Is this a coprolite?

[Gaitano]

Can anyone ID this please, I'm thinking a coprolite but not sure.

I found it in the Redcar area Yorkshire along the coast line.

Thanks.

 

[Lone Hunter]

Since this got overlooked thought I'd refresh and request the expert  @GeschWhat

[GeschWhat]

Hmm, I’m thinking it could be a coprolite lined burrow. Ophiomorpha?

 

@Carl

[Gaitano]

Thanks Geschwhat, what do you think is most likely to have made the burrow, is it possible to tell?

[Carl]

14 hours ago, GeschWhat said:

Hmm, I’m thinking it could be a coprolite lined burrow. Ophiomorpha?

 

@Carl

This one is vexing. My initial reaction was that it's a beat up nautiloid, but maybe it's too irregular for that. It's not Ophiomoprha, but could be something quite close. But Ophiomorpha is actually not made  of coprolitic pellets. The pellets are grainy, spherical, sediment balls whereas the coprolites of the Ophiomorpha makers (ghost shrimp) are much smaller, ellipsoid, and phosphatic in composition.

[Gaitano]

Could it possibly be a Cephalopod fossil?

[GeschWhat]

On 10/26/2023 at 8:20 AM, Carl said:

This one is vexing. My initial reaction was that it's a beat up nautiloid, but maybe it's too irregular for that. It's not Ophiomoprha, but could be something quite close. But Ophiomorpha is actually not made  of coprolitic pellets. The pellets are grainy, spherical, sediment balls whereas the coprolites of the Ophiomorpha makers (ghost shrimp) are much smaller, ellipsoid, and phosphatic in composition.

Aren't there some ichnosubfacies of Ophiomorpha that are lined with fecal pellets, or are they all sediment balls? I've been away from all this for so long, I can't remember.

[Carl]

On 10/28/2023 at 5:39 PM, GeschWhat said:

Aren't there some ichnosubfacies of Ophiomorpha that are lined with fecal pellets, or are they all sediment balls? I've been away from all this for so long, I can't remember.

I'm unaware of any Ophiomorpha that are lined with genuine fecal pellets but I have seen the clearly non-fecal pellets confused as such many times.

[Fossildude19]

On 10/26/2023 at 11:45 AM, Gaitano said:

Could it possibly be a Cephalopod fossil?

While it does slightly resemble a paleozoic orthocone nautiloid, the "chambers" are not uniform, and seem to alternate, which is NOT a feature of orthocone cephalopods.

 

Burrow of some sort gets my vote.