Found in Mountain Creek (near Mt Beauty Vic)

[hoek67]

Hi, have finally got a digital microscope so have been able to look closer as a suspected fossil we found in the creek (Mountain Creek near Mt Beauty, Vic).

I know of fossils on the high plains near Falls Creek near a small coal quarry and some of the history of Mt Bogong itself. Basically it was pushed up from the ocean at a time when the land was devoid of life and basic sea life was ... about all.

From a bit of poking around the fossil looks like that of seaweed and is in layer sedimentary rock.

Please let me know if you agree etc or any extra information.

 

[MegsyB007]

Looks more like a fern leaf to me.

Cheers,
Megsy

 

[grubstake]

May not be a fossil at all, it looks a lot like dendrite crystals to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrite_(crystal)
https://natwild.com.au/products/dendrite-pseudo-fern-fossil
https://tinyurl.com/3sam3fju

 

[Pat Hogen]

Yep, it looks like dendritic seepage into the layers of the host material.

 

[user 4386]

Yep, it looks like dendritic seepage into the layers of the host material.

Also my guess. What is the rock - is it a quite a solid rock - do you have to hit it with a hammer? The rocks around Mt Beauty are almost all Early Ordovician in age and older than plants (they emerged in the mid-Ordovician but not quite like that). Also they are metamorphic rocks in which no fossils would be preserved.

I suppose there might be an extremely tiny remnant of Neogene or Palaogene sedimentary rock preserved beneath the few tiny lava remnants of similar age, but no such rocks are shown in Mountain Creek on the 250K geological map. I have not checked the 100K geology.

I am unaware of the coal that you mention and would be interested to know where it occurs. Seems very unusual for that locality.

 

[user 4386]

I checked the 50K geology from Mt Beauty up to its head - entirely high-grade metamorphic rocks and granite. Basically, so cooked that no fossil impression would survive. So my guess is dendrites.

Still like to know that coal locality though

I have attached the geology of the entire length of Mountain Creek, from the adjoining Tawonga 50K sheet in the west (b) and Mitta Mitta 50K sheet in the east (a).

 

[hoek67]

Thanks for the replies, as for the coal quarry I would not be able to tell you exactly where it is as dad just told me there was one there and had a nice piece of coal from it. It's up past Falls Creek somewhere off the main road from what I remembered. It was full of fossil shells and primitive plants.

The other REAL mystery is a definite fossil I found as a kid in the West Kiewa river opposite our house as a kid. I had no idea as to its significance back then or worse... what become of it. I was a small rock with the very clear and complete fossil of a small sardine sized fish.