Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'whalers bluff formation'.
-
G'day everyone! I have just returned from a two day fossil trip to the town of Portland, Victoira. We visited three sites and were hunting for vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and came back with a pretty decent haul. This trip my dad and I were mainly focused on collecting vertebrate material as it is quite hard to come by around Melbourne. Day 1 My dad and I left home at 9:00 am and started our four and a half hour journey to Portland, right on the other side of the state. We arrived at around 2:30 at a beach near Narrawong to look for shark teeth. We had heard that sharks teeth could be found on beaches around Narrawong and Allestree after storms, and were found in deposits of shell grit. The teeth come from an underwater formation and wash onto the beach. Luckily for us, we had arrived just after a storm and found the beach covered in patches of shell grit. The shell grit was too fine for our sifters and the fossils we were finding fell straight through them so we spent the next two hours on our hands and knees searching through the fine grit looking for teeth. We ended up finding many small teeth and bones, most of them partial, but we were luck to find 2 large whole specimens (tiger shark teeth ??), some nice Port Jackson Shark teeth and some other goodies. For the rest of the day we checked out Cape Bridgewater and the Petrified Forest. The 'Petrified Forest' was first thought to be a forest of Moonah trees buried by a large sand dune and preserved. However, scientists now believe they are 'Rhizo Concretions' formed from hollow limestone tubes that have eroded over millions of years. Day 2 Today we headed out to a place called 'Yellow Rock', near Cape Nelson Lighthouse. The cliffs we were looking in were apart of the Nelson Bay Formation. In the cliffs, Australian megafauna fossils from animals such as diprotodons and marsupial lions could be found and were aged around Middle Pleistocene. Unfortunately the conditions were too rough for us to stay very long and we did not find any fossils. We then visited the Cape Nelson Lighthouse and explored its rugged coastline. To end of the day, we took one final look at Narrawong Beach and found a couple more sharks teeth and checked out the cliffs north of Portland Harbour. The cliffs north of Portland Harbour were apart of the Whalers Bluff Formation and were Pliocene in age. In the cliffs we observed many shell bits and collected a few lovenia urchins. However on our way out of the site I spotted the side of a large shell poking out of one of the cliffs boulders. I safely extracted it and to my surprise, It was a palm sized gastropod. (Fossil of the month maybe? ) This put a large smile on my face and was a great find to end the trip. Here are some photos: If any of you are interested, here are some wildlife photos of my trips: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/d_kurek Hope you all enjoyed the report, Dan The Beach Shell grit we were searching Hooded Dotterel (Thinornis rubricollis) we saw on the beach and its nest. These birds are a protected species in Australia and have a very low chick survival rate Blue Ant (Diamma bicolor) a solitary, parasitic wasp we saw along the beach. The Petrified Forest Rough swell at Cape Bridgewater Cape Nelson Lighthouse Cape Nelson Coast Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris) Cliffs north of Portland Harbour Cliffs north of Portland Harbour Very tame Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) we helped as it tried to cross a busy road 'Monster' gastropod (Appreciate any help in ID) Lovenia Urchins Shark Teeth Finds (Appreciate any help in ID) Heterodontus cainozoicus teeth? Fish material (Toadfish mouthplate, drumfish teeth, ray tooth and fish jaw)
- 11 replies
-
- 4
-
- nelson bay formation
- portland
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with: