This really isn't a mystery; it's a pseudo! I collected this at the Breakheart Reservation located in Saugus/Wakefield, Massachusetts. I was taking a field geology course at Boston College, and this was our first field experience. We officially went out once a week with the prof, then we were required to be at a certain point by the next class. That usually meant at least one other trip to the site during the week on our own. The Breakheart is all igneous rocks. Therefore I was quite surprised to find this "fossil." I figured I would get huge extra points for finding a fossil fern in igneous rock, maybe even a Nobel Prize! Well . . . that wasn't the case. I was used as an example in the next class on how an inexperienced field geologist can be fooled. This is a pseudofossil. They come in many different varieties. This particular one is Manganese dendrites growing on some sort of igneous matrix.

I found this Manganese dendrite   while I was cleaning out my fossil cabinet in my old classroom. Its origin is lost in time. I have no idea where it came from.

I also found this Manganese dendrite   while I was cleaning out my fossil cabinet in my old classroom.  I vaguely remember this as being a beach stone that a student brought in. It fell to the floor, shattered, and this great sample was exposed.

Return to Mystery Fossils Page to see  high resolution images of these pseudofossils.

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