Interesting spheres from Ediacaran fossil Matrix

[dinodragon]

Here are two closeup photos of the dirt (matrix) I have when I prepared the Ediacaran macro body fossils. No chemical procedure was used. Just took the dirt and sieved thru 120 mesh screen and placed under my Digi Micro Scope, set at 230x+ (max. magnification), captured with WebCam VideoCap program (resolution set at 2560x1920 -- by the way, the captions in the photos were mistakenly typed as 2360x1920).

What caught my eyes was the spheres, which have a small circular 8 LED reflections from my digital microscope. (Wish have a way to avoid that!)

Anyway, these spheres are very interesting. I think these are some fossilized micro organisms of the Ediacaran Period. I don't think there are sand grains (inorganic origin). On the first photo, to the upper and lower right, broken spheres can be seen.

Any help to interpret these will be highly appreciated. Also, any suggestion for improving the photo quality as well as research method are also appreciated.

[Joe Botting]

Ok.... these are weird. On the plus side for them being organic is the homogeneous structure and hollow centre. On the negative is that they seem to be made of quartz, which is very rarely found replicating soft or organic tissues (although it does happen under certain weird chemical conditions). If it's not quartz, then it gets even stranger.
There are few ways I know of forming hollow quartzy spheroids, and the only likely one is probably microgeodes - weathered-out partial infills of gas bubbles or other hollows (e.g. dissolved acritarchs) in a rock. There are of course some things taht secrete silica directly, but I've never come across anything with a solid-walled, hollow spheroid, and biogenic silica itself tends to dissolve or recrystallise.
Alternatively, could these be melt droplets (tektites or volcanic)? I've not heard of them being hollow, but I wouldn't like to say it was impossible, if there were gas bubbles involved.
Lucy suggests a bimineralic structure, with quartz growing around something like calcite, which has been lost from the broken ones through weathering. You could check this by breaking a couple and seeing if those are hollow too.

If you can get accurate measurements, I'd be interested to see a graph of diameter against wall thickness. That should at least tell us whether they're organic in origin. Look in your other size fractions, too - how big do they get? Anything statistical can help with this sort of thing. Otherwise, SEM or thin-section images would help enormously, or at least a chemical test to see what they're made of (you could rule out calcite with some weak acid). If it's in loose sediment I wouldn't assume they're Ediacaran in age... it's amazing what contamination gets into things!

[dinodragon]

The verdict:

I know April Fool's day is not here yet, but ...

The following picture was the glass sand I used in some of my preparations from my micro blaster. Somehow, these glass beads got 'contaminated' into the removed matrix dirt.

I just made a big fool of myself. Ya-bee! Don't laugh.

[reighan]

Sorry, Tim. I couldn't help laughing (with you, not at you). It's comforting to know these things don't happen only to beginners. As usual, I learned a lot from the discussion. Besides.... they are pretty. :-)

Reighan

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Keep on looking Tim... you will find what you are looking for.. at least the sphere objects have been identified... one less variable.
PL

[Joe Botting]

Thanks for letting us know! (Personally, I'd have been tempted to keep quiet...) ;-D

[dinodragon]

Thanks guys. I'm learning in every event.

I think one more thing I will do. Carefully chip off some matrix from what I have, grind to powder, and then look under my digital microscope again. This time, I'll do whatever I can to prevent the contamination, at least from my sand blasting glass beads.

So, stay tuned ...

[dinodragon]

So, here is one photos of 'pure matrix'.

Just wonder what the elongate black smooth thing is? The distance between two horizontal black line is 1 mm.

Can I get some helps on how to prep. the matrix for microscopic examination?