Interesting

 

Could it be an echinoderm ossicle, perhaps ophiuroid?

Yeah, like that. 
@BobWill Are there any incrusting sponges that look like that on the surface? Detailed photos?

 

I am familiar with Incrustospongia meandrica.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/60707-encrusting-sponges/

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by DPS Ammonite

[BobWill]

1 hour ago, Missourian said:

Interesting

 

Could it be an echinoderm ossicle, perhaps ophiuroid?

 

1 hour ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Yeah, like that. 
@BobWill Are there any incrusting sponges that look like that on the surface? Detailed photos?

 

I am familiar with Incrustospongia meandrica.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/60707-encrusting-sponges/

 

 

I don't know of any Incrustospongia meandrica from the site but it's possible. I thought of a bryozoan encrusting a crinoid arm ossicle with a food grove but it didn't seem quite right. I thought someone might recognize the shape. The texture seems a little too open for echinoderm stereom structure. 

 

"I like my new idea of creating a scale on a needle." I missed seeing that. It sounds good. I'll look for the thread.

 

[DPS Ammonite]

10 minutes ago, BobWill said:

The texture seems a little too open for echinoderm stereom structure

I think a bryozoan may have grown over a piece of echinoderm?

[Al Dente]

I think it is a starfish terminal ossicle.

[Al Dente]

Here's a couple examples of starfish terminal ossicles (#7 and #9 in this illustration).

 

 

[Mahnmut]

2 hours ago, Al Dente said:

I think it is a starfish terminal ossicle.

If so, the texture would not be an encrustation, but part of the ossicle, right?

A quick search turned up these:

from here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.12881

 

Best Regards,

J

[Al Dente]

2 minutes ago, Mahnmut said:

If so, the texture would not be an encrustation, but part of the ossicle, right?

 

Right.

[Al Dente]

Here are a couple examples that I've picked out of the Castle Hayne Formation. These are surprisingly common.

 

 

[JamieLynn]

Great little find! Yes, agreeing with all above, starfish ossicle. I find them frequently in Cretaceous micro matrix, but none with quite that surface texture, but most do have an interesting surface pattern. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BobWill]

Mystery solved! I had an idea that shape would get recognized by someone.

 

The fauna list for this formation at Jacksboro just keeps getting longer!

[DPS Ammonite]

Is there a Texas institution that is interested in samples of every type of Jacksboro fossils?

 

Can you add photos of this to the database on the DPS website of Jacksboro/Pennsylvanian fossils? I see that Rodney Wise has a few photos.

[BobWill]

4 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Is there a Texas institution that is interested in samples of every type of Jacksboro fossils?

 

Can you add photos of this to the database on the DPS website of Jacksboro/Pennsylvanian fossils? I see that Rodney Wise has a few photos.

Yeah, @rwise has a lot of them on his website too. https://www.txfossils.com/  (not a commercial site)

Our TX/Penn Study Group still has that as a goal but we haven't been active in quite a while. Maybe some day.

Edited August 30, 2023 by BobWill

[Tidgy's Dad]

Failing that, I'm most certainly interested.