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From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
12mm. long Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
2cm. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Hoellerkogel, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
Up to 4cm. long. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
13 & 20mm. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
2mm. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
10mm. long Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
These little guys are "klein aber fein" as we say in Germany. The largest one is only 4mm. long, but they sure do live up to their name. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard Here's another one below. -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
22mm. Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
15mm. long Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard -
From the album: Gastropods and Bivalves Worldwide
10mm. long Florianer Schichten Middle Miocene From Fuggaberg, Styria, Austria Thanks to Franz Bernhard Here's another one. -
Coral hunting in the Weißenegg-formation, Styria, Austria (Langhian/Badenian, Miocene) – 10/17/2019
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello! Finally, I have some time to post this fossil hunting trip from a warm and sunny day in October, 2019. Introduction The Miocene Styrian basin in Austria is mostly filled with various clastic sediments, e.g. fossil-rich “Florianer Schichten” around St. Josef. The “Mittelsteirische Schwelle”, a north-south trending high-zone of palaeozoic, slightly metamorphic rocks, however, is, in a very literal sense, the base of various biogenic carbonate rocks (“Leithakalk”). The individual carbonate bodies are of slightly different age – spanning the whole Badenian (about three Million years) - and composition. The younger ones to the north around Wildon are characterized by coralline algae and often oncoidic limestones, corals are extremely rare there. To the south, corals became locally an important part of the limestones, besides the coralline algae. No really big coral reef structures have developed, though; coral carpets and small coral batch reefs are characteristic. Various maps from the internet and literature of the visited area. 1 = Kittenberg; 2 = Hötzlweg Depositional scheme of the Weißenegg-formation around the “Mittelsteirische Schwelle”. Within the green rectangle the area of interest. Relief map of the area north of Heimschuh. Note the many very small to medium-sized quarries. Some cliffs are also visible. These corals are witness of tropical to subtropical temperatures in this area about 15 Million years ago. Coral development is considered to depend on local factors like sediment input or (non-)exposure to severe wave action during storms. Coral diversity is relatively high, with at least a dozen of genera described or mentioned. About four years ago, I have prospected the area north of Heimschuh several times for corals. My goal was to find some good coral sites. Fossils in the wild are not super-abundant in this formation, but I succeeded to find a few good spots. Corals are by far the most abundant fossil group, bivalves etc. are much rarer. (Note: there is a very large, active quarry for portland cement fabrication in Retznei nearby, that is famous for all kind of marine stuff, incl. Meg teeth and other large vertebrates.) I will present two sites that I have visited again at 10/17/2019, but already also four years ago. One is at Kittenberg in the woods (1), the other one is a small outcrop along a minor road called “Hötzlweg” (2). Continued...
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Coral-ID - Weißenegg-formation, Styrian basin, Eastern Alps (Langhian, Miocene)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
Waiting for Christkind and(!)/or(??) Santa Claus gives me some time putting together this question: The coral in question comes from the Styrian basin (Weißenegg-formation) and is Langhian/Miocene in age (ca. 15 Ma old). It comes from a very small road outcrop, mainly limestones, north of Heimschuh in the Sausal mountains, southern Styria, Austria. Beside massive, sturdy coral colonies like Montastrea, possibly Favites, etc., another colonial coral occurs in this outcrop, that disintegrates easily into individual sticks or pencils, aka corallites: Outcrop situation, field of view ca. 80 cm. It looks really something strange and unusual. These are individual corallites or they are in the stage of branching; the middle one is about 8 cm high. Sometimes you can retrieve parts of colonies. Remarkable is the large diameter of the corallites, up to 2 cm. With the help of some superglue, it was possible to make some polished slabs of these corals (the matrix is a rather soft marl). Note the highly varying diameter of the corallites and the budding. Especially interesting is the specimen to the lower left. Here, some big (about 2 cm diameter!) polygonal corallites are tightly growing together. But I think, its the same as the other ones. A possible genus that comes to my mind is Acanthastrea. This idea is based on the shear size of the corallites. This genus is know from an outcrop a few km away and also from a similar formation of similar age about 100 km away (Mühlendorf, Burgenland, Austria), the species mentioned/described there is A. horrida. But my idea, that these could be also Acanthastrea could be totally wrong, of course... Thanks for your help and Merry Christmas! Franz Bernhard
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Campanian news from the St. Bartholomä-formation, Gosau-group, Eastern Alps (Styria, Austria)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, some local Campanian news again... . First: The rudists from St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria, made into a local journal (pdf, in German): DieRudistenvonStBartholomae_Mineralog_2019.pdf Second: After this nice find at point 25-North from 09/24/2019: Point 25-North - 09/24/2019 I could not resist collecting this site systematically. 18 hours of work in October and November 2019 resulted in more than 100 fossils, which is a very good yield. For details see: Point 25-North - Four weeks (External site, in German, only a few pics). This particular site is far from being exploited... Third: My last trip to this formation two days ago (12/18/2019) was very short and "designed" to bring back lesser specimens, duds, and some cutting rejects to three different sites. However, the trip resulted also in 4 fossils, two of them again from point 25-North: This is the 7th chaetetid-stromatoporoid sponge I have found in this formation, 6 of them came from this spot. I like these fossils more and more! And a rather nice (for this formation ) rudist matrix specimen: The two other fossils found this day were a small Hippurites colliciatus and a colonial coral from point 32; both specimens need to be cut and polished. Thanks for your interest and happy winter/christmas/new year fossil hunting! Franz Bernhard
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Fossil hunting in St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria, July-September 2019. A Summary
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, I have summarized my hunting trips to St. Bartholomä from July 2019 to September 2019. Its in German and located at an external site: Rudists St. Bartholomä - July-Sept 2019 (external site) (pdf, ca. 4.2 MB) Fell free to delete this post if you find it inappropriate. Thanks! Franz Bernhard -
Miocene sites around St. Josef, Styria, Austria (10/01/2019)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, at Tuesday, 10/01/2019, I made my first visit to the area around St. Josef, Western Styria, Austria ("Florianer Schichten", Langhian-Miocene) since about 11 months. I checked out 6 sites in 5 hours, three of them were made public by me 2-3 years ago: Fuggaberg-3-a Fuggaberg-3-b (This one was also published in a local journal 2 years ago.) Hoellerkogel-4 Bramberg-1 All sites had easy surface pickings of small fossils from debris. Outcropping sediment with fossils is exposed in 5 of them, in one you have to dig a little bit (Fuggaberg-3), but its still easy going. I guess I have collected and seen about 40 mollusc species within these 5 hours. So, the situation around St. Josef is still very good (if you like miocene molluscs and small fossils, though ). I am starting with: Fuggaberg-3 Two fossil-rich outcrops are located in a very small creek, about 15 m apart (W and E, 1st row, left). At E, only the fossil-poor overlying sediments are exposed at the moment (1st row, right, the red object is about 12x6 cm large), but digging in the debris below (2nd row, right) yielded some fossil-rich matrix specimens. You can see the yield of this 10-minute dig in the pic of the 3rd row, right. Of special interest are the two small fossils lying on oyster shells (coral and muricid). The debris 1-3 meters below the outcrop contains many loose fossils, eg. Granulolabium bicinctum (2nd row, left) or Terebralia bidendata (3rd row, left). Nearly the same situation at W, only overlying sediment is exposed (4th row, left). In the debris below, below the red object, many small fossils are lying around (4rd row, right). You can see Granulolabium bicinctum, Terebralia bidendata, Turritella partschi, Sphaeronassa shoenni, Acanthocardia paucicostata and a bi-valve Anadara diluvii; only the last one is not lying at its original position but was put there for photo purposes . Continued...
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Rudist hunting (6) in St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, today I had another opportunity to fossil hunt in St. Bartholomä. I tidied mostly up my main dig and collecting site in the quarry at Point 25 east of Kalchberg. As expected, I did not find much, only some small so-so specimens (19 specimens in 3 hours, but the majority would be rejects). However, in the same small quarry, a few meters to the north of the main dig site, "Knödelbrekzie" is also exposed (upper part of lower right pic), with some steep scree below. I have found two good rudists in this scree two years ago. Today, I dug again with bare hands in the scree. First without any success. Sure, every piece was fossiliferous limestone, but even not a rudist fragment among them. But then, only a few minutes before I had to leave, it was there! Just pulled out of the dark hole to the left of the specimen: A slender, slightly bend Vaccinites vesiculosus. The apex is broken off (pillars are visible there) and it is also broken at the top end, but it is quite aesthetic and elegant, that´s at least my thinking . I like it very much! Ok, back to work : This is the main dig site at point 25 as of today, 09/24/2019. There are no longer many clasts of fossiliferous limestone in the scree, mostly sandstone and marl. The orange bucket in the upper left pic contains clasts of fossiliferous limestone, the black bucket waste material (marl and sandstone). Today I have removed 23 buckets (10 Liter) of waste and 3 buckets of fossiliferous limestone from the dig site. Scale bar is 1 m. In the lower left pic, piles of fossiliferous limestone are visible, the waste material is dumped to the left (not visible). In the lower left corner, cutting rejects are deposited. At the right edge of the lower right pic, fragments and partials of rudist are deposited. This was probably my last hunting trip to St. Bartholomä for some time. I would like to do more prospecting and light surface collecting during my next trips. I am not really the born digger, I like prospecting more, but sometimes, I just have to dig . Thanks for looking! Franz Bernhard
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Rudist hunting (5) in St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria (Gosau-group, Campanian)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, Another hunting trip for rudists to the Campanian of St. Bartholomä in western Styria, Austria (09/15/2019). I have hunted these heaps of stones, collected from the former nearby fields (now meadows) over centuries, several times before, but there seems to be always something to find. I found six "good" specimens in 2 hours - and that´s exactly my usual yield in this formation . First topo map, geological map, relief map and aerial photograph of "Point 32". No problem to make everything public, nobody is interested in this stuff (well, except me...). Views from my parking place and from the way to the heaps: Some impressions of the heaps. First row is the western, lowermost end of the east-west trending with a small dig. A small, but quite nice radiolitid from this hole is to the left of the pocket knife. A second radiolitid was also found there. Second row shows some parts of the upper, north-south trending heaps. Third row shows to the left a fragment of a Hippurites nabresinensis (nearly in-situ, a small part was exposed). To the right, a freshly exposed, but still nearly in-situ Vaccinites is visible to the right of the red object; a small part of this rudist was also already exposed. Its the area shown in the pic above. Well, no pocket knife, already lost...
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The next "objet d´art" from St. Bartholomä. Or: Rudist hunting (4) in St. Bartholomä
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello, this time, I will start with the end result : I am quite satisfied with the result ! The pillars are nicely preserved and the rudist is filled with sparry, white to orange calcite and contains some voids coated with tiny calcite crystals. The greenish batches consist also of calcite and are also well polished, but are finer grained and contain additionally some small quartz grains. These fillings may be related to the second filling event during redeposition of the rudists in this formation. For more info about that, see here: Some Rudists from St. Bartholomä The right section contains also a blob of fossiliferous limestone. More about the locally heavily bored shell - see below . Before I got this nice result, there was a decision - to cut or not to cut : It is a conical specimen with some ribs preserved and a large, interesting, vertical groove. A large blob of limestone is sitting at the top end of the rudist, but one pillar was also already visible there. Mostly due to the ugly limestone blob, I decided to cut the specimen near the end of the visible shell. The top part (AN4240) does not contain much shell, the section about 6 mm lower (AN4239) does. The vertical groove is a simple inflection of the shell. No clue, what caused it, no remains of any other shell are visible. But it may have been some kind of an obstacle there. The specimen was found in a steep, wooded area east of Kalchberg, at the lower end of an old vertical ditch, possibly a prospect for water. Some pieces of fossiliferous limestone were lying around, somewhat exposed by heavy rains. I dug with bare hands in the soil, and nearly immediately recovered the specimen above from the "rat hole" to the right of the pocket knife (first row): (At the upper left corner of the upper left pic, a rudist is sticking between tree roots. This rudist was already featured here: Rudist hunting (3) in St. Bartholomä) Yesterday, I visited this spot again and pulled out several more pieces of limestone and sandstone from this "rat hole" (about 200 pieces), again only with bare hands (second row). No large Vaccinites was found this time, put a few smaller specimens (third row): upper left: small Vaccinites specimen; upper right: small pseudocolony of Hippurites colliciatus; lower left: Hippurites nabresinensis; lower right: fragment of Vaccinites vesiculosus. Ok, not much to see on this sucking pics, so I will stop now . Thanks for looking, maybe you have at least enjoyed the polished specimen . Happy hunting! Franz Bernhard
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Another completely unknown to me from the Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation, Gosau-group, Eastern Alps: They were found in a polished slab of one of the typical fossiliferous limestone clasts of the Rudist-bearing "Knödelbrekzie" of this formation. There are many of these unknowns in this specimen, but not so well preserved as (A); they are mostly only fragments and also often strongly recrystallized (below C). The two elongated, greenish, inhomogeneous blobs in the right part of the specimen seem to be the same, containing crushed and poorly preserved fragments similar to (A). It could be, that there is some branching involved. Maybe this is also the case with the two green, interconnected, circular blobs to the right of the elongated blobs. One of these circular blobs contains remnants of the fossil in question. One of the unknwons has some corallite-like structures (C), but I don´t think, its a coral. However, there seem to be also some real corals in this specimen (D). I am totally at a loss, what A, B, C etc. could be. Possibilities see title, but it could be even something different. Every hint is appreciated, it´s ok if you only know the phylum . Remark: All of the phyla listed in the title are know (mentioned, not described) from similar clasts of the Campanian Wietersdorf Gosau-sediments in Carinthia. Many thanks! Franz Bernhard
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Coral (12) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
First of all: The book about the Coniacian-Santonian corals of Rußbach-Gosau, Austria, by Löser et al. (2019) is printed. It can be ordered at: http://www.korallen-kreide.de/index.html Its a must-have for all people interested in fossil corals! And: The abridged English version is also ready for download there! And now to my first application of this important milestone work: During my searching and digging at point 36 west of Kalchberg, St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria, at 07/04/2019, I found also a piece of limestone with small, regular voids/holes/tubes. After cleaning at home, some axial ripping was visible in a few of the tubes. Good sign!! Could be another phaceloid coral colony! After cutting it was clear: It is!! And it is in some parts rather well preserved, the best specimen of this type so far. According to the work above, it seems to belong to the genus Procladocora. Four species of this genus are described for Rußbach-Gosau: P. gracilis, P. aff. exiguis, P. formosa, P. sp. In some corallites, septal insertion of 6 / 6 / 12 can be observed. The maximum outer diameter of the corallites is about 3 mm. This would place this specimen within the species P. gracilis. But the age is different and the occurrences are geographically about 200 km apart. So it is better to stick to Procladocora sp. Thanks for looking! Franz Bernhard
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Together with these two coral colonies http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/96001-corals-10-11-from-the-campanian-st-bartholomä-formation-styria-austria-gosau-group-eastern-alps/ I "discovered" also this specimen during my last visit at point 25, east of Kalchberg, in St. Bartholomä. "Discovered"? - I have found this specimen about a year ago, but did not take it with me - "It´s just a mineral". As I have not found much during my last visit, so I took it with me this time... After cleaning, I saw a somewhat faint wavy lamination - "Ah, some kind of calcite deposit"... Inspection with a hand lens revealed a tiny mesh or sieve structure in some parts - "Oh, that´s interesting"... Now I asked my local fossil expert. After some pondering he said: "This looks like a stromatopora from the nearby Devonian Plabutsch-Formation!" A quick look at his voluminous library revealed, that there indeed exist Cretaceous stromatoporoids, with nice names like Actinostromaria (compare with Paleozoic Actinostroma). I don´t think, this is an Actinostromaria, but we are rather sure, that it is a Cretaceous stromatoporoid. What do you think? Thank you very much for your opinion! PS, I found also this interesting diagram, from Wood & Reitner (1988). See also: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/94175-fossil-ball-campanian-st-bartholomä-formation-gosau-group-eastern-alps/ Franz Bernhard
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Corals (10 + 11) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
My hunting at point 25 east of Kalchberg at 05/16/2019 did not yield any good rudist. However, two coral colonies were found. Now I have a total of about 20 from this formation. This one is very small, poorly preserved and has a very, very low contrast (already strongly enhanced). It has some similarities to that one, but only remotely: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/87677-coral-3-from-the-campanian-st-bartholomä-formation-styria-austria-gosau-group-eastern-alps/ Corallites seems to have a diameter of about 1.2 mm. I do not expect any definitive answer , just showing it off . Thanks for your interest! Franz Bernhard
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Coral (8+9) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
The next two corals from St. Bartholomä... I collected this specimen nearly a year ago. Thought, it has some kind of borings. But I was a little bit confused, because most of the "borings" or tubes have a regular and tight, axial ornamentation. Polished cross sections revealed not much, but a few corallites (A, B, C). One of the tubes at the margin of the specimen shows some "shell" material with ornamentation on both sides (D). The left side is in contact with younger sediment, the right side with fossiliferous limestone. On the surface of the specimen, no shell material was observed within the tubes. Just a few days ago, I recognized a corallite cross section on the surface of the specimen with some fuzzy septa (X). In conclusion, I think, this could be the outer cast of a phaceloid-dendroid coral colony with nearly no "shell" material preserved - just a cast. In the Gosau-group, genera like Procladocora, Cladocora, Calamophylliopsis look somewhat similar. Thanks for your interest and opinion! Franz Bernhard
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Mollusc habitats - Florianer Schichten, Styrian basin, Austria (Langhian)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Member Collections
I am not sure, where to post this, please feel free to move it to the appropriate topic. I made the schematic drawing of mollusc habitats already more then 2 years ago, now I have pepped it up with shell pics of the most abundant species. All shells are self collected and in my collection, but no scale, no names... The largest pics are the most abundant molluscs in this area, there are only about 5 of them, that are really super-abundant. There is a lot of hidden info in this pic, but is it discernible without any further explanation? Maybe you have at least some fun ! Franz Bernhard
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Coral (7) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello! Another colonial coral from St. Bartholomä. Contrast is poor and that´s the best I can to with my scrappy scrap. I think, I have not found such a coral before in this formation. And its the second largest colony I have found so far there. My guess is, that it could be Astraeofungia (g, h) or Dimorphastrea (a, b), all pics from Löser et al. (2015). But I am very probably wrong... Thank you very much for your help! Franz Bernhard
