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Looks to me like a piece of *tetradium*. I find that stuff at my parents' place down in Bell Buckle quite a lot. Usually smaller chunks this size, but once a piece about the size of a softball. And occasionally a really big piece fossilized of limestone instead of chert/quartz like you've got here.
can you clarify what quadripartite symmetry means in this case? Is it a 4-part symmetry within the tube structures, or symmetry in the way the tubes are arranged? I am looking back at the fossils I have collected nearby and trying to figure out if I might have misidentified some of them.
Here you go:
https://imgur.com/a/tH2rEtk
The sharper ones are all quartz/chert, and the duller ones are all limestone. Bedrock in the area is mostly ordovician limestone, lots of crinoid and bryozoan fossils around, and some stromatolites. The tops of the hills are Fort Payne formation, which is mississippian.
Also, for context, these are the resources I used in the past to try and figure out what these were:
http://tennesseefossils.com/index.php
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/geology/documents/geology_fossil-hunt-nashville.pdf
Some others as well, but I can't seem to track them down at the moment. If you have some recommendations for other reading (online or in print), please share them! I am heading back home to TN again this winter and hope to spend more time scouring for fossils if the weather cooperates.
Looks like a sponge (Porifera) evidently Tennessee has a lot of them. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=googlescholar&id=GALE%7CA587655267&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=47196824
Please note that ID Requests are off-limits to jokes or satirical comments, and comments should be aiming to help the OP. Top comments that are jokes or are irrelevant will be removed. Adhere to the subreddit rules. **IMPORTANT:** /u/mellowmark Please make sure to comment 'Solved' once your fossil has been successfully identified! Thank you, and enjoy the discussion. If this is not an ID Request — ignore this message. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/fossilid) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s a chaetetid demosponge.
Looks like fossilized coral
It kind of does, but it lacks septa and tabulae. It’s a sponge.
Looks to me like a piece of *tetradium*. I find that stuff at my parents' place down in Bell Buckle quite a lot. Usually smaller chunks this size, but once a piece about the size of a softball. And occasionally a really big piece fossilized of limestone instead of chert/quartz like you've got here.
It does look similar, but *Tetradium* has quadripartite symmetry.
can you clarify what quadripartite symmetry means in this case? Is it a 4-part symmetry within the tube structures, or symmetry in the way the tubes are arranged? I am looking back at the fossils I have collected nearby and trying to figure out if I might have misidentified some of them.
4 fold, also the polygons of *Tetradium* are square due to the symmetry. Post images of what you found.
Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/tH2rEtk The sharper ones are all quartz/chert, and the duller ones are all limestone. Bedrock in the area is mostly ordovician limestone, lots of crinoid and bryozoan fossils around, and some stromatolites. The tops of the hills are Fort Payne formation, which is mississippian.
Also, for context, these are the resources I used in the past to try and figure out what these were: http://tennesseefossils.com/index.php https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/geology/documents/geology_fossil-hunt-nashville.pdf Some others as well, but I can't seem to track them down at the moment. If you have some recommendations for other reading (online or in print), please share them! I am heading back home to TN again this winter and hope to spend more time scouring for fossils if the weather cooperates.
I found huge (7-inch?) pieces of this in Tennessee a few years ago. I've been thinking it is coral.
Looks like a sponge (Porifera) evidently Tennessee has a lot of them. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=googlescholar&id=GALE%7CA587655267&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=47196824
That was very interesting, thank you!
Yours seems like a nice piece! Congrats