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Showing results for tags 'Somerset'.
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From the album: Bobby’s ammonites
A beautiful positive and negative Marston Marble . Promicroceras Planicosta. Marston Magna , Summerset. UK -
Went out on a hunting trip at the weekend, and came away with quite a few decent finds. These are all in-land finds from locations near Ilminster, and the finds are all from the Toarcian pediod (182-174m years ago). Please forgive me having forgotten most of the names of the ammonites, I'm not great at remembering them. This ammonite, a Dactylioceras of some kind, is covered in clay which is absolutely full of what appear to be trace fossils from worm activity. This isn't uncommon, but I've rarely seen such a vivid example. Close up: The rear of this large, crushed harpoceras is a jumble of mixed up fossil bits, which you often find in the various layers of the beacon limestone. Top left there is quite an interesting bit of shell, which looks as if it might perhaps be part of a crushed teuthid phragmocone. A nice little double-dac. This is one of the scarcer ammonites from this location (I've forgotten the name), especially at this large size. I have one or two locations I can go to and stand a chance of finding these. They are often heavily re-worked, and this specimen was obviously exposed after fossilisation and heavily rolled on the seabed. It's structurally sound, but the shell - which seems to have been originally preserved - has been almost completely worn away. Such a shame!
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Carboniferous echinoid from a Jurassic limestone. Lovenechinus, UK
TqB posted a topic in Member Collections
Lovenechinus lacazei (Julien) (most likely this species but I'm not sure if there's really enough diagnostic detail). Lower Carboniferous, probably Tournaisian. Very rare anyway but of especial interest as it is from the Jurassic Doulting Stone (Bajocian, Inferior Oolite) of Somerset, UK. This is a limestone full of Carboniferous detritus, formed when the Jurassic sea was washing up against the Mendip Hills Carboniferous high ground. (Just acquired via a dealer from an old collection that included Carboniferous coral and crinoid fragments from the same location. No other echinoids though!) 2.3cm across
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From the album: Marine reptiles and mammals
Sclerotic ring section of large unspecified ichthyosaur species, from a Somerset Jurassic site(aprx 205 mya) -
I was at Brean Down on the Somerset coast of England last week, and found various fossils on the beach there. From what it appears, most of the samples I have are from the black rock limestone of the Carboniferous period, although others are differently coloured. They may come from other parts of the coast via longshore drift, or from a point higher up in the cliff, where there are mudstones and sandstones from the upper Carboniferous. Some banded samples, although I have the suspicion at least one of them is actually striped flint. Are these some kind of burrow, or is it coral? Is this coral? (front and back images) (continued below)
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From the album: Jurassic stuff uk
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From the album: Jurassic stuff uk
Partial plesiosaur, Somerset coast, Uk.- 7 comments
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I went on a jaunt to Somerset yesterday, for a hunt around in the Beacon Limestone. These rocks are Toarcian in age (~174-182m years old). I found many of the usual ammonites, but also a couple of big surprises. First, the usual finds. These harpoceras ammonites are often very well preserved, and usually display their sutures (you'd be lucky to find one with much shell on it). It has iron deposits on it, but a bit of time in the blasting cabinet and it'll be a uniform grey (which is nicer than it sounds). Here's another harpoceras, with a small oyster attached. This will take a bit of prep to remove the plug. Often the centres aren't complete. These large examples of dactyloceras are quite common in one layer, but the larger ones almost never seem to be complete to the very centre. I sometimes pick up broken examples, because they often break along the suture lines. This one might look quite decent when I pen it and blast away the orange deposits. These jumbled up pieces of matrix are fairly common, and contain lots of ammonites. I've also very occasionally found shark fin spine fragments in them, the only vertebrate remains I have ever found in these rocks. When I spotted this, I wondered if it might be a large teuthid phragmocone, which you do (rarely) find, but it isn't. I wonder if it might be a lobster burrow? A small nautilus which has had a bit of a knock.
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Now, i found this when i was seven or eight years old, on the cut down to the beach at Kilve in Somerset, South West England. It was buried in a band of blue/ grey clay in the Psiloceras planorbis zone of the Blue Lias , Lower Jurassic. Although i'd found many lovely fossils before this was my first exceptional, "WOW!" find. I still don't know what it is and that was 45 years ago. A colonial coral colony yes, but i don't think it can be Liassic? A derived fossil from the Devonian or Carboniferous seems likely, but which one? And it shows very little signs of having been transported huge distances, as it's quite a way to the nearest relevant outcrops of those ages. Here it is :
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Triassic shark teeth from the Rhaetian bone bed of Somerset, UK
Aurelius posted a topic in Member Collections
The coast of Somerset is famous for one of the exposures of the Rhaetian Penarth formation, which is better known from Aust, where it is better exposed. It contains many reptile bones, fish scales, shark teeth, fin spines, coprolites, that sort of thing. On my last visit I didn't find any of the blocks which contain large bones, but I did find some containing large numbers of tiny teeth and very small bones. These blocks can be broken down to reveal large quantities of fossils. These teeth are absolutely tiny, some as small as 1mm across and none bigger than 3mm. They can barely be made out by the naked eye, except as a shiny black dot on the rock. 75mp panorama of one of the larger teeth (approx 3mm) I placed this tooth on a magazine to illustrate scale. The letters are standard small print.
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I was having a wander in a disused quarry in Somerset (Stocker Hole, near Radstock) which is known for carboniferous fossils. Aside from one nice crinoid block, I didn't find much - but I did come across a large pile of rock which didn't look to me as if it were from that quarry. There are many quarries in the area, and it's possible that this material is spoil which was dumped in the disused quarry, but I'm not sure. Can anyone offer any thoughts on the ages of these rocks? The area is known for carboniferous rock, but also contains Triassic and Jurassic layers. I examined quite a few of these rocks and didn't see any ammonites. Not sure what this might be.
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From the album: Marine reptiles
Ichthyosaur vertebrae from Black Ven, Charmouth, Somerset, U.K. -
My wife found this yesterday in the Marlstone of the Beacon Limestone formation in Somerset, UK. I think it must be a piece of crustacean (I believe an extremely rare, and perhaps even unheard of find in these beds). Can anyone please verify or disprove my tentative ID?
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From the album: Marine reptiles
Ichthyosaur rostrum found on beach below Black Ven, Charmouth, U.K. -
From the album: Marine reptiles
Ichthyosaur rostrum found on beach below Black Ven, Charmouth, U.K.
