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PalAss Home > PalAss Newsletter > Mystery Fossil 6
Mystery Fossil 6


Fossil 6From Newsletter 57:

    Mystery Fossil Six is actually two fossils with three views of each, collected by Xavier Panades I Blas from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and housed in the Museum Miquel Crusafont de Sabadell (Sabadell, Catalonia). Both specimens come from Eocene-aged continental lacustrine sediments in the Catalan Pyrenees and are formed of a white hard mineral. Fossil A (IPS 3738) was found at the Mas del Faro locality; fossil B (IPS9522) was found at the La Roca locality. The Miquel Crusafont de Sabadell Museum database has the fossils variously identified as snails, corals, claws, small mammal horns, coprolites, and unidentified. The photographs are courtesy of Drs J. Agusti and A. Galobart. Scale bars = 1 cm.

Update from Newsletter 61
    The two specimens figured in Mystery Fossil Number Six from Eocene-aged continental lacustrine sediments in the Catalan Pyrenees have attracted a few guesses as to their identification, including serpulids and brain casts. Tom Yancey from Texas A&M is more certain that they are small coprolites, corroborating one of the original identifications. Tom states that the twisted form and striations are typical for aquatic coprolites and that the Catalan specimens are not too different from the famous late Miocene Wilkes Fm. coprolites in Washington State, USA. The occurrence in lacustrine sediments is appropriate for this type of coprolite. Tom suggests that their white colour suggests they are replaced by siderite, as most of the twisted coprolites are siderite replacements.

Please send insights to Cris Little.



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