Devonian(?) brach chunk - location?

[Wrangellian]

I'm revisiting an old chunk that I acquired some years ago in a batch of assorted fossils, some without names or locations. I posted this one a while back but there are newer members now, so thought I'd see it there is any more insight on it. It's nothing spectacular, and I need to make room so am thinking of passing it on, but before I do it'd be nice to have a better idea of the location.

Does it look like something that could have come from Arkona, or is it more likely to belong with the 'Rocky Mountain Corals' I got in the same lot? It's classic heavy, clinky limestone.

Hopefully the pics are ok (and not too big).. The sun has not exactly been plentiful here lately and won't be for some days yet, but I have to get this show on the road so I'm relegated to taking imperfect pics indoors, again....

 

[Miocene_Mason]

Kinda reminds me of some of the rock at the trilobite ridge (houses multiple lower Devonian formations) but I draw a blank other than that. Can say it’s not from the Mahantango or needmore shale, not sure if that helps. 

[Kane]

It seems to be a very dense shale with some mudflow. Can you zoom in on any other features? At the bottom of the third picture, I think I can see a little cluster of small rugose coral. It's a bit tough to identify by the brachs as not all species are reliable as index fossils of a formation.

 

I have not encountered this kind of rock at Arkona, although there are some similar pockets in the Widder that are dense like this and have similar colouring. However, those are usually blank, or filled with tiny brachs or part of the very busy brach layer, usually with  some pyrite staining. The small rugose is making me lean toward this not being Arkona material.

[Fossildude19]

It kind of reminds me of some of the Ordovician dolostones  that I see from upstate New York - as fill around bridge abutments  .

 

Similar to these, from Little Falls, NY:

 

    

[Wrangellian]

Thanks guys, I'll see if I can get some closer shots of those corals. They do look like corals. It looks water-worn as if from a river... but which river, I wonder. The Rocky Mtn corals I have are not river-worn, but they are weathered, which is why I doubt that, but who knows?

I don't know all the finer gradations in rock types, I figured it was limestone by the weight and the clink sound it makes when tapped - the shale I'm familiar with is not like that! My possible V.I. trilos are in a dark limestone.. maybe this is another V.I. piece and I need to keep it??

 

[Wrangellian]

I don't know if these pics are going to help, but here goes. (Still no sun here to take the pics outdoors)

As you can see those are definitely corals.

Whatever happened to CanadaWest? I bet he could tell me whether this is likely from the Rockies or not.

 

Note, the smoother/brownish areas are the more weathered.

You can see several corals or other things in cross-section where the rock have been split away...

 

 

[Wrangellian]

 

Lighter weathered area:

 

Closer shot of the best brach on it. If anyone has a possible ID (or can narrow it down) let me know. It's about 15mm across:

[Wrangellian]

No more ideas? Can we rule out Arkona, then, and it's either Rocky Mtns or Vancouver Island (most likely one of those two)?

[Kane]

For the reasons I gave above, yes, I think we can rule out Arkona. The fauna and matrix doesn't seem consistent with what is found in the Widder Formation.

[FossilDAWG]

I'm not optimistic that you will be able to learn much about this specimen.  It does not at all resemble anything I have seen from Arkona, but on the other hand it is the sort of matrix that is common at lots of other places.  Do you have any factual basis for suspecting it is Devonian?  It seems to me even the age is very uncertain.  Your best bet would be to ID the brachiopods and corals to species, but without any provenance that would be technically challenging indeed, and require preparing good thin sections of the corals and serial sections of the brachiopods as well as a high degree of expertise in the taxonomy of both groups.  I don't think the result would be worth the effort.

 

Canadawest has not posted since last June, following a dust-up with a TFF member who was selling Canadian trilobites.  He was never subtle about his feelings about selling fossils, as well as other matters.  I suspect he will not be back any time soon, which is (in my opinion) unfortunate.  I always enjoyed his posts about his adventures in the field.

 

Don

[Wrangellian]

That's what I was afraid of. No, I have not reason to suspect Devonian, only if it was from Arkona or one of those places over there. I won't spend a lot of effort on it, it might end up being a garden rock.

 

What you say about CanadaWest I gathered the same sense - hard-nosed. He would tantalize us with his pics and descriptions of collecting in Fossil Paradise but was always quick to discourage anyone from collecting for any reason other than science. (I'm sure he was collecting for fun to some extent too.) Too bad.

[PyritizeMe]

Reminds me a lot of Devonian Dundee formation limestone of southern Ontario. I don't know if the correct term is diagensis or what , but the way that the brachiopods and cephalopods etc get calcified is very common and they create many crystal geodes in the formation , as well it has that medium grey to light grey color and a bit of sparkle. My opinion at least.