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Showing results for tags 'Cenomanian'.
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I already wrote about in a previous trip report back in September, but I thought it worth posting here as well (I'll link the original trip report below). I'm proud to say that as of last October I was able to donate my first fossil to science - a life-long goal of mine since I was a kid! The mosasaur vertebra I found has the potential to be one of the oldest known to science, or at the very least one of the oldest found in North America. I donated it to SMU's collection after correspondence with Dr. Mike Polcyn as it only seemed right that one of the leading experts on early mosasaurs should have it. Alongside the vertebra I also donated two Ptychodus teeth found within the same shale layer to assist in the dating process. Basal Mosasaurid (anterior caudal vertebra) Upper Cretaceous (Middle Cenomanian) Lake Waco Formation Central Texas - found on September 15, 2022 Donated October 14, 2022 to Southern Methodist University ^ @Jared C and I recently returned to the site to collect unweathered bentonite to assist in the dating process. I haven't taken the several bags we filled up to SMU to deliver to Dr. Polcyn yet but plan to do so soon.
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From the album: Texas Cenomanian (Cretaceous)
Cretoxyrhina mantelli Cenomanian Texas- 1 comment
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From the album: Grayson/Del Rio Formation
Anomoeodus sp., Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Apr, 2023-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Enchodus sp., Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Aug, 2022-
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Hello, I just signed up here because I am looking for fossil data on the Cenomanian North African hybodont Distobatus nutiae. Information on it has proven to be elusive and I do not have the means to access the article in which it was first described. I am particularly interested in information relevant to the potential size and diet of this species. While I'm at it, in my research I've also noticed that hybodont reconstructions even of the same genus (such as Hybodus) are variously reconstructed with either one or two pairs of cranial claspers. Is it clear from the fossil data how many pairs of cranial claspers male hybodonts were equipped with? Did it vary at the family, genus, or even species level? Hopefully this is the right area of the forum to seek this information, thanks in advance.
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Hi all, it's been a minute since I've written a report and I think I'm due To start: This last January I got to be a part of two special discoveries in the marine reptile realm. Though not made directly by me, I'm still glad I got to be there. I'll detail them below: Early January: Last summer, I spent two weeks in North Dakota on the Hell Creek formation, and made some lifelong friends. Two of them (Harry and Piper) arranged a trip down from North Dakota and Florida, respectively, upon the discovery of cheap flight tickets, with the intent of catching up and taking a tour of the Texas Cretaceous. Our weekend was spent well - many laughs, drinks, mishaps (like my catalytic converter getting stolen ), long drives admiring the city lights in my parent's car that they graciously lended me for the remainder of the weekend, and of course....plenty of fossils. The first day was spent gravel hunting - not much came to show from it save for a well preserved (for these creeks) mosasaur vertebra. I was of course very happy to see this, as verts in this watershed are a rarity. The next two days were devoted to the Eagle Ford - one site being a bust on stuff that's worth flying down for - but the next site which we attacked on Sunday produced the best find of the trip. This site is my "if we get skunked, it's our last resort" site - there's always something wonderful to be seen there, and when you have a site like that in your back pocket, it's not something to pillage - best kept for special occasions like this! My hope was that I could get Piper and Harry hooked on some beautifully preserved Cretoxyrhina and Ptychodus, and, if we were lucky.... a Pliosaur tooth. What Piper actually ended up finding was so rare it wasn't even one of my list of realistic goals for seeing that day... We arrived at the site, and while I tried to isolate the elusive fossiliferous layer, I put them on some sections that still had some promise. For both of them, all of their prior field experience is in the North Dakota badlands - so even the act of tapping actual rock and flipping slabs made for an enjoyable and novel approach. After 20 minutes or so, I eventually found the sweet spot - that thin, ephemeral, densely packed layer was underwater. Making a huge mess (mud and water everywhere ), I pulled out some great slabs and passed them out to be picked at, and then picking at some of my own. Here's a fun selection of finds prior to "the big one" Above: Cretoxyrhina mantelli tooth from Piper in the less rich layers. She found this nearly immediately! A gorgeous Ptychodus occidentalis that I was happy to see A Protosphyraena sp. I was happy to see as well. Largely complete teeth from this taxon are not too common for me. a PERFECT Squalicorax falcatus. It may be a common shark, but I love finding a beacon that can just define an entire species in my collection. I have some other smaller, perfect condition teeth for S. falcatus, but they take on a more posterior position in the mouth. For now, this tooth is my Squalicorax pride and joy. Some microteeth showed themselves as well, like this one above. With that size it's hard for me to make a judgment on genus here. Finally, one rock had a trip-maker. I handed a slab to Piper, turned my back to continue "mining", and immediately hear a casual "I think this is something cool". Laying loosly on the slab, ready to come flying off with the slightest disturbance, was THIS: A Coniasaur jaw! That's code for "stupid rare". Here is the specimen under better lighting. Those familiar with North American Coniasaurs may notice something unusual - that it's definitely not the North American Coniasaurus crassidens that most Coniasaur finds here get thrown into. With what's described, that leaves the more conventionally European C. gracilodens, and that doesn't look like a definitive match to me either. For Coniasaurs, it wouldn't be saying anything very extraordinary, as Coniasaur taxonomy has not been properly recorded, but this might belong to one of those coniasaur morphologies floating around without a description. This specimen needs to be looked at under a microscope before a definitive assessment is made though. Here's a graphic I composed for it (note none of the pictures are mine though). On the left (A, B, and C) is Coniasaurus gracilodens, on the right (E and F) is Coniasaurus crassidens. Notice that Coniasaur paleoart is even rarer than the actual animal, so I used art of some other Dolichosaur. It does a good job of representing what Coniasaurus would have looked like anyway. It was a wonderful find to wrap a wonderful weekend, and this fossil will probably make its way to SMU next. If the folks there don't find it useful for the Coniasaur research they have rolling, it'll make its way back to Florida with Piper. Fast forward a week: After one weekend spent fossil hunting a hard, another good one was on the way. This time, my weekend would be devoted to exploring the cenomanian Plesiosaur digsite from July, in search of more bone. My dig partner for the weekend was George, who I met briefly at SMU once by chance, where he was asking around on how to get involved. Unfortunately @Ptychodus04, who (with Joe) I found the specimen with in July, couldn't make it out this time. With his current prep project of a one of a kind green river bird, I can't blame him . It was suggested I show George the ropes the next time I go to my plesiosaur digsite. That might have been a little cruel and unusual, considering how difficult and dangerous that site is, but as you'll soon see, it was well worth it - but not for the reasons you'd expect. We spent two days on the site - one half day digging away overburden, followed by a night in a smoky motel-8, and then the next day more tediously removing small chunks of matrix from the cavity at the bone level. In short, we moved maybe 8 inches further into the cavity, with no bone spotted. As I was hunched over, chipping away, George moved further to the right by some feet to explore for a wayward flipper. This was his first field experience, and he crushed it, breezing through the first slabs as he moved in. It did not take long until he let out a triumphant yell. Thankful to stand up, I came over to take a peek at what he had found in his slab, and went completely silent. It seemed to me that we were looking at a mosasaur tooth... As a reminder, this is (middle?) cenomanian strata - several million years older than the oldest american mosasaurs. Before we call it though, Polcyn is going to evaluate and prep the tooth personally. But, from photos and my own pre-prep observations, we're both optimistic that it's mosasaur. Next up will be some sampling of bentonite layers for a more precise date. Here are some photos: With that find, the day was a success, even though we didn't find more of the Plesiosaur. George and I turned around and started heading home. We had time, so I wanted to make a pit stop to explore a different creek which seemed to have interesting geology after I cross referenced google and geological maps. Fortunately, it didn't take along to find a perfect access point, and from there it didn't take long to find a large shale exposure. This was in the upper eagle ford formation, close to the contact with the Austin chalk, so I was hoping to find the legendary Kamp Ranch shark tooth lenses. We got stopped short by mud and private property though, and we were anyway making slow progress because the geology up until that point was just too interesting. So, we settled down and begin moving into a hill. Much to my surprise, we began finding in abundance one of the last fossils I expect to see in the eagle ford - ammonites. The average ammonite we'd see looked like this - detailed but otherwise in poor condition: Some other good specimens began appearing, thought still flattened: After 30 minutes, we eventually came across a a partially 3D specimen: This was a welcome change from being hunched over for hours in hard rock searching for a humongous marine reptile. This day, we got the best of both worlds! For now, I'm stuck between Colignoniceras woolgari or Prionocyclus sp. as Prionocyclus hyatti also looks convincing. Suggestions are welcome Those were the January highlights, but I would like to take a moment on a February find as well- my first Saleniid ever. Other male fossil hunters might relate to me with this one. When you're this hopelessly obsessed with the hobby, your brain can come up with few date ideas more appropriate than dragging a pretty girl through some muddy creek to look for sea urchins with you. In retrospect, always a terrible idea, but if she sticks it out you found the one Fortunately we didn't get skunked, so she didn't think I was crazy - because we actually made a good find I wasn't expecting. This site is the legendary Comanche Peak shale micro site that I've praised on a few trip reports before. Between my step brother and I, two Tetragramma (one of them gargantuan) have been found, and dozens of Heteraster - but all in the tiny shale section. The shales are encased in limestone, which I noted to be decidedly more barren in previous visits. But, this time - I almost immediately noticed a wonderful geometric pattern in the limestone roof above me: BOOM! I was definitely ecstatic about this. Careful chiseling got it out safely, in a condition to be prepped at home: Pre-prep, I'm tentatively assigning it to Leptosalenia mexicana. For the prep, I think I'll have to use acid for the first time, painting the exposed urchin in paraloid and dunking the rest in vinegar for a day, water for a day, and then repeating. If anyone has a tip or trick that they like for acid prepping urchins, I'm all ears On a total side note, we made an even rarer discovery soon after - though not a fossil. After moving on from the sea urchin spot, we found a newly made walkway that ran by the most perfect, untouched climbing boulder I have ever seen. For anyone reading this who also boulders, you would agree that boulders that have flat landings, excellent top-outs, and solid holds, all while being aesthetically beautiful... are very rare. To find one that is easily accessible and undiscovered by other climbers? That's like finding a unicorn. Here's the unicorn in quesiton: The day after I threw myself at this boulder for a few hours, cleaning the holds and finding routes. I had a dream about it for two nights in a row And so, that was my month. I've been busy, but thankfully not nearly as busy as last semester, so many weekends still give me time to get back out in the field. I have a killer Coniacian spot in mind I want to explore soon, so hopefully I'll be back with a success story. Hope you all get a chance to kick it in the field soon!
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Unbelievable pterosaur diversity in this part of North Africa. This paper describes a unique small, long-beaked pterosaur from the Kem Kem Group of Morocco. Does not appear to be named. Paywalled https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667120303293
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Is this really a mosquito, does anyone know it's taxonomy and does someone know the same for the spider ? This one looks like a genuine amber
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Ptychodus anonymous, Dallas Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Feb, 2023 Tiny little tooth, but my first ptychodus from DFW!- 1 comment
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Hi all, it's been a minute since I've written a report and I think I'm due To start: This last January I got to be a part of two special discoveries in the marine reptile realm. Though not made directly by me, I'm still glad I got to be there. I'll detail them below: Early January: Last summer, I spent two weeks in North Dakota on the Hell Creek formation, and made some lifelong friends. Two of them (Harry and Piper) arranged a trip down from North Dakota and Florida, respectively, upon the discovery of cheap flight tickets, with the intent of catching up and taking a tour of the Texas Cretaceous. Our weekend was spent well - many laughs, drinks, mishaps (like my catalytic converter getting stolen ), long drives admiring the city lights in my parent's car that they graciously lended me for the remainder of the weekend, and of course....plenty of fossils. The first day was spent gravel hunting - not much came to show from it save for a well preserved (for these creeks) mosasaur vertebra. I was of course very happy to see this, as verts in this watershed are a rarity. The next two days were devoted to the Eagle Ford - one site being a bust on stuff that's worth flying down for - but the next site which we attacked on Sunday produced the best find of the trip. This site is my "if we get skunked, it's our last resort" site - there's always something wonderful to be seen there, and when you have a site like that in your back pocket, it's not something to pillage - best kept for special occasions like this! My hope was that I could get Piper and Harry hooked on some beautifully preserved Cretoxyrhina and Ptychodus, and, if we were lucky.... a Pliosaur tooth. What Piper actually ended up finding was so rare it wasn't even one of my list of realistic goals for seeing that day... We arrived at the site, and while I tried to isolate the elusive fossiliferous layer, I put them on some sections that still had some promise. For both of them, all of their prior field experience is in the North Dakota badlands - so even the act of tapping actual rock and flipping slabs made for an enjoyable and novel approach. After 20 minutes or so, I eventually found the sweet spot - that thin, ephemeral, densely packed layer was underwater. Making a huge mess (mud and water everywhere ), I pulled out some great slabs and passed them out to be picked at, and then picking at some of my own. Here's a fun selection of finds prior to "the big one" Above: Cretoxyrhina mantelli tooth from Piper in the less rich layers. She found this nearly immediately! A gorgeous Ptychodus occidentalis that I was happy to see A Protosphyraena sp. I was happy to see as well. Largely complete teeth from this taxon are not too common for me. a PERFECT Squalicorax falcatus. It may be a common shark, but I love finding a beacon that can just define an entire species in my collection. I have some other smaller, perfect condition teeth for S. falcatus, but they take on a more posterior position in the mouth. For now, this tooth is my Squalicorax pride and joy. Some microteeth showed themselves as well, like this one above. With that size it's hard for me to make a judgment on genus here. Finally, one rock had a trip-maker. I handed a slab to Piper, turned my back to continue "mining", and immediately hear a casual "I think this is something cool". Laying loosly on the slab, ready to come flying off with the slightest disturbance, was THIS: A Coniasaur jaw! That's code for "stupid rare". Here is the specimen under better lighting. Those familiar with North American Coniasaurs may notice something unusual - that it's definitely not the North American Coniasaurus crassidens that most Coniasaur finds here get thrown into. With what's described, that leaves the more conventionally European C. gracilodens, and that doesn't look like a definitive match to me either. For Coniasaurs, it wouldn't be saying anything very extraordinary, as Coniasaur taxonomy has not been properly recorded, but this might belong to one of those coniasaur morphologies floating around without a description. This specimen needs to be looked at under a microscope before a definitive assessment is made though. Here's a graphic I composed for it (note none of the pictures are mine though). On the left (A, B, and C) is Coniasaurus gracilodens, on the right (E and F) is Coniasaurus crassidens. Notice that Coniasaur paleoart is even rarer than the actual animal, so I used art of some other Dolichosaur. It does a good job of representing what Coniasaurus would have looked like anyway. It was a wonderful find to wrap a wonderful weekend, and this fossil will probably make its way to SMU next. If the folks there don't find it useful for the Coniasaur research they have rolling, it'll make its way back to Florida with Piper. Fast forward a week: After one weekend spent fossil hunting a hard, another good one was on the way. This time, my weekend would be devoted to exploring the cenomanian Plesiosaur digsite from July, in search of more bone. My dig partner for the weekend was George, who I met briefly at SMU once by chance, where he was asking around on how to get involved. Unfortunately @Ptychodus04, who (with Joe) I found the specimen with in July, couldn't make it out this time. With his current prep project of a one of a kind green river bird, I can't blame him . It was suggested I show George the ropes the next time I go to my plesiosaur digsite. That might have been a little cruel and unusual, considering how difficult and dangerous that site is, but as you'll soon see, it was well worth it - but not for the reasons you'd expect. We spent two days on the site - one half day digging away overburden, followed by a night in a smoky motel-8, and then the next day more tediously removing small chunks of matrix from the cavity at the bone level. In short, we moved maybe 8 inches further into the cavity, with no bone spotted. As I was hunched over, chipping away, George moved further to the right by some feet to explore for a wayward flipper. This was his first field experience, and he crushed it, breezing through the first slabs as he moved in. It did not take long until he let out a triumphant yell. Thankful to stand up, I came over to take a peek at what he had found in his slab, and went completely silent. It seemed to me that we were looking at a mosasaur tooth... As a reminder, this is (middle?) cenomanian strata - several million years older than the oldest american mosasaurs. Before we call it though, Polcyn is going to evaluate and prep the tooth personally. But, from photos and my own pre-prep observations, we're both optimistic that it's mosasaur. Next up will be some sampling of bentonite layers for a more precise date. Here are some photos: With that find, the day was a success, even though we didn't find more of the Plesiosaur. George and I turned around and started heading home. We had time, so I wanted to make a pit stop to explore a different creek which seemed to have interesting geology after I cross referenced google and geological maps. Fortunately, it didn't take along to find a perfect access point, and from there it didn't take long to find a large shale exposure. This was in the upper eagle ford formation, close to the contact with the Austin chalk, so I was hoping to find the legendary Kamp Ranch shark tooth lenses. We got stopped short by mud and private property though, and we were anyway making slow progress because the geology up until that point was just too interesting. So, we settled down and begin moving into a hill. Much to my surprise, we began finding in abundance one of the last fossils I expect to see in the eagle ford - ammonites. The average ammonite we'd see looked like this - detailed but otherwise in poor condition: Some other good specimens began appearing, thought still flattened: After 30 minutes, we eventually came across a a partially 3D specimen: This was a welcome change from being hunched over for hours in hard rock searching for a humongous marine reptile. This day, we got the best of both worlds! For now, I'm stuck between Colignoniceras woolgari or Prionocyclus sp. as Prionocyclus hyatti also looks convincing. Suggestions are welcome Those were the January highlights, but I would like to take a moment on a February find as well- my first Saleniid ever. Other male fossil hunters might relate to me with this one. When you're this hopelessly obsessed with the hobby, your brain can come up with few date ideas more appropriate than dragging a pretty girl through some muddy creek to look for sea urchins with you. In retrospect, always a terrible idea, but if she sticks it out you found the one Fortunately we didn't get skunked, so she didn't think I was crazy - because we actually made a good find I wasn't expecting. This site is the legendary Comanche Peak shale micro site that I've praised on a few trip reports before. Between my step brother and I, two Tetragramma (one of them gargantuan) have been found, and dozens of Heteraster - but all in the tiny shale section. The shales are encased in limestone, which I noted to be decidedly more barren in previous visits. But, this time - I almost immediately noticed a wonderful geometric pattern in the limestone roof above me: BOOM! I was definitely ecstatic about this. Careful chiseling got it out safely, in a condition to be prepped at home: Pre-prep, I'm tentatively assigning it to Leptosalenia mexicana. For the prep, I think I'll have to use acid for the first time, painting the exposed urchin in paraloid and dunking the rest in vinegar for a day, water for a day, and then repeating. If anyone has a tip or trick that they like for acid prepping urchins, I'm all ears On a total side note, we made an even rarer discovery soon after - though not a fossil. After moving on from the sea urchin spot, we found a newly made walkway that ran by the most perfect, untouched climbing boulder I have ever seen. For anyone reading this who also boulders, you would agree that boulders that have flat landings, excellent top-outs, and solid holds, all while being aesthetically beautiful... are very rare. To find one that is easily accessible and undiscovered by other climbers? That's like finding a unicorn. Here's the unicorn in quesiton: The day after I threw myself at this boulder for a few hours, cleaning the holds and finding routes. I had a dream about it for two nights in a row And so, that was my month. I've been busy, but thankfully not nearly as busy as last semester, so many weekends still give me time to get back out in the field. I have a killer Coniacian spot in mind I want to explore soon, so hopefully I'll be back with a success story. Hope you all get a chance to kick it in the field soon!
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From the album: Grayson/Del Rio Formation
Goniophorus scotti, Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Dec, 2022- 1 comment
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From the album: Grayson/Del Rio Formation
Cretalamna catoxodon, Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Jan, 2023-
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From the album: Grayson/Del Rio Formation
Fish Vertebra, Denton Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Jan, 2023-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Vertebrate coprolites, Dallas Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Jan, 2023 Coprolites with articulated(?) bony fish inclusions. High quality vertebrate coprolites, bentonite layers, and tan/buff coloration are characteristic of the Turner Park Member of the Britton Formation of North Texas.-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Ptychodus anonymous, Travis Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022-
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Scapanorhynchus raphiodon, Bouldin Flags
Mikrogeophagus posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Scapanorhynchus raphiodon, Travis Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Squalicorax falcatus, Travis Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Ptychodus occidentalis, Travis Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022-
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From the album: Eagle Ford Group
Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Travis Co. Cenomanian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022-
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Here's a tooth I bought at the gem show back in the days when Moroccan vertebrate stuff was starting to appear at Tucson and other shows. I've been meaning to show it to people for years. It's from the Kem Kem Beds (Cenomanian), Taouz area, Morocco. It's about 61mm long with cutting edges that appear to be slightly crenulated rather than finely-serrated. It's oval in cross-section on the root end but the crown becomes blade-like toward the tip so it is somewhat labiolingually compressed. I assume it's a crocodile tooth but thought it might have a small chance at being from a dinosaur. I'll hit up the "Kem Kem regulars" for comment but am interested what others say as well. @Troodon @Haravex @LordTrilobite Thanks, Jess
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Here's a specimen bought at the gem show back in the days when Moroccan vertebrate stuff was starting to appear at Tucson and other shows. It's from the Kem Kem Beds (Cenomanian), Taouz area, Morocco like that other crocodile-like tooth I showed here several days ago.. This one is just under 2 3/8 inches (59mm) long with long folds/ridges of what appears to be enamel along its length so I think it's a tooth. Some of the folds end part of the way to the tip. There are spots where these folds are chipped revealing a rather smooth layer. It shows wear at the tip. I think it's some kind of crocodile though it seems rather slender for that and I would expect it to be more hollow (view at the root end provided). I'm wondering it actually belongs to some large fish. Maybe it's an odd spine. @Troodon, @LordTrilobite
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Hi TFF, Last week the GF and I went for the holy trio (geological wise ), the turonian, cenomanian and albian. It's simply amazing that in a relatively short stretch of cliffs you can find all three. Driving our way there it seemed like the UK also had some decent weather that day as it was quite visible. We first hit the turonian. On the way there you can find santonian(?) deposits which produce some nice flint urchins. I'm usually looking for big ammonites like lewesiceras or mammites. Only two small examples were found that we did not take home. In-situ weathered lewesiceras. For the good eyes amongst us, an i-situ mammites nodosoides. Unfortunately a very flat compressed example At some point a nautilus 'belly' poked out, fairly uncommon and a pleasant find. I believe it's eutrephoceras. Not much later I made a little squeak. We don't find these often here. Meanwhile the GF was very pleased finding another nautilus. Albian deposits drift off towards cenomanian and turonian plates. The next day we were welcomed with a nice rainbow. You see why they call it the 'white nose / blanc-nez'. These visible layers are cenomanian. I hoped for the gault layers (which would be on the other side of the picture) but only some ex situ albian layers were exposed. These are full of pyrite and little ammonites (anahoplites). Sometimes bigger pyrite specimens can be found like this partial beudanticeras. To my surprise something else was just waiting to be picked up. Pretty rare and well sought after. Surrounded by pyrite and ammonites. On the way back we managed to pick up a little acanthoceras. And a final picture
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Fossil hunting weekend to Falaises des Vaches Noires (Jurassic of France) + museum visit
ziggycardon posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi everyone! Last week we went on a weekend trip with our fossil club the BVP to go on a fossil hunt to the jurassic clay cliffs "Falaises de Vaches Noires" between Houlgate & Villers-Sur-Mer in Normandy, France. https://www.paleontica.org/locations/fossil/68 The famous cliffs of Vaches Noires date back to the Jurassic period, and span both the Callovian & Oxfordian stages (166 - 157 mya) and the Cretaceous period spanning the Cenomanian (100 - 94 mya). Back in the jurassic this area was a rich marine environment and fossils that can be found here are many species of bivalves (like Gryphaea, Lopha & Myophorella), ammonites, gastropods, belemnites, brachiopods, crinoïds, sponges and other invertebrates. The cliffs are also known for marine reptile material and even dinosaur material, though these finds are rather rare but you'll see some nice pieces in the museum pics later. We arrived Thursday afternoon (november 3th) and stayed to Sunday (november 6th). We were very happy to join this trip organized by our club since it is probably the last year that fossil searching is allowed in this amazing location. We were with around 27 people I believe and met each morning at the entrance of the beach at Houlgate. We searched the cliffs for 2 days and went to the local museum "paleospace" on sunday. The weather was amazing for the 2 days of searching, it was even sunny the first day! The first few hours we mainly searched among the rocks on the beach which were littered with large Gryphaea fossils and other bivalves like Lopha gregarea. After our lunch break we moved on to search more near the clay to find smaller fossils. On our second day we again searched the clay, went through some interesting places in the sand which were littered with oysters, gastropods and had some ammonite and crinoïd fossils and we ended the day at the cenomanian rocks in search for some fossil urchins. The Cenomanian rocks on the beach A piece a chalcedony A partial ammonite Me very happy with my first complete ammonite, which I found next to me while having lunch One of the mystery fossils which nobody could really determine (we brought it home along another we found) The tubes seem to be pyritised. I believe it to be some kind of Echinoderm and someone suggested it might be a Crinoïd with a parasite on it. But eventually our top finding (and the best of the entire trip) was spotted by my girlfriend Elise and is this gorgeous fish (probably Lepidotes sp.)- 30 replies
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A Day of Micromorph Ammonites, Shark Teeth, and Urchins in the Grayson Marl Formation of North Texas
Aidan Campos posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Here are just some of my finds from a day spent in the Graysonites wacoense Zone, Grayson Marl Formation, Washita Group of north Texas (Lower Cenomanian, ~97mya) last Sunday, November 13th. This is my second visit to the site, which is equivalent to and faunally almost identical to the Del Rio micromorph exposures of further south, today only present at a couple sites in the DFW area. Starting off with the first find which happened to be my first complete (sans spines and Aristotle’s lantern of course), and largest Goniophorus scotti (Goniophoridae) urchin: Parasmilia graysonensis (Caryophyliidae) coral A beautiful little Haimirichia amonensis (Haimirichiidae) shark tooth: Ex-situ photo of the H. amonensis: A couple more Goniophorus scotti (Goniophoridae) urchins: Coenholectypus nanus (Holectypidae) urchin: Crushed C. nanus: The most abundant fossil to be found, progenic dwarf Mariella bosquensis (Turrilitidae) ammonites: Progenic dwarf Mariella rhacioformis (Turrilitidae) ammonite with distinctive strong ribbing: A very tiny Goniophorus scotti (Goniophoridae) urchin: Turritella irrorata (Turritellidae) gastropod: Two teeth of Squalicorax sp. nov. (Anacoracidae), an undescribed shark from the Grayson/Del Rio Fm. of Texas: Second specimen: Progenic dwarf Mariella bosquensis (Turrilitidae) ammonite: And another nice Goniophorus scotti (Goniophoridae) urchin to finish it off:- 10 replies
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The Kem Kem Beds are full of poorly understood Dinosaurs but the isolated material that wind up in collections are beautiful. The Beds consist of three formations: Ifezouane, Aoufous and Akrabou. I believe the first one is your primary Dinosaur producing layer in the Cenomanian age. The teeth that we see bombarding us at shows and online give us clues to the spectacular dinosaurs that roamed that region. Claws give us another perspective and by associating them to other regions we obtain more hints of what they looked like. A Dinosaur that no one needs introduction is Spinosaurus. I happen to have a beautiful hand and two foot claws. A small hand claw also appears to be that of an infant Spinosaurs or another related species. Large theropod claw 5 " currently indeterminate
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