Can anyone help me with guesses as to what the object labelled ‘mystery fossil’ on this page is?
http://www.ozibushpics.com/gallery/Flora?&page=3
Found by an acquaintance of mine on a beach in Southern Australia, that’s about all I know of it. I haven’t seen it IRL myself either, so I know about as much as the photos show.
My guess is a broken section of fern trunk, but I really have no idea.
According to that link, there are several mystery fossils. Of course, a good way to ID an unknown specimen is to take it to a natural history museum. If you’re not near one, then maybe the picture will do. The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is always being called upon to help amateurs ID various finds. In addition to being a public resource, their own interest in learning what else is “out there” is part of what drives their willingness to help. I once unearthed a three ounce six sided transluscent stone in a ruby mine. Thinking it might actually be an imperfect ruby, I did, in fact take it to the museum. Turned out to be a related mineral, but I was so thankful to have such a resource nearby that I promptly signed up as a member.
There are several photos, all of the same specimen.
Unfortunately it’s not my specimen. The person it belongs to is currently somewhere beyond the black stump and not within easy reach of a hospital much less as museum or univeristy.
You might have a fossil Araucaria cone. There is a lot of information about these trees, including a picture of a cone at http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph27.htm Please make sure you scan all the way through the web page to get a look at a fossil.
Araucaria were cone bearing plants that were major components of past forests, and their cones are often well preserved.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the input sunstone. I thought about some sort of fruiting body, in fact my first guess was a cycad ‘flower’, but the spiral patterns appear too irregular for that. Gymnosperm cones I’ve seen all have that perfectly regular spiral pattern you can see in your link. This specimen, while it has those spiral whorls, is very irregular, which is what made me suspect a stem rather than a fruit.
Of course this is well outside my field so you may be right.
However, it looks ver much like a fossilized Salak fruit:
http://pharm1.pharmazie.uni-greifswald.de/systematik/7_bilder/yamasaki/yamas457.jpg
Although it resembles the nut of Metroxylon: