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Showing results for tags 'clay'.
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As a later summer vacation we decided to do a road trip - Tour de France. France having many interesting destinations and things to do and collecting fossils would be one of them. As we usually don’t plan our trips beyond a few days ahead also the fossil locations were decided on the road. But when reading about Carniol it became clear it was one we had to include. Other non fossil highlights of the trip were Bordeaux, the Pyrenees, Toulouse (great museum of natural history), Lyon and of course Pont du Gard. When finding out about Carniol I did some further reading on how to get there. Apparently the French drive on the very bad (not true) roads to get there like madman (true) at 90 km/h (sometimes true), the cliffs and canyons are very scary (not after the Pyrenees) and parking was also going to be a challenge (it was easy). Carniol is a tiny village and probably the fossil sites are it’s main tourist attraction although calling Carniol touristic is probably very far from reality. Near the village there are two places where the fossil rich clay is exposed and can be easily reached from the road (50-100m walk). The grey clay can be recognised from a distance so it didn’t take us long to get at the site (we only visited the western one but they are supposed to be similar). We were lucky that there was heavy rain in the days before our visit as this exposes the fossils. The downside is that the clay is very sticky and heavy and it forms a plateau under your shoes. As mentioned before the fossils are washed out of the clay and you just need to pick them up. Unfortunately larger fossils are poorly conserved and some nice pieces crumbled after picking them up. But the small fossils are many and diverse. We found lots of what we recognised like Ammonites including heteromorphs, belemnites, gastropods and bivalves like this. As I read that taking some of the clay for washing was of interest (we didn’t prepare for this) we filled an empty 5 liter water container with clay. As we had an appointment for dinner in Lyon and we were satisfied with our finds we left after about two hours. But the rest of the vacation I kept thinking about starting to wash and sort our finds. Back home it became obvious we had some nice finds even before finishing sorting everything. A big tooth my partner picked up but she didn’t recognise as such and she didn’t tell me about (Protosphyraena with a small?). From the clay we brought home, I found a jaw fragment (identified on Reddit as Saurian). Still a lot of material to go through as for now I am just grouping the finds. In due time I hope to get some help with further identification of everything although I will give it a try myself with the information already available here and on other sites.
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This jaw fragment was found when washing clay that I brought from Carniol. Cretaceous, Aptian, Gargasian. On Reddit it was identified as Saurian and I was hoping (but doubting) a more accurate identification would be possible. Really happy with this find anyhow. more information about Carniol and my trip there
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Please help me identify these finds from the bottom of a clay cliff in Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey a - 0.5cm thick, almost flat, smooth on the other side b - i think this is not a fossil but a handle of an old knife c - round in cross section d - this is hexagonal in cross section the remaining ones are all of the same kind and the beach was full of them, i guess they may not be fossils either but what are they?
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Hello everyone. My son and i are both passionate about paleontology. During our research’s, we found these stones in red clay/sand with flint dating from Cenomanian (near Chartres, France). The stones were among the remains of bivalves and sponges. All the fossils found show strong erosion. Do you think it could be fossils or just stones? Thank you
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Hey everyone, So this summer, like most summers, my family went to my grandpa's holiday house in southern France. Seeing that we had many days with nothing planned, I managed to convince them to go fossil hunting one day. At first, I wanted to go to Lacoste, a place known for its echinoids and gorgeous white scallops, but it turns out these quarries are no longer accessible. So instead we went to Carniol, which was a little further away. After only a few hours in the car we arrived at the village of Carniol. "Village" would still be considered being generous: there are no more than a dozen or so houses! And most seem abandoned too... There are two clay exposures on either side of the village, on the side of the road. They aren't hard to find, because the gray clay really stands out from the grass and trees. Both exposures are pretty much exactly the same. We started off at the first one.
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Was digging in vegetable patch in clay soil about 20cm below surface in back garden, south-east London, UK and found this little beauty! First fossil I've found without looking for one. I especially like the lower section of the right-hand image, where you can see the pattern is an imprint rather than a protrusion (not sure of the correct terminology!) Any ideas what it could be? I've provided a scale on the image. Reminds me of a worm! I can answer any questions.
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I need to make some molds, best (cheap) source of molding material?
OregonFossil posted a topic in Fossil Preparation
Mostly small fossils (think less than 20mm, many 2 to 3 mm). Maybe a pound or two. Brands on Amazon, other sources? The molds would be used to photograph for fine internal and external detail from casts. I am clueless when it comes to this. -
I am new and I have no idea what this is. Can someone please give me an educated guest at least?
Starstruck106 posted a topic in Fossil ID
This cylindrical object came from my neighbor whose mother was an avid artifact and rock collector. She had no idea what it was or when her mother found it but it was a long time ago up in the area of Carey, Idaho, on her mother's private property. The object is cylindrical with a small sway toward the middle of it. It is 4' tall and approximately 2 3/8" at the widest point. It is stone or clay colored uniformly aside from the ends where it has a brownish gold tinge and shows circles in the center of each end. It is very heavy given its size and seems dense it weighs 1 lb 6.1 oz. Any help would be appreciated on this one.
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About 500m ASL, we had fun, found a clay bank and tried for shark teeth. In the end everything was too fragile, the shells disintegrated as we extracted them and the only solid things were the infilled burrows. Thought I had to share anyway... it was a fun time. https://youtu.be/ZOMRLKpItPI and some photos of the lunk we bought out... that is crumbling fast.
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Hello everybody! In continuation of the Frozen Fossils and Frozen Fossils II topics this report covers fossil hunting in real winter, with excavating fossils from under the snow (@JamieLynn might be interested). The trips took place this week when we had a thaw with temperatures raising to +1-2 Celsius after a long period of frost (so that digging became possible). This time I visited the same site as in FF2, which is MUCH poorer than the one covered in FF1, but MIGHT yield more diverse fossils (which was unfortunately not the case).
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- ammonite
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Hey guys! so I recently went looking in an old local creek for arrowheads and came across a grapefruit sized clay rock. (Assuming it was clay due to the clay in the area) once I busted it open I got many voids and very small round objects. Any help will be much appreciated!!
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Good evening everyone depending on where you live. I'm new to rocks and fossils and I wanted to see if anyone knew what this strange rock formation may be. I live in Central Michigan where the rock was found. Attached images. Thank you much!
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Hi All, Thanks for having me here. Me and my girlfriend have recently discovered an interest in looking for fossils. Luckily for us, we have spent some time in Folkestone, England which we have discovered is pretty full of fossils in the right place. The below are a couple of finds from one afternoon down at Copt point while we were walking the dog. Any extra information about what we found would be very much appreciated. My uneducated guess is that all are ammonites except for the two specimens at the bottom, which I am completely unsure of. They all came out of a gault clay slump right where the sea meets the cliff. Is the bottom right a bone fragment? Just a rock? Again, any help is appreciated. From research the gault clay and underlying greensand is around 110 myo. Many thanks, Sam & Ro
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I am new to fossil preparation, I really want to prepare this echinoid I found on Jebel Hafeet, Al Ain, UAE. I have started prepping it with a small needle, since I don't have access to any fancy machines, but I think I just ended up damaging the fossil. The rock seems to be a type of clay, not too hard. It might also be limestone, since the area is known for its shallow marine sedimentary rocks. Should I soak it in water? Or vinegar? Should I have a go at it with my dremel?
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Hi, I am in need of advice in order to remove these bones from the field. For scale, the rib size is about 30cm and is going to the top pf the picture. My issue is that the matrix is a mix of sand and clay, very soft, and the bones are extremely fragile. Ideally i would like to remove them with the matrix but it would need to be stabilized otherwise it will fall apart. I am thinking about putting a lot of starbond on bones and matrix all around to solidify everything ? But then how to remove the plate ? By the way is it possible to remove matrix sticking to the fossil if it has been "starbonded " ?
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All of my pieces come from a creek on Crowley’s Ridge in northeast Arkansas near the Missouri border. Crowley’s Ridge is believed to be about 10,000 years old. Located as far north as New Madrid, Missouri and as far south as Wynne, Arkansas, it is believed by some to be a former bank of the Mississippi River. At some point, it may have even been an island. Some research has suggested that the ridge was affected by volcanic activity in the distant past. Today, Crowley’s Ridge is known for its gravel pits, uplifts, and bluffs which were likely caused by the New Madrid fault on which it sits. Our roads are covered with Crowley’s Ridge chert from the gravel pits. More practically-at least for me and my farming family-the ridge is partially covered with fertile, wind-blown “sandy loam.” We are rice farmers at the base of the ridge. I have explored the ridge since I was very young. The pieces I have collected were strange or out of place according to my limited perspective. I should also add that Crowley’s Ridge is Home to flora (plants) that are so far unknown to the Appalachian chain to its east and also unknown to the Ozark chain to its west. In this way, my little ridge is very unique. Memphis State University has done research on (Cretaceous?)sea fossils found in a creek bank near Wynne, Arkansas—-near the southern end of the ridge. I haven’t found those kinds of fossils in the area where I’ve explored. I learned most of the above information in a couple of upper level geography courses I had to take to fulfill my degree in Social Science. I don’t pretend to be an expert in fossils, minerals, or geology. I am here to learn about my “cool” rocks and clay.
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Hello all- I live in NC, the far Western part, but spend a lot of time in TN, at a man-made lake that was constructed as part of the TVA project, beginning in the 30s. The rocks and scenery around there have been stirred up and relocated with the construction of the lake, so it’s kind of difficult to say what ought to be where. That said, they consist mostly of rather uninteresting dolomite and quartzite in the forested areas, and then huge beach expanses of orange-tan to red to purple and even bluish clay-type slate or shale material that has hardened in spots to near-rock consistency. There are beautiful agates to be found in some banks of red clay, however, and there are also enormous, opaque, gray mudstones with intriguing shapes. I thought at first that the mudstones were some of the most boring-looking things I’d ever seen, with the utter lack of variation in their color, as if painted in dull, chalky gray, but that has changed. After attending several summers of lake recreation, I noticed that the rocks were becoming much more interesting, and paid more attention to them. It seemed that the mudstone was sloughing off of itself at a considerable rate, and that the materials that formed the center of the nodules were becoming exposed! The mudstone is gritty and slips off with repeated exposure to bioturbation, (I believe this is the correct term for tumbling by elements, no?), and as time passes, more and more fascinating things are turning up. Not all of the nodules contain a center item, but many do. Following a bit of research, I located this article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0031018281900572 ...and some others that also describe fossils being found in the middle of such mudstone formations. What really surprised me was how identical to my setting the soils and rocks sounded in the article... Here are some photos of things that have come from the mudstones... Anyone have any thoughts on what these could be?
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Hello- I was told that these strange “rocks” may actually be fossilized coral. They were found well-buried in a clay bank, in the SE US. Any thoughts or confirmation, please? Thank you!
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Good morning all!- hope you are all healthy! I found these foraminifera (my first!!!) on April 20, but took my time fishing them out of some limestone, then meticulously cleaning and prepping them. Thanks to Clear Lake for suggesting, in my first post that it looks similar to Ozawainella ciscoensis-really appreciate it! They were all found in winterset limestone in Kansas City. Researching numerous references, I found it is far more complicated identifying them, so I'll send them to someone with more expertise in i.d.s! , and am leaving them as simply Foraminifera. I i.d. them under a dissecting scope, then used 30 gauge needles to loosen them with applications of vinegar, then washed them in alternating vinegar and water, then placed them on blue clay to make them stick in place. The best one has 4 views. Just received my digital microscope and love it!! So simple and easy to use! My previous post stated it measured 458um or so, but I used the wrong objective- all of these are 860-900um in diameter. I went ahead and placed them on the fossil of the month, only because I haven't seen a lot of images on them in the forum (though I'm still looking through ).Thoughts and suggestions appreciated, and thanks for making me feel like a kid again! Hope you enjoy!- The beauty of some things simply cannot be appreciated unless you look closely!!!! Bone
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Are there ways to differentiate long neck plesiosaur bones vs. pliosaur bones*(specifically vertebrae from the kimmeridge clay in this case), other than by size, in some cases? *or any of the paddle bones
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I found this in southeast Missouri in a layer of thick reddish clay in a transitional soil area with a light gray gravel.
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This is a chunk of Michigan clay with sand and probably calcium. I do not know yet if I can do much with it other than perhaps cut down the size to have the fossils. Don't know if a hack saw would help much. all are like micro size and one looks like an Crinoid Archimedes screw 0.7 cm x 0.3 cm. I would like to know what is the tire track like tract line? 5/8th inch, or 0.1 x 1.59 cm or 15.8750 mm. Is this an actual fossil or impression left by a life form. Two are with my phone zoomed in about 1.7.
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Here's a strange one. I found plentiful piles of what I thought were casts and internal molds in the iron-rich St. Mary's clay of Virginia last year. Loose clam fossils riddled blocks of talus. I was able to wiggle some out of their ancient resting places without s much as scratching the matrix. Generally that's because the shell disintegrated, leaving a void between the mold and the cast. If you look closely, however, what looks here like an internal mold isn't. The sculpture on the surface is clearly the outside of the shell. If it were the inside, you would see round protrusions where the ligament attached to a depression in the shell, not concentric ridges. Shown here is the most distinct of my specimens, but not the only one. Any thoughts? Mercenaria campechiensis, Miocene, VIrginia
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I found this weird looking rock yesterday on a man made beach in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. I have never seen anything like it here in the UAE. It appears to be a pieces of bone in/on top of some hardened clay. On the underside there are small shells stuck inside. I would be glad to find out more about this mysterious rock.
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ESCONI recently announced a field trip to the Starved Rock Clay Pit in IL on 8/17. The layers are, from top down: Mecca Quarry Shale, Francis Creek Shale, Colchester No. 2 Coal, and paleosol. I was lucky enough to see the post in time to get on the list before it filled up. Anyone else here going? Also, I know ESCONI has been there before. Have any of you been there previously and have any tips you could share? This is my first trip to a quarry so I'm not sure what to expect.
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