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Showing results for tags 'Cambrian'.
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Went out on a dig near Utah for Modocia typicalis with Gene Boardman one of the site managers at U-Dig. Gene is a really nice guy. He gifted the first trilobite of the day to me (I asked if he was sure and he said he had a few more). We split a lot of rock. A lot of work for a few beautiful bugs. Each image is captioned. Some are out of order. This is the great Gene Boardman. What I admire the most besides his genuine personality and big grin, is that he's a tenacious fossil digger. He kept reminding me to check every rock and to keep splitting it down as far as it would go. Here he has a thin slab of Marjum shale but he was able to find the first trilobite of the day with this fine split method. Really nice guy. The Marjum was not easy to split. It kept fracturing in multiple spots. The overburden was very brittle so we had to get down into the good, red layers. Here we are letting the rock "sweat" as Gene calls it. That means you set your chisels in the rock and let it naturally split and come back later to open up the bench. Lots of hard work. Gene helps run the U-Dig site and is known around the area for his enthusiasm for hunting trilobites and other fossils. The first Modocia typicalis was recovered 2.5 hrs. into the dig. It's small but complete and has some decent features. This is Gene's finest Modocia typicalus in his shop. He did an excellent preparation job. This big Modocia (over an inch) probably isn't a full specimen but has some great features. This smaller Modocia popped out of the same slab as the larger one. You can see it's impression on the left side. Another of Gene's Modocias. Gene gifted this M. typicalis after our days labors. Boy was I happy!
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From the album: Utah
Modocia typicalis from the Marjum formation. Gifted from Gene Boardman. -
From the album: Utah
Modocia typicalis from the Marjum formation. Gifted from Gene Boardman. -
From the album: Utah
Modocia typicalis from the Marjum formation. Gifted from Gene Boardman. -
From the album: Utah
Modocia typicalis from the Marjum formation. Gifted from Gene Boardman. -
Gene gifted this Modocia to me. Although it's not complete it's a fine specimen with some excellent details. I did gift him a box of fossils from Ohio and Maryland so I'll count this as a trade. These trilobites are relatively rare to find intact and complete. Gene claims one is found every 8-10 hours in the Marjum. The Marjum is brittle and unforgiving. Care must be taken to preserve these specimens in the field.
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Gene recovered this M. typicalis in excellent condition and gifted it to me while out in the field.
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New treasure trove of Cambrian soft-bodied fossils found in China
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Half the species in a new Cambrian fossil site are completely new to us John Timmer, Ars Technica, March 21, 2019 https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/spectacular-trove-of-cambrian-fossils-uncovered-in-china/ Unknown species found in new treasure trove of fossils found in China Ashley Strickland, CNN News, March 21, 2018 https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/21/world/china-new-fossils-qingjiang-scn/index.html Scientists Find Huge Trove of Marine Fossils from the 'Cambrian Explosion' in China, Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Gizmodo, March 21, 2019 https://gizmodo.com/scientists-find-huge-trove-of-marine-fossils-from-the-c-1833469727 The paper is; Fu, D, Tong, G., et al., 2019, The Qingjiang biota—A Burgess Shale–type fossil Lagerstätte from the early Cambrian of South China Science 22 Mar 2019: Vol. 363, Issue 6433, pp. 1338-1342 DOI: 10.1126/science.aau8800 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1338.full Yours, Paul H. -
I’m looking for a complete high quality Elrathia kingii still in matrix. If there are multiple on the same plate even better. I have a variety of fossils from the Chengjiang biota and several Devonian trilobites (Penn Dixie and Morocco) available for trade. PM if you’re interested! Thanks.
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I have always been quite fascinated with the early stages of development of life on Earth. My interest really picked up when I first discovered the Ediacaran biota, and who can blame me. Those creatures are so enigmatic and fascinating. I was able to pick up a few specimens, but quickly realized that my desire for fossils greatly outweighed the supply and cost of Ediacaran fossils, and I soon discovered the equally fascinating and enigmatic Lower Cambrian Chengjiang biota. I was, and still am, blown away at the quality of preservation of these soft bodied critters. A lot of specimens come very shoddily or incompletely prepared, and while it's been a steep learning curve, I feel that I'm starting to get the hang of prepping them. I've decided to start posting my latest acquisitions as these fossils are too amazing not to share. First up is Cricocosmia jinningensis, a fairly common palaeoscolecid worm from the Chengjiang biota. I have several specimens but this one is the best. It came partially prepped and I am just now satisfied with the result. You can see remnants of the gut preserved as darker regions in the center of the body. Next up is a small hash plate of Bohemiella romingeri brachiopods from the Middle Cambrian of the Czech Republic. Not my usual purchase, but I felt the specimen was too beautiful to pass up.
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I recently got a nice deal on this Leanchoilia illecebrosa specimen from the Chengjiang biota. It looked like a dorsally compressed specimen which rarely have appendages preserved, so I was just expecting to clean up all the tool marks. However, while cleaning it up, I realized that it is in fact laterally compressed, and actually quite well preserved at that! The legs are starting to come out, and part of me is hoping that other appendages might be preserved as well. All prep is done with a needle under a magnifying light. It's going slow since I need to be very careful, but it's getting there.
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New Evidence of Cambrian Worms Found by Computer Enhanced Imaging
Scylla posted a topic in Fossil News
Burgess shale-like deposit reveals cryptic fossils with implications for early sea floor oxygen availability. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-million-year-old-worm-superhighway-canada.amp- 2 replies
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I just received these small Cambrian hyoliths from China. The seller was unable to provide any specific ID, and does not know what formation they come from. All he knew was that they come from near Woniu Mountain, Linyi City, Shandong Province. They are about a quarter inch long each. Any thoughts?
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Location: The previous weekend I went out for a trip through the West MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs, NT, Australia. Along the way I stopped at a few locations and examined the rocks near the road for any signs of interesting fossils or minerals. Finally, at the location marked in figure 1.2 below I found some interesting shale / limestone formations that contained fossil, this image displays the locality of the fossils below. Figure 1.1 comes from 'Northern Territory Geological Survey, A Guide to the Geology and Landforms of Central Australia by R B Thompson, 1995, Pg. 103' and details the stratigraphic layers that run along the West MacDonnell ranges. The location of the fossils I am looking to identify was 30km east of the formations shown in figure 1.1. Figure 1.3 gives a rough estimate of how figure 1.1 and figure 1.2 relate to each other. From following the clear ridge of Arumbera Sandstone we can see that the ridge just north of the fossil locality is the Arumbera Sandstone. This means the finds are most likely from the Hugh River Shale or the Jay Creek Limestone. The unit age of the Hugh River Shale is listed as 535 - 505 Ma. These strata are part of the Amadeus Basin. Fossil: I'm unsure if the image below is a fossil created from a living organism or simply a geological feature. The small tube like structures on one surface of the rock are about 0.2-1mm in diameter and range from 1mm - 1cm in length, these can be seen on images 1-4, 1-5, 1-6 and 1-7. It can be hard to make out but the tube structures appear to be bunched into three long rectangular bands, this is best seen in images 1-5 and 1-6. The opposing surface of the rock has banded formations that line up with the groupings of tube structures, seen running vertical in image 1-1 and horizontal in 1-3. A curled lip of finely layered rock can also be seen on the same surface as the tube structures. [EDIT] From some further reading possibly Anabaritid? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228488202_The_tube_wall_of_Cambrian_anabaritids Kouchinsky, A. and Bengtson, S. 2002. The Tube Wall of Cambrian Anabaritids All image, including more finds from the same location can be seen in the One Drive link below. These could possibly shed more insight. https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ai3mV0Fc5mW7g90DyT9ZE47yaQhvQw For a better perspective of the area you can check my Google Maps which has the exact location bookmarked as "Unknown Fossil Locality 1". https://drive.google.com/open?id=17sjqvyah6GekBT8y1cUCLwsgRHj300xb Fig 1.1 (Left), Fig 1.2 (Right) Fig 1.3 1-1 1-2 1-3 1-4 1-5 1-6 1-7
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I was splitting a piece of shale from one of the formations that holds the Chengjiang biota, and found quite a few of these small things. They're no more than 2 mm in length and to the naked eye, look like small red lines. The pictures below were taken at 4x magnification (first picture above is one specimen, latter three are another specimen). First thought was some segmented worm, but I'm not super convinced. Any ideas?
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Purchased unprepared, and prepared by me.
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I’ve got some ID requests that need to be solved. First (#1) an old friend that needs to be re-evaluated I think. I know this to be solidly mid to late Cambrian in age which leads me to believe its some kind of ichofossil perhaps Cruziana. What are your thoughts?
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I recently acquired this nice algae specimen from one of the many Chinese Cambrian lagerstatten (Hongjingshao fm). The algae is preserved as a film on the shale, and unfortunately the shale is quite flaky. Several pieces of the lighter gray matrix have flaked off already, and there are quite a few other areas that look like they could fall off with the slightest bump. I can go ahead and glue the pieces that have fallen off back on, but I'd like to prevent the rest from coming off. However, I'm worried that the algae would quickly wash away if liquid touched it, especially something as harsh as acetone (if consolidated using standard methods). This is certainly the case with many fossils from similar formations. Do I have any options here?
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I was just going through a handful of Pioche Shale (Early-Middle Cambrian, Nebraska Nevada) trilo plates I bought a while ago, and found this interesting piece. I'm leaning more towards algae than worms, as they are reminiscent of the carbon film preservation of algae from Cambrian formations in China. Any thoughts?
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https://vancouversun.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/burgess-shale-fossils-add-branches-to-tree-of-life-says-royal-society-report/wcm/478ac084-90cc-4d05-950b-803b635a3bfb https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2314
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I got this from the usual place but it came with very little info (the page might have had the info but I failed to write it down and now I can't find anything on it... I sense that it will be another one of those hours-long sleuthing sessions, so I thought it's easier to ask here ) All I know is, Tsinania sp, China. I gather it's Upper Cambrian. No idea of the formation or specific location within China. Very soft powdery matrix! I can try some better pics if required.
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No better way to spend a sunny, 52 degree Georgia day than fossil collecting with my son. This is the first time in about 22 years that we have collected together. We went down to the Conasauga River in Murray County to collect Cambrian trilobites. Unfortunately the River was running high and fast and it did not make Collecting easy. I had to do some fancy climbing to get to the area that I wanted to collect. Using tree limbs to hold onto, I was able to navigate the slippery slope. I only took two pictures of partial trilobites that I found, I decided not to take any more pictures because I was worried about dropping my phone in the river. Here are some of my other finds- all Aphelaspis brachyphasis, with the exception of this first piece, I believe that this is a partial Eugonocare , I have only found one other partial one in the Times I have visited this site.
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Found associated with Elrathia kingii and Itagnostus interstricta trilobites. See field trip report here:
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Well, It's been a while. After a hiatus that has seemed like forever, my friend Barrett and I decided to head to the Conasauga to find us some bugs as neither of us really had anything to do this weekend and we both wanted to do something. This was Barrett's first time, so I was effectively his mentor for the day. First stop however, breakfast of southern hospitality at a local biscuit place! After that, we went right to the site, getting into the nitty gritty. The river wasn't flooding over, but it was pretty decently high. Of course, that wasn't stopping us. We got into our big water-proof boots and jumped right in. Barrett quickly got into the groove, finding a certain section of the formation that was producing very large and complete Aphelaspis Brachyphasis with just about every swing of the hammer and chisel. Then late into the day, I found THIS beauty: I was stunned. I had never seen an exoskeleton on a positive that complete from the formation before like this, and for a second I thought it was fake. (sidenote, while transporting it to the car not long after this picture, a portion of the tailshield's exoskeleton unfortunately got peeled off by a very light breeze into the wind. At least I got a picture! Very fragile!) There was also a negative, though honestly it was completely outshown. In the end, we didn't take a whole lot, but we definitely took a number of really good ones, including some of the largest complete Aphelaspis I've seen.
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From the album: Invertebrates
Naraoia longicaudata Zhang and Hou 1985 Early Cambrian Chengjiang Yunnan PRC
