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StumptownJoe
Joined: 16 Nov 2019
Posts: 4
Location: Oregon
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 Posted: Nov 16, 2019 16:00 Post subject: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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Hello!
I inherited a very large collection of minerals and jams from my grandfather. I am finding some wonderful treasures. I came across this piece, and I have no idea what it was. He was quite a character, and had many petrified poops and odd little things. I’m wondering if anyone recognizes this? It has some very cool alien like detail on the little fine tubular structures. More photos available - will try to add in comments.
Thanks!
Joe
| Mineral: | Unknown |
| Dimensions: | 1.5” across |
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StumptownJoe
Joined: 16 Nov 2019
Posts: 4
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2019 16:02 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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Additional photo
| Mineral: | Unknown |
| Dimensions: | 1.5” across |
| Description: |
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574 Time(s) |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 773
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2019 17:02 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| Fossil coral, possibly Syringopora, from the Lower Carboniferous, although we would much rather see the crystallized mineral portion of your grandads collection. Friends of Minerals Forum, you know.
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StumptownJoe
Joined: 16 Nov 2019
Posts: 4
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2019 17:19 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| Gosh, sorry. I thought fossils were mineralized. I’ll stick to crystals.
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 773
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2019 17:33 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| StumptownJoe wrote: | | Gosh, sorry. I thought fossils were mineralized. I’ll stick to crystals. |
Let us never speak of it again. Welcome to the forum, may I call you Joe?
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StumptownJoe
Joined: 16 Nov 2019
Posts: 4
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2019 17:54 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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Please do. Vic, is it?
Grandpa was a serious rockhound here in Oregon. Working my way through his collection. Lots of things have found homes on family shelves or gardens. Still lots of interesting stuff, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to begin ID-ing and cataloguing.
Pleasure to meet you.
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R Saunders
Joined: 28 Jul 2018
Posts: 62
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Nov 17, 2019 06:39 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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You have a cluster of fossil "Tube Worms/ Annelid worms" From Science daily website.
Tubeworms have been around for millions of years and the fossil record is rich with their distinctive imprints. But a discovery made by U of C scientists found that what previous researchers had labeled as tubeworms in a formation near Denver, Colorado, are actually 70 million-year-old escape hatches for methane.
True? you have an interesting piece of history but not a mineral for here.
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alfredo
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 762
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| Posted: Nov 17, 2019 08:47 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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I wouldn‘t say it‘s not a mineral, as it is certainly a mineral - Calcite perhaps?
Not a "crystal specimen", but definitely a mineral, and more interesting and unusual than many of the crystallized calcites I see. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
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Birdbrain59
Joined: 07 Feb 2019
Posts: 13
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Nov 17, 2019 13:21 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| Whatever it is is one bad ass specimen. Congrats on your inheritance.
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Kevin Schofield
Joined: 05 Jan 2018
Posts: 103
Location: Beacon NY
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| Posted: Nov 17, 2019 14:44 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| StumptownJoe wrote: | | Additional photo |
Hi Joe, Congratulations on your inheritance, sympathy on the loss of your grandpa!
Of the two options you have been given here (fossil coral or worm tubes), I believe that the correct one is Vic's suggestion, that you have here a fossil tabulate coral of the Genus Syringopora. This was one of the reef-building organisms of the Palaeozoic era that went extinct in the mass extinction event at the end of the Permian.
The reason for this interpretation is the scale of the tubes, the structure of the overall piece (the occasional knobbly joints between the tubes, and close-packing), and just overall geological likelihood. The serpulid worms that form preservable tubes generally only form those tubes in areas of the seabed where there are usable nutrients, so either ultra-deep marine "black smoker" vents or "cool" submarine hydrocarbon seeps, preserved examples of which are much rarer in the geological record than Palaeozoic reefs.
_________________
Veni, Vidi, Emi |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 773
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 18, 2019 09:19 Post subject: Re: Worm casings? Fossilized? |
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| StumptownJoe wrote: | Please do. Vic, is it?
Grandpa was a serious rockhound here in Oregon. Working my way through his collection. Lots of things have found homes on family shelves or gardens. Still lots of interesting stuff, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to begin ID-ing and cataloguing.
Pleasure to meet you. |
Likewise Joe. We hope you develop the abiding interest that Grandfather had. As to ID, you might inspect his library for mineral identification books. Save all labels, some things can be identified by location info if that's all you have. In a perfect world, everything would have a catalog number attached with a complete description carefully recorded in a collection log, or something like that. I am not part of that world. Have fun, Joe.
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