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From time to time, I would like to post specimens from the Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation in Styria, Austria, in this thread. For the first specimen, I was motivated by this thread: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/91459-is-this-a-rudist-fossil/ So the first specimen is a fragment of a large Vaccinites alpinus, with only two pillars - and not much else. Franz Bernhard
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Fossil hunting in the Geistthal-formation (Santonian - lower Campanian), Gosau basin of Kainach, Styria, Austria
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Fossil hunting in the Santonian - lower Campanian Geistthal-formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach, Eastern Alps (Styria, Austria) As a whole, the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä is not very fossiliferous. In contrast to the St. Bartholomä-formation with its rudists etc., the other, much more extensive formations, especially the very extensive, somewhat tubititic Afling-formation, are generally very poor in fossils. Some are known, eg. ammonites, but their occurrences are rather elusive. One exception - or at least in part - are Trochactaeon snails. They are known since the beginning of geological documentation of the area (around 1850), but only as loose pieces. It took until about the 1960ies for the first finds of this snails in outcrops. However, only a few sentences were (repeatedly) published since then, only a list of the species is given (without any description), and also no detailed description of the occurrences and their exact locations. That´s the sad side. The good side is: There is at least one (permanent) occurrence of this snails in an outcrop at a major road! This occurrence is at the red X... Part of Geofast-map (left, squares are 2x2 km) and geological overview from Ebner (2000) (right). There seems to be not much correspondence between these maps. For orientation, see village Geistthal in upper part of both maps. ...and it is featured in an excursion guide from 2015 (from Hubmann & Gross, 2015): The snails are located in the upper part of the Geistthal-formation, a succession of gray conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones with very occasional thin coal layers and thin beds of calcareous onkoids. The lower part of the Geistthal-formation is a coarse-grained, red conglomerate; its the basal formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach. I have visited this outcrop in December 2015, and yes, the snails are still there.
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Rudist hunting (2) in St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria - 09/09/2018
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Another rudist hunt in the Campanian of St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria. For some general information about the area see: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/86433-rudist-hunting-in-st-bartholomä-styria-austria-13072018/ This time, the largest creek wihin the St. Bartholomä-formation was visited, which is the north-south trending one. Last year, only one rudist was found there. This year - the same result. - Part of the creek from above, its about 5-10 m deep. - Creek. - Steep part of the creek with quite a lot of water and dead wood, but, hey, there is a rudist, just to the left of the red x! - Rudist as found, pocket knife is 9 cm long. To be continued...
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Coral (2) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello, here is the next (second) coral from the Campanian of St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria. Not much was visible at the outside (I did not even notice it as coral colony!), but on sectioning, the specimen reveald its beauty. Unfortunately, he contrast is rather low. The two polished sections are about 35 mm apart, the first seems to be near the surface of the colony (with a Lithophaga?). The closest match I can find in Baron-Szabo (2014) is Barysmilia irregularis (Reuss, 1854). Three polished surfaces from this work are attached, scale bars are 5.5, 9.5 and 11 mm, respectively. They are all from the upper Santonian of Neffgraben, Gosau, Austria. Thank you very much for looking and for your help! Franz Bernhard
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Rudist hunting in St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria - 13/07/2018
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Heavy rains in Styria, Austria, have overturned many creek beds. So this is a good time for fossil hunting, e.g. for rudists in St. Bartholomä: View of the hunting area from Pleschkogel mountain (1063 m) toward St. Bartholomä with Kreuzegg and Kalchberg, distance about 8 km. Note the conspicuous church of St. Bartholomä, just below Kreuzegg. View is nearly southward, in the far background the Pohorje mountains in Slovenia. Photo taken 07/07/2018.
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Coral (3) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello, and here is the next (third) coral from the Campanian of St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria. First photo: Its the largest specimen I have found so fas. The colony is about 20 cm high and is weighing ca. 4.2 kg. Not much to see, photo just for reference. The grey x indicates the location of the second photo. Second photo: On some parts of the colony, individual corallites are clearly visible. Natural surface, nothing done to it. I have also cut off a piece to make a polished slab. Just about 13 mm below the surface of the colony, the coralites are mostly recrystallized (thats a usual case) Third photo: So I have slightly ground and polished the surface of the cut-off piece, with a somewhat better result, showing a few nice corallites. But I am at a loss with this one, I am recognizing the prominent and thick costae, which let me to the consclusion that it could be belong to Nefocoenia/Neocoenia/Placocoenia/Neocoeniopsis (according to the papers of Baron-Szabo (2003, 2014)). But I can not go any further... Any help is gratefully acknowledged! Thank you! Franz Bernhard
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Coral (4) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
...and the fourth (and hopefully last for some time) coral question from the Campanian of St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria. In this thread I present two different specimens, which I think belong to the same genus: Cycloria or Orbignygyra (according to the papers of Baron-Szabo, 2003, 2014). They are maeandroid, colonial corals. In this first post, two polished slabs of the same specimen are presented. They are about 2 mm apart. The corallites are not very well preserved, but in some spots, some detail is discernible. The "better", less recrystallized side is intergrown with the usual fossiliferous limestone (which contains another small coral colony...).
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Coral from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)
FranzBernhard posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello, some of you may have noticed my rudist posts from the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria. Beside rudists, there are also other fossils, but they are much rarer. During my hunting trips in the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, I have found ca. 300 rudist specimens (hippuritidae and radiolitidae), but only 12 coral colonies, including two imprints, and no individual coral. I would like to show you one of these coral colonies and would like to ask you for your opinion. I will start with the simplest one. In the literature, only one coral species is described and two others are mentioned (without description) from St. Bartholomä. No pictures are published of any of these three coral species. Here is the only existing description of a coral from this formation (Schmidt, 1908): „Ein halbkugeliger Knollen von 5 cm Durchmesser aus der oberen Hippuritenbank von Kalchberg. Auf einem Anschliff sieht man in der Mitte ein Feld, wo die Kelche senkrecht stehen, am Rand sind sie dem Schliff parallel. … Die Kelche haben einen Durchmesser von 1-1.2 mm. An den Septen sind zwei Zyklen zu je acht Stück vorhanden. Das Säulchen ist punktförmig. Sehr schön ist das Cönenchym, aus unregelmäßig angeordneten Kalzifikationszentren bestehen, ausgebildet." "Half-spherical colonie with 5 cm diameter. ... The corallites have a diameter of 1-1.2 mm. There are 2 septal cycles with 8 septa each. The columella is point-like." He identified this coral as : Astrocoenia orbignyana Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848 According to Baron-Szabo (2014), this is today: Actinastrea orbignyi (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848) The first two pictures are this species, figured in Baron-Szabo (2014). First scale bar is 10 mm, second one 3 mm. Specimen is from Gosau-Rusbach, Austria. The third picture is my specimen from St. Bartholomä. Its very rough at the outside, but not so bad preserved inside. Sorry, I can not make a better picture. I think it comes close to the description and pictures of Actinastrea orbignyi. What do you think? Thank you very much for your opinion! Franz Bernhard Literature: Baron-Szabo, R. Ch. (2014): Scleractinian Corals from the Cretaceous of the Alps and Northern Dinarides with remarks on related taxa. Abhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, 68, 1-296. Schmidt, W. (1908): Die Kreidebildungen der Kainach. Jahrbuch der k.k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, 58, 223-246.
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Apical view of a polished cross section of the right (lower) valve of Hippurites nabresinensis from the St. Bartholomä-Formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä in western Styria, Austria. This species has no L-pillar, the P1-pillar is at ca. 3:00, the P2-pillar at ca. 5:00. The hump at ca. 8:00 is a growth anomaly. At ca. 11:00 and 1:00, the position of both teeth sockets is visible (a hypothetical L-pillar would be between them, see the specimen of H. colliciatus), at ca. 2:00 the position of the posterior muscle. At the upper left, it is intergrown with the fragment of another individual of the same (?) species. For specimens like this, the name H. heritschi was also in use. The specimen is from a large mound of stones, which were removed from the fields during many, many decades. This mound located in the southwerstern part of Kalchberg, southwest of St. Bartholomä (Point 36 in my own documentation).
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Apical view of a polished cross section of the right (lower) valve of Vaccinites alpinus from the St. Bartholomä Formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä in western Styria, Austria. Typical are the subparallel pillars, all situated in a small area of the rudist. The shell around the L-piller (left one) is missing in this specimen. For specimens like this, the name Hippurites/Vaccinites cornuvaccinum was in use. Study of specimens with preserved upper valve showed that V. cornuvaccinum is restricted to the Coniacian and V. alpinus to the upper Santonian and Campanian (Steuber & Schlüter, 2012). They can not be distinguished with the lower valve alone, but have different upper valves. Hence, identification is (also) based on stratigraphic information (Steuber, 2001: „This species [V. ultimus] was also figured by Kaumanns (1962) from Kainach (Styria) and erroneously assigned to various species of the group of V. cornuvaccinum.“). By the way, V. ultimus is a junior synonym of V. alpinus... (Steuber, 2003). The specimen is from a small scree in a small, abandoned marl quarry, located in the eastern part of Kalchberg, southwest of St. Bartholomä (Point 25 in my own documentation).
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Apical view of a polished cross section of the right (lower) valve of Vaccinites vesiculosus from the St. Bartholomä-Formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä in western Styria, Austria. Typical are the slender L-pillar (at ca. 12:00), the round P1-pillar with a very slender stem (at ca. 2:00) and the spatula-shaped P2-piller, also with very slender steem (at ca. 3:00). For specimens like this, names like Hippurites styriacus und Hippurites carinthiacus were also in use. The specimen is from a small scree in a small, abandoned marl quarry, located in the eastern part of Kalchberg, southwest of St. Bartholomä (Point 25 in my own documentation).
