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Black shale oddity, any ideas?


fossilized6s

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I went down to a new spot i found to see if i could find more Carboniferous shark teeth. Sadly, no teeth. But i found this oddity. I've personally have never seen anything like it, and it kind of reminds me of shark skin, but i'm leaning more towards a strange trace fossil.

 

In the upper right corner and top center you can see symmetry somewhat in the shape i can only describe as a sunflower shape. Other than that the spots seem random. 

 

Any opinoins are welcome. I've been searching and searching without any luck. 

 

Thanks, guys and gals

20170806_221050.jpg

 

This is Carboniferous black shale.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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Shark cartilage ?

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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That went through my mind as well. But the spots are too large and not as tightly packed together as cartilage usually is. 

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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This looks reminiscent of a sort of mud drying/cracking(?) pattern - I forget the name or the explanation but it was discussed here on the forum not too long ago. Here is the photo I showed of an example I found in my local Cretaceous but did not bother to try to collect and it is now gone, and now I wish I had made the effort:

DSC_0036 shr.jpg

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28 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

This looks reminiscent of a sort of mud drying/cracking(?) pattern - I forget the name or the explanation but it was discussed here on the forum not too long ago.

 

Hi Wrangelian,

maybe you are referring to counter septarian structures?

 

ciao

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Could also be a feature caused by settling and dewatering of a sediment layer. Often a less permeable capping is being percolated through. 

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I think you nailed it, Wrangellian. 

 

The knowledge passed along on here never ceases to amaze me. 

 

Thanks everyone.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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:)

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" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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I agree, I think this looks like some sort of sedimentary structure formed by dewatering of the shale during diagenesis or lithification.

 

Similar structures are in the thread cited by abyssunder.

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