Curiosity Rover Sol 356: Anomalies in the Conglomerate

This is a composite made from two right Mastcam images taken in "Darwin" on sol 356. It shows what is likely a conglomerate sediment created from ancient water flow. These sedimentary materials need a chemical cement and a powerful water pressure to move larger materials into a solid conglomerate form that resembles concrete. The sedimentary cement between the larger materials appears a little more refined than what I'm used to seeing in conglomerates, but that is, of course subjective.



NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS originals:
mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=0356MR0014510000301277E01_DXXX&s=356
mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?rawid=0356MR0014510010301278E01_DXXX&s=356

However, some of the combined materials don't look so random, like the crop below, taken from the far right side of the image. It shows what appears to be a multi-pronged object integrated with a block of material. Integrated ancient technology or natural processes?



This outcrop could be a perfect breeding ground for the mineral replacement fossil, there are a lot of strange shapes inside the sample, objects that resemble little skulls and things, also subjective, but the thing in the crop below is strange, no matter how you look at it. I'm not sure what this material is, sitting just behind the formation, but it is nothing like I've seen before and it appears to be sitting upright. Some of the object could be obfuscated from the formation itself, but what we can see is really bizarre.



Below is an enhanced enlargement of the full composite.



What do you think?

Thanks CitizenQuasar. There are some similar formations in the background of the large composite in the sol 377 GigaPan I uploaded.

www.gigapan.com/gigapans/200404