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  • Stephanie Morris posted an image in the group Group logo of What is it?What is it? from the myFOSSIL app 2 months ago

    2 months ago
    2 months ago

    Angular specimen. Potential fossil? Could it be part of a crinoid calyx? A scute or tooth?

    • There seems to be a few micro fossil but overall it looks like mostly sandstone. The very straight lines and symetrical shape makes me wonder if this is an artifact? I must say this one is really tricky.

    • Check amongst images of Paleo Indian artifacts.in Google images.

    • @lynette-luff I followed your advice – so far no matching artifacts. ‘Large’ crinoids are known in this area yet I can’t find details of size range – so ‘crinoid calyx plate’ may be a wild guess – but the way the fit together like a geometric puzzle is interesting. For anyone interested in crinoid plates, this article has several diagrams. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.12475. Very puzzling indeed.

    • This does not appear to be a fossil, it also does not appear to be a stone tool.

    • @mason-hintermeister ok thanks! so maybe the morphology is just due to the innate characteristics of the rock/mineral?

    • I hope all the pics are available- the least helpful one is the front photo & I don’t see a way to edit

    • Thanx @mason- hintermeister. This was a real doozi.

    • @stephanie-morris There are two possibilities I think which are hard to tell without having it in hand, most likely I think it’s a natural sandstone with a high iron content, I’ve see them form almost geometric patterns like this many times. The other possibility is that this is sandstone shaped for the facade of a building or something, if sandstone like this common to your area though I would probably say its more likely a natural shape. The reason I say it is unlikely to be a stone tool is that they are formed in two ways, fracture and abrasion. There is no no sign of conchoidal fracture and this would be a really rough type of stone to do it in (not that people haven’t done it, its just not ideal). As for abrasion, this is not like any abraded tool I’ve ever seen shape wise, abraded tools tend to be for either chopping (usually having a tapered tip) or for grinding (Like Metates or mortar & pestles). It is a strange shape though!!

    • Thanks @Mason-hintermeister for your detailed thoughts about this specimen. My search for similar images was fruitless for both artifacts and fossils which is consistent with your feedback. I always learn so much from puzzling through these specimens. Thanks!