Ever see anything like this

[Darrell85]

I posted this rock on another section of this site but no luck. I was hoping the geology guys could give some insite. I found this on a campsite in a field that ive been hunting. This one really has me curious.

[Scorpion68]

Darrel - That's wild. I know what it looks like - like some fossilized critters head with the teeth showing. Let's see the other side, back, and top and bottom pics as well to get a better idea, maybe. After you watched pics on this website and others, you'll realize that mother nature can make some strange articles.

[Darrell85]

The rock is obviously broke in half. The other sides just look like an ordinary piece of quartz

[Hiddenvalley]

I believe what you have are graptolites fossils. Use google images and you will find some extremely close examples.

[Darrell85]

After looking at some images of them on google that may possibly be what i found.

[Havenhunter]

I agree with Hiddenvalley. Very cool fossil.

[CMD]

I wish I knew what it was, but I don't. Roger Lawrence(painshill) would know. I think we all know you just can't stump the man. Unfortunately, he has not been able to post much of late. But I don't believe it's a fossil, and here's why I feel that way.

We know the rock is a chunk of quartz. All quartz was originally in the form of a scalding liquid. Like molten lava is a scalding liquid, or at least semi-liquid. Think about where you often see quartz, and the form in which you see it. We often see it as veins running through other rocks. Those rocks might be igneous, they might be metamorphic. But, at one time, in the distant past, a molten liquid flowed through those rocks. Once the liquid cooled, it became the solid quartz veins we see today.

I don't believe an organism, or the fossil of an organism, can survive as a fossil when enveloped in a scalding molten liquid. For that reason I think that what we are seeing here is not a fossil. One does not see fossils preserved in quartz, or igneous rocks in general. I believe the quartz broke at a right angle to the feature we are trying to interpret, and hence it appears to represent a cross sectional view of whatever that feature is. That's only my best guess, what do I know, but that's what it looks like to me. But, since the quartz was originally a molten liquid, it's difficult to see how it could be a fossil.

And when Roger eventually sees this thread, I predict he'll be able to tell us exactly what we're looking at. I can't, but just wanted to add my meager 2 cents based on my own experience with fossils....

[Darrell85]

Thanks for all the input and replies! There is a lot of very cool fossils that i have found just over the hill from the field that i found this in. In fact, just 2 days ago i walked the creek and found a very nice "horn coral" and some other fossils