Fossil seabed perhaps ?

[Rambling Rob]

Hello,

Yesterday I found this patterned rock exposed in a recent landslip at Yaverland on the Isle of Wight. I wonder if it might be an area of fossilised seabed. The pattern looks a bit like the marks left on the sand after the tide has gone out. It is about 0.75m across.



Any thoughts?

Thanks for looking,
Rob

[galanthus]

Hard to tell with no scale Rob but I have a similar slab at home which is fossilised seabed. Mine is pretty smooth and the troughs are well defined so pretty straightforward id. Wldn it be great if yours was an imprint of a bit of mammoth ribcage ooooh

[loripo]

I found this in an article from the Telegraph(online) dated Aug 2007 'Where are the dinosaurs daddy?'

There was fool's gold - pyrite - and sparkling crystals of quartz, and among the brown mud and sandstones we found darker bits and pieces, half-baked coal. Up close, some had structure, organic patterns that revealed them to be the marrow of a turtle, a fossilised fir cone, even the ripples left by an ancient tide.

This was talking about exploring the beach at Yaverland with a geology guide who said it was an ancient estuary. I have a booklet that I got when I took my daughter to IOW donkeys years ago, called 'Conversations with an Island' price One Shilling!

[AshLee]

Hi Rob, Yep, I'm sure that's a fossilized sea bed
Ash

[squeek]

this sort of stuff interests me.
we dug up different things in our garden, some pieces look like dinosaur bones.

[Dogghound]

Or possibly old holes from crustaceans which have filled up and become fossilized there are lots of these near where I live although they are less smooth.

[Rambling Rob]

Thanks all for the interesting and helpful comments.
Good point about scale Galanthus - I must keep a ruler in the bag.
The Telegraph article seems supportive - thanks for finding that Loripo.
Glad you agree AshLee - the present day and past context seem right.
Squeek, talking of garden fossils, when we moved here 10 years ago we found an Iguanodon femur in the garden, reckoned to be c. 120my old. (Didn't dig it up, was just lying among garden rubbish.)
Dogghound: burrows - that's a possibility.
I returned for another look today and took a close-up of the small (c. 3cm diameter) circular feature half way down on the left of the surface. I wonder if it might have been a sea creature or perhaps the stem of a plant. It's fun to imagine.



Thanks again,
Rob

[loripo]

That almost looks like fossil tree trunks - is it too small for that?

[ChrisJB]

Rob, your first photo shows classic ripple marks, evidence of shallow water, perhaps on a beach, in a slow moving river or a lake. They do not form in deep-water, still conditions as ripples indicate movement of water. They are fairly common in the right settings. In the Pennines near me, they can often be seen in the Coal Measure rocks. They can sometimes be found in association with mud-cracks too, suggesting shallowing and eventual drying out.
The second formation could be a distorted fossil of some kind, but looks suitably shapeless and may be a drying out feature, where minerals have crystalised out of solution as water has dried up.

Regards, Chris

[Rambling Rob]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for that information on the environment this formed in - fascinating stuff. I see what you mean about the moving water, which would sculpt the ripples.

I just found that at the South Australia Museum in Adelaide they have lifted a large area of fossil ripples and mounted it vertically - looks amazing. Google for images along the lines of .. fossil seabed south australia museum

Rob