Artwork (c) Duncan McIlroy showing Lydonia jiggamintia over growing another dead organism on a microbe covered seafloor. Lydonia is a yellow encrusting structure with yellow spikes on top (papillae). The (pinkish) organism is a fractal rangeomorph called Fractofusus.

In 1992 I visited the type material of #Blackbrookia in @charnwoodforest.bsky.social with my then PhD supervisor Martin Brasier and decided between us it wasn’t a body fossil but a microbial mat. In 2008 Blackbrookia was used to describe pimply structures from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social

large obovate fossils from Discovery geopark covered in mesh like textures or pimples (previously called Blackbrookia and informally “pimply melons”) surrounded by many rounded fractal like Fractofusus andersoni

detail of a “blackbrookia” showing the mesh like texture interpreted as the cross section through the base of spike like papillae

Happy #FossilFriday from Johnson Discovery Surface in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social, famous for its #Fractofusus andersoni, but which also has large enigmatic forms dubbed #Blackbrookia (now considered a pseudofossil). The JDS material is however covered in pimples or meshes not seen in the type.