This authors of the paper the figure below comes from claim that it's a fossil of some kind:
Do you agree? What do you think it is, and how old do you think it is?
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Chris Rowan is a geologist specialising in the dark arts of paleomagnetism, and getting people to pay him to travel to exotic destinations for fieldwork. Having drilled up New Zealand during his PhD, he is now a post-doc at the University of Johannesburg.
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Geopuzzle #14
Category: fossils • geology • geopuzzling
Posted on: August 15, 2008 10:38 AM, by Chris Rowan
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Comments
Looks like a fern fiddlehead, sort of.
Posted by: fsb | August 15, 2008 11:47 AM
Imprint of a Crinoid, or perhaps some sort of polyp creature (it's pretty small)?
Age: really old.
Posted by: Rice | August 15, 2008 11:56 AM
Hmmm. A fossil sperm. From, maybe, last week?
Posted by: Greg Laden | August 15, 2008 12:32 PM
It's Jay-sus-ah!
Only non-believers would see some sorta curly-q thing.
Posted by: Willy | August 15, 2008 1:30 PM
Forgot the age: 2008 years, heathens!
Posted by: Willy | August 15, 2008 1:32 PM
fossil ? p'rahps
wazzit ? good ?
how old ? got a carbon date, point origin ? fuxake what a question.
Posted by: BlindRobin | August 15, 2008 2:08 PM
Hrmm. Something about an inch around that left a trail. Something on an ancient seabed, is this really a fossil, or is it a fossilized print?
I'm betting 14 millions of years old, Ostracod print from Antarctica.
Posted by: Thanos | August 15, 2008 2:55 PM
Fossilised yo-yo. See how the string extended downward.
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | August 15, 2008 3:48 PM
I recognize this, so I'll shut up. But it could be a "raindrop impression."
Posted by: Andrew | August 15, 2008 8:12 PM
hmmm. it's too big to be from barberton. the rock has a strange texture too. spherulitic?
Posted by: christie | August 15, 2008 8:28 PM
Perhaps it is a sort of jelly fish?
Posted by: Lost Geologist | August 16, 2008 4:20 AM
Hedging my bets but it's either a Limpet's home-scar or a tree knot. Not that old; more fossilized by being dumped on by a volcano than by gigayears of sedimentation.
Posted by: eddie | August 17, 2008 2:19 PM
...or it's a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinder_block breeze block.
Posted by: eddie | August 17, 2008 2:41 PM
I have no falloopin' clue... hopefully something similar won't show up in paleo lab this fall. ;P
Posted by: KC | August 17, 2008 8:46 PM
Looks very similar to Ediacran soft-bodied jellyfish type faunas that are found in Sth Australia, but not as well preserved.
You can just make out the outer part of the body shown by the rim on the outside with another circular inprint just inside that and then the main part of the body in the centre showing what appears to be a five-fold symmetry.
Then again, it could just be the feverish imaginations that occur on a Monday morning.
Posted by: Darren | August 17, 2008 9:42 PM
Ediacran Aspidella or something of that sort. The coarse texture may indicate that it is preserved at the base of an ash layer as at Mistaken Point in Newfoundland.
Posted by: Bob | August 18, 2008 6:56 AM
It's a close-up shot of John McCain's jowls.
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | August 22, 2008 11:16 AM
Perhaps a plan view, on a bedding plane, of a trace fossil such as Conichnus or Baugeria. These dwelling burrows display concentric layers, like an onion, they're roughly circular in plan view and roughly conical in sectional view.
Posted by: Tony | September 4, 2008 8:42 AM
Okay, so you had your stupid little holiday while we were all left to stew in suspense in your absence. :)
Since I have no friggin' clue about what it might be, I'll just pull a divalent and claim all other possibilities that others didn't mention. So now we have every possibility covered.
I'll give you a night's sleep, but then get back to us, will 'ya, or we are coming to steal your beer. (all of it!)
Posted by: divalent | September 9, 2008 4:23 PM
Ok, that's it. We're storming your refrigerator within 24 hours. And if it's empty, we have ways of making you talk (surprizingly, they are legal if performed by US citizens, and in any event we are on a mission from God).
We're also gonna head down to your pub and drink it dry.
We warned 'ya. (last chance to head us off)
Posted by: divalent | September 11, 2008 10:18 PM
Thirsty? {burp}
:)
Posted by: divalent | September 16, 2008 8:14 AM
very interesting...
Posted by: cabbagepow | October 5, 2008 8:26 AM