Hmmmm????

Terri

Sepia elegans
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Dec 20, 2009
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961
A friend of mines 8 year old son found this in a creek bed in Sumner Co. He's very interested in my fossils and thought I would like it and wanted to know what it was. I don't have the coordinates but looking at the geology of Sumner co. it could be anywhere from middle Ordovician to Devonian, from what I could find though I think the Devonian outcrops are farther north towards the Kentucky border so probably Ordovician. At first I was thinking concretion? Or sponge? :smile:
 

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It looks like a river rounded rock with an inclusion of something harder. Is the inclusion made of chert? Does it stick out the other side? The inclusion may be a fossil, but the rest of the rock looks like limestone. We need to see more to determine any kind of ID. Very neat looking rock though. :smile:
 
I don't know if it's chert, but it does seem to be a harder and more smooth material than the matrix, how would I determine if it's chert? The rock is broken on the other side I'll have to get pictures tommorrow, no it doesn't stick out the other side. There are some vague rings where you would think the fossil(?) runs through the rock. I'll post pics. tommorrow. Thanks Kevin :smile:
 
It does remind me a lot of the mysterious "round things" in post #333 in the Ordovician thread, with a different mode of preservation. :bonk:
 
Kevin,
I am assuming the limestone built up over the "round thing". If you tapped it with a hammer, hard enough to break the limestone (not suggesting you do this Terri :biggrin2:) what are the chances that it would expose the proposed fossil in tact? I am assuming that limestone is relatively soft and the fossilzed animal relatively hard of course which may be way off the mark.
 
D, I have access to a saw, I just don't have experiance with using them. It should be pretty easy to slice the thing, I'll just have to wait for help with it. I would like to know though exactly where I should slice it to see what we need to see (Kevin?).

Is the inclusion made of chert?

After doing a little reading, I think the "inclusion" is chert.
 

Looking at this enlarged photo I would say there is not a good chance. There is no clear contact between the fossil and the matrix, the conchoidal fracture goes across both the fossil and the matrix, the matrix looks almost as hard as the fossil. Tapping with a hammer would just break both along a different fracture line. :sad:
 

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Good, in that I though the back side suggested that the fossil was too similar to the surrounding rock to break out cleanly but was not sure if the hardneses would be different enough since the exposed part is so peculiar (the circle part looks kind of quartz like to my ignorant eyes). I wonder if water was responsible for the ring and surrounding hole.
 
DWhatley;182715 said:
(the circle part looks kind of quartz like to my ignorant eyes)

Chert=Flint=Silicate=Quartz :notworth:

The inclusion/fossil is harder than the matrix, but the matrix still looks hard. There may be softer matrix on one end or in the middle, there may be a better contact between the two on one end. Water pushing the rock down the river rounded it, and is responsible for the ring and surrounding hole.
 
ahh, I feel better about that now, my rock knowledge is very limited but we saw a lot of quartz where I grew up so I usually can identify it (or think I can) from other "stones" (being clear to semi-opaque helps a lot :biggrin2:) except I thought flint was grey, iron baring rock :oops:

Ah, it is flint used WITH iron pyrite that I am confusing (I grew up in an area originally populated with native American Indians so trying to start a leaf fire with rocks was a childhood pasttime - never had the right rocks though - fortunately)

Terri, is there another thing in the rock at the lower left side (on the broken off section)? Blowing up Kevins enlargement suggest not but just checking.
 

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