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Did we get skunked at Cory's Lane?


debivort

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We visited Cory's Lane, RI for a bit over an hour. Following guidance in a TFF thread, we turned right at the beach and struggled to convince ourselves we were even in the right place. There was barely an outcrop. The cliff consisted of a largely dirt slope with sporadic rock pieces weathering out. Still we found the most promising of them and split them down and found these three items which might be plant material? I am not sure.

As we were walking back to the car we noticed that the other side of the entrance of the beach, i.e., if we had gone left instead of right, was a proper cliffy exposure with many layers and a lot more promising rock in the foreshore. We spent about 20 minutes looking it over but didn't find anything in that time.

Did we go to the wrong part of the locality altogether and still manage to find some things?

 

[edit: all the pieces are palm sized, 6-12 cm in length or so]

 

IMG_1900.thumb.jpg.8dfb032e9ebf6560dddfac5a66c28a35.jpg

A — suspiciously straight, but doesn't seem to run in the direction of the grain of the rock, so perhaps not just a mineral feature?
 

 

IMG_1899.thumb.jpg.7b0ec71a85997ef9e3caea6cdaddeba7.jpg

B — the part that seems like it might be a fossil are the lighter features that radiate from the middle-right edge. They seem like they could be plant matter preserved as a thin film of more reflective mineralization. Best seen when you catch the light just right.

 

 



IMG_1901.thumb.jpg.a3de67b7b419276aa955f501fd269455.jpg

C — feature on the left looks like either a wider, fern-like morphology running upward, with pinnules to the left of a rib. Or, alternatively a narrower leaf-shaped form around that rib running downward. I am not 100% sure this isn't a mineral formation. Still, the iridescent quality of the layer is nice.

Thanks for your expertise!

Edited by debivort
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A - Cyperites

B - Could be poorly preserved plant, but there are a lot of mineral veins there that can't really be called fossils. 

C - Yes that looks like some kind of fern. It's hard to say which one though. 

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Hooray! Thanks for your IDs, @Rockwood.

A — thanks!

B — Here's what I see if I squint at it optimistically. I was thinking it might be annularia: image.thumb.png.509958eb3cd3752d21f785b4203a228e.png

C — Do you see it more as a wider fern pointing up or a narrower fern pointing down?

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3 minutes ago, debivort said:

C — Do you see it more as a wider fern pointing up or a narrower fern pointing down?

I think it might be both. 

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TURN LEFT!!!!

The good outcrops are on the left. The most fossiliferous parts are just under the shingle in small outcrops.

 

Edited by Isotelus2883
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Based on these pictures I am not entirely convinced any of these are plant fossils. Better pictures are needed.

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3 hours ago, Isotelus2883 said:

TURN LEFT!!!!

Ha, I am honestly relieved to hear that, as it makes much more sense. Thanks for the tip on the outcrops.

 

 

2 hours ago, connorp said:

Better pictures are needed.

In what way better? More pixels, different lighting? There aren't really other angles to speak of. The photos capture the lock of slam dunk morphology I see with my own eyes.

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