Coral fossil?

[Dave2244]

Trying to ID these. Found around Cedar Mountain/Green River, WY. A local guy said they are rugose coral fossils. The pictures I find for rugose coral on Google don't really look like what we have. Anyway, they are usually found in groups on the surface. Many times turtle fossil fragments are in the same area. Any info would be appreciated.

[digit]

I believe much of the area around the Green River Formation is Eocene in age and much too young for rugose corals. These all look like interesting mineral formations. Possibly, it is something that @ynot might recognize. There is a lot of petrified wood in the area (Blue Forest) and these might be related to that. Lovely mineral samples but I'm not seeing fossil here.

 

Welcome to the forum! Lots of great fossil info (and friendly members) to be found here. You are in one of the most epic of fossil regions of the country and we hope to see you post some interesting fossils before long.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[supertramp]

mineral formations I think, maybe gypsum

[grandpa]

Welcome to the forum.  Nice specimens.  I think gypsum too.  If they feel esp. heavy for their size, then perhaps barite.

[ynot]

Looks more like selenite to Me, but could be gypsum.

[Dave2244]

Thanks for the replies. My wife and I are new to fossil hunting (and rock hounding) so its great to have a forum where we can find/receive important info. Except when the temps are below zero fossil hunting/rock hounding is a great reason for us to get out of the house. 

 

Ken: We spent several hours at Blue Forest a couple of weeks ago. It was our second visit to the area. We picked up several small pieces of pet wood. But more importantly, we found an area that looked promising and plan to return for a more organized hunt. 

 

Dave

[digit]

I learned about the Blue Forest on our first visit to "fishing" the GRF back in 2006 but did not have time in the itinerary to visit. We made time for in on a return visit in 2009. Being from low-elevation Florida (seemingly BELOW sea level at times) the higher altitude really limited the amount of effort we could expend trying to dig through that concrete like matrix to try to locate larger trunks of petrified wood. After only making a couple of inches of progress after half an hour of digging we decided to accept our limitations and took to surface hunting instead. At first each and every fragment of pet wood looked enticing enough to put in our bucket but before long we realized we'd have to get more selective. We dumped out all of the smaller frags and decided a piece had to be a complete round of a branch with lovely midnight blue chalcedony inside the woody looking rind. A friend cut and polished an end to bring out the beauty of the internal mineralization. Most of what I collected was given away to friends and family and some found its way onto forum auctions. I still have 2 pieces I kept and one of those is on exhibit at the public museum of the FLMNH here in Gainesville. Seeing my souvenir from the Blue Forest when I walk by it in the house always reminds me of fun times in the field. 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Dave2244]

After two years of living in Green River my 60+ year old lungs are just beginning to get used to elevation. For 30+ years we lived within 20 minutes of the Pacific coast (elevation was about 90ft above sea level).