A fungus among us?

[InfoHungryMom]

I have not seen anything like this since finding it approximately four years ago.

 

Thank you-

 

Karen 

 

 

[InfoHungryMom]

[REW01]

Looks an awful lot like some sort of bivalve to me. Though I have to say, I've never seen one with and inside looking quite like that. Maybe due to some recrystallization? I'm not quite sure.

 

Anyhow, fossil fungi are exceedingly rare, unless you're talking palynomorphs like spores or fungal debris with a few exceptions. Whole mushrooms have been found in amber and there was one mineralized specimen in limestone from Brazil described earlier this year, but you won't find a mushroom as a fossil lying around free of any matrix like this. They just don't preserve that way. Such is the nature of chitin.

 

Interesting find, anyhoo!

[InfoHungryMom]

I look exclusively in-and-around large bodies of water, and I am learning that “most of the rules” for finding and “qualifying as a fossil” are different.

 

 Thank you- great info!

 

Karen 

[David in Japan]

Really worn bivalve shell. The general appearance makes me think of a pecten of some sort but the inside structure is quite weird (not matching with a pecten hinge).

White grain may be just sand stuck inside the weird structure.

[InfoHungryMom]

Thank you! 

[Al Dente]

It is a plate from a barnacle.

[InfoHungryMom]

Al, have you been watching Spongebob Squarepants again?  Mr. Krabs SPECIFICALLY stated NEVER to allow Plankton, even if he brings his own plate (barnacle or other), into the Krusty Krab.  Gee whiz!

[ynot]

I agreee with barnicle piece.