What is this magnificent thing? Found beneath my own house, in Southern BC

[GullyGolly]

Hi everyone!

 

This was found in British Columbia, Canada, specifically in the South Similkameen region.  It was *not* near the well-known sites around Princeton (which is the most famous area in the region for fossils), nor was it in chert or shale (where most fossils in the Princeton area are found).   This was found an hour south of there.  I don't know much about the geologic or paleontological history of the region, though I believe we're classified as being part of the Quesnelia terrane, and in very ancient times there was a volcano - we still find volcanic rocks very frequently.

 

Anyway, some of my family members have been digging beneath my house, working on expanding the basement. They've been digging out all sorts of rocks and dirt from beneath the house, and dumping the rocks and dirt in a big pile in the yard. I often look through the big pile of rocks and dirt they've removed, looking for neat rocks, and yesterday I found this!

 

It was probably dug out from anywhere between 2-8 feet below the surface of the regular ground (since the floor of the basement is probably 8 feet down).  I do know that the area around our house was once a creek/river bed and drainage area, over a century ago.  Like, my house is located on what was once the "bank", and farther off in the yard there is a gully that used to be the creek/river bed.

 

There's a local river where we sometimes walk along the riverbank and find impressions of plants on shale, but I've never seen *anything* like this. 

 

The fossilised area of the stone is raised up from the surface of the red stone, and when you look at it under a magnifying glass the fossilised area also seems to have some shiny, crystal-like speckles. The fossil seems like it might be a different kind of rock than the main, red stone? Besides the main fossil areas, there are streaks and spots that seem to be made of the same substance as the fossil.

 

The white outline around the fossils is is very noticeable, as well.

 

I can't find anything online of any similar fossils from this area.  

 

I'd love to know what you think this might be!  I'm elated, as I've never really found a fossil before, and I'm astounded it was in my own yard.  My family can no longer tease me for digging through rocks all the time

 

Thank you 😊

Edited August 27 by GullyGolly
Added a wee bit of info

[Darktooth]

Hello and welcome to the forum  from New York. I am not sure what you have but I think it is a cross-section of some sort. My first thought was ammonite, but I don't see any internal chambers.

I really am stumped. I am interested to see what other members have to say.

 

Dave

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Very neat mystery you have presented.

My first thought was some sort of plant matter, like a pinecone.

 

Maybe @FossilDAWG will have some ideas about this.

[fossilcrazy]

Interesting find that raises more questions than answers. Sorry, I can't even venture a guess. 

[GullyGolly]

2 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Hello and welcome to the forum  from New York. I am not sure what you have but I think it is a cross-section of some sort. My first thought was ammonite, but I don't see any internal chambers.

I really am stumped. I am interested to see what other members have to say.

 

Dave

Thank you! Ooh a cross section would make a lot of sense.  I looked at ammonites a bit, what with the sort of sawtooth shape of the edges, nyt I thought similarly - it just doesn't look right, dangit. 

[GullyGolly]

1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Very neat mystery you have presented.

My first thought was some sort of plant matter, like a pinecone.

 

Maybe @FossilDAWG will have some ideas about this.

Thanks! This place is extremely cool, I'm glad I came across it to enjoy, even without my little mystery.

 

Pinecone could make sense!  The area is certainly quite full of evergreens. 

 

I have a major newbie question: are plants often preserved without showing evidence of veins, central stem, etc?  I know a pinecone wouldn't show veins, hah, but at first I wondered if it could be a leaf, however nearly all the examples of leaf fossils I saw had visible central stems and veins.

[GullyGolly]

52 minutes ago, fossilcrazy said:

Interesting find that raises more questions than answers. Sorry, I can't even venture a guess. 

You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear other people be confused by this dang thing. I spent *hours* and *hours* yesterday reading about fossils in general and my home's geology and history in particular, feeling more and more frazzled and bewildered. 

 

It's very frustrating because there is very little written about the fossils, geology, etc., of my little area. It's located at the convergence of multiple valleys, so I can't find much that's particular to *it*.

 

Plus I don't know if I should be looking at pre-historic flora and fauna and climate, or more modern plants and creatures!

 

I can't find anything about other people finding fossils in the area, either, except the shale fossils down by the river.

 

This might drive me insane  

[Manticocerasman]

I was thinking something like a lobster or crab claw. It looks a lot like the cross section of the lobster claws I found before.

Edited August 28 by Manticocerasman

[Jared C]

I definitely agree with crustacean. There’s even a hole near the main arm that might be the cross section of a leg

[GullyGolly]

1 hour ago, Manticocerasman said:

I was thinking something like a lobster or crab claw. It looks a lot like the cross section of the lobster claws I found before.

 

52 minutes ago, Jared C said:

I definitely agree with crustacean. There’s even a hole near the main arm that might be the cross section of a leg

Oh it would be *incredible* if it was a crustacean - not only do I love crustaceans, but I can only find one other instance when crustacean fossils were found anywhere even vaguely near my region.  And that crustacean was a crayfish with a total body length of up to 5 centimetres (found at the Allenby fossil site). 

 

Would a crustacean's claw be serrated on both sides, if it was in cross-section? 

[Rockwood]

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but should we be so quick to dismiss the idea of volcanic porphyry? 

[Manticocerasman]

2 hours ago, Rockwood said:

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but should we be so quick to dismiss the idea of volcanic porphyry? 

No, I stand by my determination. We see those kind of cross sections from time to time in the chalk deposits here and after some prep it reveals a spiny lobster claw.

 

The stone must have worn down up to more or less the red line on the picture:

[Rockwood]

Chalk?

[Fossildude19]

3 hours ago, Rockwood said:

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but should we be so quick to dismiss the idea of volcanic porphyry? 

 

I've never seen porphyry present like this. 

 

The items are clearly sticking above the matrix, and are not part of the rock itself.

 

 

I'm leaning towards fossil crustacean, but have not totally discounted plant yet.

[Plantguy]

What a cool specimen! I agree with it being some type of crustacean. cross section makes alot of sense.  

 

Am curious if you can see any details in the fractured area where I've circled 4 more parallel narrow linear features??...Are those straight lines showing any type of ornamentation?

Maybe a clearer image of that area might show more...

Could be the other legs or possibly more of those exposed legs/linear features on the side surface? I'm not a crab guy and have only found a few but just my 2 cents...

 

 

Since that break looks fresh is there any chance of locating the missing piece of the rock/cobble to examine it? 

 

Regards, Chris 

[old bones]

What a neat find! Crustacean would be cool.

[Carl]

Late to the game but crustacean was my first instinct! Nice find!

[GullyGolly]

Interesting update!  I got in touch with a knowledgeable person on the wider region's fossils etc (I think he posts here at times - Dan Bowden from the Vancouver Paleontological Society), and he was quite interested. He suggests it might be a type of coral or stromatoporoid.  The matrix doesn't look anything like local fossils usually do, so he suggests that, as I'm located in an area that's built on material once deposited by a river, the fossil might have been brought from another location by the river. Or even brought from another location by a glacier back in the ice age. 

Which would also be quite interesting!

I may meet up with Dan, so he can take a look in person.

I'm also going to dig around a bit more in the rock pile this weekend, and see if I manage to find any pieces broken off of the fossil stone, or heck, anything else at all.