Fossil or Not?

Fossil or Not?

fossilI found this buried in the backyard while mowing, Kasey did the initial excavation. It’s oddly shaped, and has crusty things all over the surface, so I’ve been trying to figure out what it is most of the evening. The question is whether it’s a fossil or not. More to come, in the meantime if you know what you are talking about and have a hypothesis as to what it could be, I’m interested in your opinion. For an idea of scale the grey curved line is the outline of a large burner on a ceramic stovetop, the words say “turbo boil”. I’ll get some more pics tomorrow with a ruler for scale. I’m in the NE Corner of Kansas, surface rock here is Carboniferous for the most part.

4 thoughts on “Fossil or Not?”

  1. Interesting… but isn’t the problem with NE Kansas that a great deal of the surface is either glacial drifts or alluvial deposits from recent times? If so, then the object could have originated anywhere… and your yard may be the 2nd, 3rd, or Nth time it has been moved since becoming fossilized, if indeed it is a fossil.

  2. Yes it could very well be, and it could be that my yard is fill trucked in from elsewhere. There is more to make me think it’s somewhat native to the hilltop I live on however, more pics to come as soon as I can get some good close ups.

  3. Thanos, It looks like a piece of limestone that has dissolved and weathered into its shape. The crusty stuff possibly is some crinoid hash that has been exposed by the weathering.
    Dave

  4. I’m thinking you are right, I’m trying to get some good close ups, I’m revising to Pennsylvanian from Mississippian after a bit more research. I’m still wondering about what’s underneath the echinoid and crinoid attachments, think I also see anchors and plates for other things too.

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