LICHENLIKE DUBIOFOSSILS FROM SANDSTONE COBBLES FROM THE MISSOURI OZARKS

Black sandstone cobbles and boulders ocurring on boulder bars of the West Fork of Black River, Reynolds County Missouri yield puzzleing fossil-like impressions which suggests a leathery-like organism such as a lichen. The exact source of these boulders is unknown, however their lithology resembles certain Precambrian tuffaceous sandstones which occur in the St. Francois Mts. and they may be Precambrian in age. Examination of the material by various workers on Ediacarian age fossils has variously considered them pseudofossils as well as fossil lichens. The highly irregular Precambrian-Cambrian unconformable surface of the Ozarks may have locally preserved the sediments which yield these dubiofossils.