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  1. Fossil marine vertebrates (Chondrichthyes, Actinopterygii, Reptilia) from the Upper Cretaceous of Akkermanovka (Orenburg Oblast, Southern Urals, Russia) Jambura et al., 2023 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667123003075?via%3Dihub Tylosaur (top), Polycotylid (middle), and Plesiosaur indet. teeth from the southern Urals.
  2. Too lazy to translate it myself, I just put the finished pdf through the google translator : Fossilien_2023_21052023_E.pdf Some, but not all, formating is lost, though. And its just one page of text besides three pages of pics. No worries about the detailed site map, as we already know, nobody cares about rudists . Here is the link to the original, German version, for our German speaking members : Fossilien_2023_21052023 (pdf, 3.4 MB, personal homepage) Here are the original pics: Have fun ! Franz Bernhard
  3. Mikrogeophagus

    Globator vaughani, McKown Member

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Globator vaughani, Travis Co. Santonian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022
  4. The Tyrannosaur Dinosaurs (Tyrannosauroidea) inhabited North America from 152 Million Years ago during the Late Jurassic era up until 66 Million Years ago during the Late Cretaceous era. https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app20110141.html However, there is a relatively large geologic gap between the time of the Late Jurassic to the Santonian-Campanian stages of the Cretaceous (when the the oldest known Tyrannosaurid Lythronax (Late Creteaceous, 81.9-81.5 Million Years ago) emerged) in terms of the number of Tyrannosauroidae confirmed in North America. However, this doesn't mean they were completely absent from the Continent. Rather, they remained small to mid sized predators under the shadow of Large Carnosaurs up until the Cenomanian-Turnonian extinction event 93-94 Million years ago, which the tyrannosaurs filled the role of Apex Predator in most terrestrial ecosystems by the Campanian stage of the Cretaceous. The Tyrannosaur geologic gap between the Late Jurassic and Santonian Cretaceous is also not completely empty and several confirmed Tyrannosauroidea are known from this time period in North America. I've created a list of known Tyrannosauroidea species and specimens from the Aptian-Santonian Cretaceous of North America which I would like to share on the fourtm (let me know if there are any examples I'm missing or should add): Unnamed Cloverly Formation Tyrannosauroid (Tyrannosaur – Cloverly Formation, Wyoming, US, North America) (Early Cretaceous, 108 Million Years ago) (Based on Specimen FMNH PR 2750, likely grew up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) in length) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2010.543952 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lindsay- Zanno/publication/229287579_On_the_earliest_record_of_Cretaceous_tyrannosauroids_in_western_North_America_Implications_for_an_Early_Cretaceous_Laurasian_interchange_event/links/0fcfd50089dd8f3955000000/On-the-earliest-record-of-Cretaceous-tyrannosauroids-in-western-North-America-Implications-for-an-Early-Cretaceous-Laurasian-interchange-event.pdf Unnamed Wayan Formation Tyrannosauroid (Tyrannosaur – Wayan Formation, Idaho, US, North America) (Early Late Cretaceous, 100.6-97.8 Million Years ago) (Based on Specimen IMNH 2251/53975, grew up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) in length) https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-paleontology/volume-96/issue-6/jpa.2022.42/A-partial-tyrannosauroid-femur-from-the-mid-Cretaceous-Wayan-Formation/10.1017/jpa.2022.42.full Unnamed Lewisville Formation Tyrannosauroid (Tyrannosaur - Woodbine Group Lewisville Formation, Texas US, North America) (Late Cretaceous (100-95 Million Years ago)) (Based on Specimens DMNH 2013-0701701 and SMU 77218, grew up to 2.7-4.8 meters (8.8-15 feet) in length) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8796713/ Moros intrepidus (Tyrannosaur – Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, US, North America) (Early Cretaceous (96.4 Million Years ago)) (Grew up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) in length) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6385174/ Suskityrannus hazelae (Tyrannosaur – Moreno Hill Formation, New Mexico, US, North America) (Early Cretaceous, 93.5-89.3 Million Years ago) (grew up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) in length) https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/82474043/82473554._Brusatte._AAM.pdf
  5. Jared C

    Globater vaughani

    From the album: Texas Santonian stage (Cretaceous)

    Globater vaughani likely uppermost Santonian (gravel find). Opinions welcome. Texas
  6. Jared C

    Scapanorynchus texanus

    From the album: Texas Santonian stage (Cretaceous)

    Scapanorynchus texanus Santonian Austin Chalk The Santonian is an uncommon target for Texas fossil hunters, due to the often merciless difficulty of hunting vertebrates in the upper Austin Chalk. However, those rare, ephemeral lenses of fossiliferous accumulation make the hours of sweat and research worth it. Found the same day I discovered the Hadrodus specimen, August 2021.
  7. Jared C

    Pycnodont oral tooth

    From the album: Texas Santonian stage (Cretaceous)

    Pycnodont oral tooth Santonian Austin Chalk
  8. Pablo2427

    Mosasaur vertebrae??

    Hello, I'd love to know your opinion about these reptilian vertebrae coming from the lower santonian of northern Spain. Fisrt photo is view from above and second from beneath I've made some guesses about this piece, and I hope some of you could give me your opinion about them. Here come muy guesses: -Taken that it comes from clear ancient marine strata, its general morfphology and its Santonian age, I think it probably is a mosasaur vertebrae. The problem is that there hasn' been any mosasaur reports in these places, basically because vertebrate remains are really rare and fragmented -Supposing that the mosasaur ID is correct, the next logical step would be trying to discover which kind of vertebrae it is. In the second photo, its beneath view, you can see a big spherical gap (it is highlighted in picture 3), and from it, I'veguessed this vertebra cannot be a dorsal, nor a caudal, because the chevrons there are conected to the vertebrae by a symetrical paired haemal arches (so not a big notch in the center) I have related this spherical gap with the small chevron like bones which kind of appear beneath some mosasaur cervicals. To show clearer what a I refering to, picture 4 is a higlighted image of this bone I am refering to So, so far, I've guessed I'm dealing with a mosasaur cervical vertebra I would love to know what are your opinions about these guesses and, also, if there's a detalied mosasaur vertebrae monograph I could go for Thanks in advance!!!! Cheers
  9. Mikrogeophagus

    Exogyra tigrina, Dessau

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Exogyra tigrina, Travis Co. Santonian, Cretaceous Oct, 2022
  10. In 1995 (long ago...) a friend of mine and me digged at a highway-constructionsite in nw-germany. It was the Highway Nr. 2 between Gelsenkirchen and Gladbeck in famous Ruhrgebiet-Area. The construction site opens at a lenght of 3 km sandy sediments from middle Santonian, Zone of Uintacrinus socialis. We really found a lot..., beach sediments with everything from plants over echinoderms up to vertebrate fossils (some lang-living ones...), and stored it. Till now. Some weeks ago I started to clean, glue, sort..., to write a paper about it. Hope to finish in 2025, lot of work... I go to show piece by piece fossils from this site, might be one a day, might be one a week. depends. Start is a nice Cretalamna appendiculata, approx. 2 cm long, root is a little bit damaged.
  11. Mikrogeophagus

    Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Dessau

    From the album: Austin Chalk

    Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Travis Co. Santonian, Cretaceous Sept, 2022
  12. Is it possible to identify different marine reptiles by bone structure of ribs? I have got one for a short time to include in a paper. It is a rib, marine environment. I would assume it is a marine reptile or perhaps a huge fish (like the Xiph). Comes from upper cretaceous, Santonian. Lenght is approx. 9 cm, looks not compressed, other dimension is 3 2,5x1 cm. Brown bone substance with good internal structure. What do you think? Perhaps it is possible to identify, this would help. thanks
  13. I would like to share a typical "day off & out" during summer. During summer, I don´t do serious prospecting. Too hot, too green, too much distraction, like blueberries and mushrooms. So, last Sunday (07/03/2022), I mainly explored an area for "fruits" and visited two fossil sites discovered in October 2021. It was hiking-only, no driving between the various "stops". I found lots of blueberries (not fully ripe yet at 900 m asl), but it was much too dry for mushrooms. Nevertheless, I found a few places with a few Cantharellus cibarius: Some of them were even growing on extremely dry tractor paths. In the same general area, I have found two big Boletus edulis in May 31st by pure chance on a tractor path, which was very early in the year, hence my detailed prospecting for mushrooms in this area . Anyways, the goal were the sites 63 and 64, two about 10 years old forest road outcrops north of Reinprechtskogel (977 m asl) in the "Mixed Zone" of the lower Afling-formation in the Santonian-Campanian Gosau-group of Kainach of the Eastern Alps, squares are 2x2 km: Some landscape between the mushrooms and the fossils. That hill in the foreground a little bit right off the center in the first pic is Römaskogel hill (1006 m), the highest hill of the Kainach Gosau, with the rudist zones on its southwestern to northern slopes: Despite being quite densely* populated by dairy farmers, I find the area incredibly lovely and appealing**. Highest mountain in the very background to the right is about 2000 m high. Pics taken at about 900 m asl. *About 200 years ago, there was much less forest and much more (dairy) farm land in this area! **Ten years ago, I didn´t know the area yet and found it most boring geologically, judging from the literature... Site 63 exposes an about 1 m thick conglomerate bed with sparsely distributed Trochactaeon, rudists and some other molluscs, about 3 fossils per square meter are visible. The following pictured fossils were uncovered at 05/31/2022 and are somewhat clean now, scale is 1x1 m: Detail A, two weathered Trochactaeon: Detail B, a Vaccinites, a part of it still sticking in the outcrop: Here are some pics from October 2021, site 63 as found: I worked in slightly loosened parts of the exposure with a screwdriver and found some very "ugly" fossils. The following four pics all show the same specimen. The Trochactaeon is slightly flattened parallel to the bedding plane, the red object is about 11 cm high. Nearly in-situ, note the two already pictured snails at the upper right: Nearly in situ: Recovered and still in the field: Cleaned and at home: Other fossil found, upper valve of a Plagioptychus rudist: And a new one for the site, I don´t know what it is. I am fascinated by these ugly fossils in this coarse-grained conglomerate. Very probably a mix-up of various habitats, transported and deposited in a quite coarse-grained sediment. I would like to share also a polished section from this site again, specimens become a little bit better that way : I dug also a little bit at site 64, just a few tens of meters away from 63, and found again some rudists. Here, they are in a layer of sandstone, and no Trochactaeon have been observed yet. There are no outcrops between sites 63 and 64. The fossil beds could be in continuity, but it could also be a small fault in the small creek between the two sites. The fossil layer is at the red item: I took one specimen, its also not really a beauty . Freshly exposed and still in-situ: Cleaned at home: My recently bought pressure washer made cleaning of all these very dirty specimens easy. Not good, now I might take also big, very dirty specimens... Thanks for reading and looking! Franz Bernhard
  14. Marco90

    Placosmilia vidali

    From the album: My collection in progress

    Placosmilia vidali Mallada, 1892 Location: Lleida, Catalonia, Spain Age: 86-84 Mya (Santonian, Upper Cretaceous) Measurements: 5,4x3,7 cm Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Cnidaria Subphylum: Anthozoa Class: Hexacorallia Order: Scleractinia Family: Montlivaltiidae
  15. David in Japan

    Shark tooth identification

    Hi TFF friends, Last time I went fossil hunting I found this pretty beaten shark tooth on the surface of a rock lying on the beach. Himenoura formation, Late cretaceous, -85MYA Kumamoto japan. The apex is missing but it is none the less an interesting tooth. At first I thought it was my first Squalicorax tooth but when I looked under magnification I was not able to see any serrations and noticed a nutrient groove and a small cusplet here on the left side of the root in the photo below. After extracting completely the tooth from the rock at home, I discovered a lot of folds at the base of the crown. The tooth is 100mm wide for 50mm high. Even though this tooth size is quite bigger than the tooth I found, I am now thinking it could be a Protolamna sp. Posterior tooth. In the past, I found from the same location a Protolamna sp. anterior tooth (30mm wide for 40mm high), and this genus is also mentionned in the literature. What do you think? From above with nutrient groove visible What looks like a cusplet
  16. Fossil snails of the genus Trochactaeon from Kainach near Voitsberg, Styria, Austria (Gosau-Group of Kainach, upper Cretaceous) - Summary of this years prospection Introduction Snails of the extinct genus Trochactaeon (formerly part of the genus Actaeonella) are among the most familiar fossils of the upper Cretaceous Gosau-Group of the Austrian Alps. The rather large size of some species (>10 cm), their intriguing spiral pattern in transverse sections and plenty supply, based on many mass occurrence, make them particularly popular. Some well known occurrences in Austria, distributed over several 100 km, are Brandenberg in Tyrol, “Schneckenwand”/Rußbach in Salzburg, Waaggraben near Hieflau in Styria and “Schneckengartl”/Dreistetten in Lower Austria; all of these are located within the Northern Calcareous Alps, mainly composed of Mesozoic rocks, especially Triassic platform carbonates. The most extensive occurrence of Gosau-Group sediments in Austria, the Kainach Gosau, however, is resting on sediments of the Palaeozoic of Graz. The Gosau-Group of Kainach consists mainly of coarse- to fine-grained clastic sediments (conglomerates to siltstones, Geistthal-formation, Afling-formation), some bituminous marls (St. Pankrazen-formation) and some hydraulic marls (St. Bartholomä-formation). The age of the whole group is considered to be mostly Campanian, but stretches into the Santonian and possibly into the Maastrichtian (Ebner & Rantitsch, 2000). In contrast to many other Gosau-Group occurrences, the Kainach Gosau is considered to be rather poor in fossils. Noticeable fossil occurrences are rudists of the St. Bartholomä-formation, some plant fossils and accumulations of small gastropods within the St. Pankrazen-formation and a few scattered ammonite concentrations within the Afling-formation. All of these fossils are already known since the 1850ies. This is also the case for the Trochactaeon snails. Transverse section of Trochactaeon giganteus from the Kainach Gosau. Generalized geological map of Styria with Trochactaeon occurrences in the northern part of the Kainach Gosau. Location of the Waaggraben site is also indicated. Brief history of Trochactaeon in the Kainach Gosau Trochactaeon snails were first mentioned in a footnote by Morlot (1850), thereby proofing the Cretaceous age of these sediments. Only two years later, their existence was already doubted (Peters, 1852). However, in 1871, Stur was able to prove the occurrence of Trochactaeon in the Kainach Gosau with museum specimens already submitted by Morlot (Locality “Am Sengsenwerk `in der Eben´, Kainach, Nord”). Indicative was the host rock of the snails, which is different to the host rocks of Trochactaeon snails within the Gosau sediments of the Northern Calcareous Alps. It took about 100 years, before several occurrences of this snail within actual outcrops were discovered by systematic investigations of a local teacher and collector in the 1960ies. But the in-situ occurrences where never described, only briefly mentioned in mapping reports and summaries of the regional geology (Gräf, 1975). The only exception is a large outcrop at the main road in Gallmannsegg north of Kainach, where some of these snails are very firmly embedded in a very hard, conglomeratic sandstone and can therefore be observed “permanently”. This site is featured in a recent excursion guide (Hubmann & Gross, 2015) and very interestingly, this is also the discovery locality of Morlot (1850), though highly modified during later road construction. Discovery site of Morlot (1850), highly modified during road construction (red X). Römaskogel Mt. (1006 m) to the upper right. Field work and results Already since several years on my wish list, it took two events in March 2020 which allowed me to prospect efficiently for this snails: First was a hint from Hans Eck (Voitsberg), who pointed out some occurrences to me, some very detailed hints, some quite general. Their distribution enabled me to restrict the prospecting area to a rather small stretch of land in the northwestern part of the Kainach Gosau, namely from Gschmurgraben/Anesbach to the east to Eckwirt to the west. The second incident was the C-thing, which allowed me to make for several day trips in this area, walking along forest roads and other paths some whole days long... Excerpts of the geological maps 1:50.000 Köflach (left) and Voits-berg (right) with the investigated area. All Trochactaeon occurrences are located within the red rectangle. Anesbach to the upper right, Eckwirt to the lower left, size of squares is 2x2 km. This prospection resulted in more than 10 “new” occurrences of Trochactaeon snails. They range from a few snails stuck within the driveways of forest roads to up to a 0.5 m thick bed tightly packed with snails. They are situated in the uppermost Geistthal-formation or the lowermost Afling formation; the literature gives ambiguous attribution of the snail-bearing zone. The especially good exposures along a forest road in the area of Breitenbach allowed the recognition of at least 6 Trochactaeon-bearing beds within a sediment thickness of about 20 m. About 100-200 higher in the sedimentary column, another Trochactaeon bed occurs. The host rock of the snails is a rather hard, dark grey to dark brown, mostly slightly conglomeratic sandstone, firmly enclosing the snails. Adjoining rocks of the snail beds are grey to greenish grey siltstones and sandstones, sometimes containing plant debris. Coarse-grained conglomerates are also abundant. Bedding planes dip generally with 20°-60° toward southeast to south. Rather surprising was the discovery of nearly black, up to 1 m thick limestone lenses with abundant fragments of radiolitid rudists near the snail beds in several spots. Continued...
  17. Barrelcactusaddict

    Kuji Amber (Tamagawa Fm., ~91.05-85.2 Ma)

    From the album: Fossil Amber and Copal: Worldwide Localities

    “Kuji Amber” Hirono, Iwate Prefecture, Japan Tamagawa Fm. (Kuji Group) ~91.05-85.2 Ma Total Weight: 1.3g Longest Specimen: 10mm Lighting: Longwave UV Entry five of ten, detailing various rare ambers from European, Asian, and North American localities. Studies on this amber, and Japanese ambers in general, are especially fascinating from a pharmaceutical point of view. In early 2012, a particular diterpenoid was extracted from Kuji amber that has been shown to possess powerful anti-allergenic properties; this compound was named “kujigamberol”, and is extracted from powdered amber using methylene hydroxide (MeOH). In the case of powdered Iwaki amber, 18.5g of amber was added to MeOH for 3 days, after which the MeOH was evaporated leaving 0.8g of solid extract; further extractions and purification were applied, leaving 1.0mg of a colorless oil. Kujigamberol can be obtained from Kuji, Iwaki, Choshi, Mizunami, and Ube ambers, but its concentration decreases proportionally to the ambers’ age (i.e., the older the amber, the lower the yield). Kuji amber is found in exposures along the inner southern half of Kuji Bay, as well as further south at Noda Bay along the coastline, just north of the mouth of the Akka River: the exposures consist of sandstones, conglomerates, and amber-bearing carbonaceous mudstone (which also contains small plant fossils); the Tamagawa Fm. is roughly 200m thick, and amber is found within the middle and upper portions. Shell fragments of freshwater turtles can also be found in a bone bed within the uppermost portion of the Formation; immediately above the bone bed is a layer of volcanic ash containing zircon grains: these have been dated to be 91 million years old. The amber of the Kuji and Noda Bays is often found washed onto the shoreline as waterworn grains; there is a more well-known deposit inland, however, where amber is mined directly from the earth. Sources: “Comparison of the Biological Activity and Constituents in Japanese Ambers”; Advances in Biological Chemistry, Issue 10; Shimizu, et. al. 2020 “A New Assemblage of Plant Mesofossils (Late Turonian–Middle Santonian; Upper Cretaceous) from the Tamagawa Formation, Kuji Group, in Northeastern Japan”; Paleontological Research, Issue 25 (2); Masamichi Takahashi, et. al. 2021 “A New Species of Aquatic Turtle (Testudines: Cryptodira: Adocidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, Northeast Japan, with Special References to the Geological Age of the Tamagawa Formation (Kuji Group)”; Ren Hiyama, et. al. 2021

    © Kaegen Lau

  18. Barrelcactusaddict

    Kuji Amber (Tamagawa Fm., ~91.05-85.2 Ma)

    From the album: Fossil Amber and Copal: Worldwide Localities

    “Kuji Amber” Hirono, Iwate Prefecture, Japan Tamagawa Fm. (Kuji Group) ~91.05-85.2 Ma Total Weight: 1.3g Longest Specimen: 10mm Lighting: 140lm LED Entry five of ten, detailing various rare ambers from European, Asian, and North American localities. Studies on this amber, and Japanese ambers in general, are especially fascinating from a pharmaceutical point of view. In early 2012, a particular diterpenoid was extracted from Kuji amber that has been shown to possess powerful anti-allergenic properties; this compound was named “kujigamberol”, and is extracted from powdered amber using methylene hydroxide (MeOH). In the case of powdered Iwaki amber, 18.5g of amber was added to MeOH for 3 days, after which the MeOH was evaporated leaving 0.8g of solid extract; further extractions and purification were applied, leaving 1.0mg of a colorless oil. Kujigamberol can be obtained from Kuji, Iwaki, Choshi, Mizunami, and Ube ambers, but its concentration decreases proportionally to the ambers’ age (i.e., the older the amber, the lower the yield). Kuji amber is found in exposures along the inner southern half of Kuji Bay, as well as further south at Noda Bay along the coastline, just north of the mouth of the Akka River: the exposures consist of sandstones, conglomerates, and amber-bearing carbonaceous mudstone (which also contains small plant fossils); the Tamagawa Fm. is roughly 200m thick, and amber is found within the middle and upper portions. Shell fragments of freshwater turtles can also be found in a bone bed within the uppermost portion of the Formation; immediately above the bone bed is a layer of volcanic ash containing zircon grains: these have been dated to be 91 million years old. The amber of the Kuji and Noda Bays is often found washed onto the shoreline as waterworn grains; there is a more well-known deposit inland, however, where amber is mined directly from the earth. Sources: “Comparison of the Biological Activity and Constituents in Japanese Ambers”; Advances in Biological Chemistry, Issue 10; Shimizu, et. al. 2020 “A New Assemblage of Plant Mesofossils (Late Turonian–Middle Santonian; Upper Cretaceous) from the Tamagawa Formation, Kuji Group, in Northeastern Japan”; Paleontological Research, Issue 25 (2); Masamichi Takahashi, et. al. 2021 “A New Species of Aquatic Turtle (Testudines: Cryptodira: Adocidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, Northeast Japan, with Special References to the Geological Age of the Tamagawa Formation (Kuji Group)”; Ren Hiyama, et. al. 2021

    © Kaegen Lau

  19. Hello forum members! With the new Coronavirus raging across the world, I thought it would be nice to start some kind of advent calendar, using my own Squalicorax collection. Everyday I will post one or multiple Squalicorax teeth from one location. Let's see what ends sooner, my collection or the virus outbreak. I will start with the oldest tooth from the Albian substage and end with the teeth from the uppermost substage; the Maastrichtian. The first one is the oldest and also one of the smallest teeth in my collection. Unfortunately it is so small that the photo's are not as sharp as I would have liked, but I think they are good enough. It is Squalicorax primaevus from the Middle Albian Argiles tégulines of Courcelles, Aube Department, France. See you guys tomorrow, Sander
  20. ID not certain at all. Very smooth for a Canadoceras. Maybe I should just say 'Pachydiscid'? Exact day of collection is unknown.
  21. Hello, several weeks ago, I presented a rudist recovery "operation" from the Afling-formation of the Gosau-group of Kainach (Upper Cretaceous): Well, the same day I have discovered the rudist zone featured above, I have also discovered a rudist zone about 100-200 m stratigraphically deeper. It is confined to an about 1 m thick, very dark limestone bed rich in various rudist and echinoid remains. The limestone belongs to the Geistthal-formation, considering the limestone is still located within the sequence with some red clastic rocks, suggesting strong terrestrial influence in some layers. The limestone can be traced for at least 500 m along strike; at the footwall, it develops gradually from a conglomerate, in the hangingwall it is sharply overlain by fine-grained sandstone to siltstone. Here is a schematic map of the area, including also the Trochactaeon-bearing zone. In this post, I am dealing here with the "Liegende Rudisten-Zone". 59 = Geistthal-formation; 54 = Afling-formation, squares are 2x2 km. The fossils stick firmly to the limestone. But there are some impure zones (sandy-silty) within the limestone, where, with the help of some weathering, some fossils largely free of matrix can be found. Two zones of this kind are known at the moment, a natural outcrop in the forest and an outcrop at a forest road, which will be presented here. Approaching the outcrop (well, that pic was taken after the dig...): The outcrop was completely overgrown at the beginning, and this was the third day of working at this outcrop. You can see the worked area and the area prepared for today. The red x are markers placed above wooden marker sticks and about 1 m apart from each other. The soft zone between the hard limestone beds is visible. Sorry for the rather poor pics, my scrappy camera had a hard time dealing with that kind of lighting (clear sky and full shadow). Detail of the area to be worked today, still with vegetation: Vegetation cleared, first rudist found, a fragmentary Vaccinites, below the left red x. The pen is 13.7 cm long. Work in progress, "two" Vaccinites discovered. Only after some time I recognized, that this is a bouquet: Work practically finished, another Vaccinites discovered (4963). Turned out to be one of the nicest so far: Beside these Vaccinites, a few Plagioptychus aguilloni were also found in that area. But what to do with the rudist bouquet? Leaving in the outcrop or recover? I decided to recover, because it was already a little bit loose and already broken in several parts. And a one of a kind find until now. Here is the recovery, P.a. denotes a Plagioptychus aguilloni, numbers indicate individual Vaccinites specimens: The recovery ended in 8 fragments. I numbered them to help reassembling them together. This bouquet appears to be in live position, but this can also be by pure chance. Maybe closer examination with give some hints. That´s the outcrops after the work of this day, with the position of the specimens featured above indicated and before their recovery: If you are interested in the other days at this outcrop, have a look at this: 05/22/2021 (link to my homepage, in German, pdf, ca. 2.9 MB) 05/30/2021 (link to my homepage, in German, pdf, ca. 5.8 MB) From this few meters of outcrop, I have recovered ca. 10-15 Vaccinites, 5-10 Plagioptychus aguilloni and several radiolitid rudist until now. A great surprise was one large Trochactaeon snail intermixed with all the rudists (see link to 05/30/2021 above). I don´t take all fossils with me, about half of them I am leaving at the outcrop, so only approximate numbers. In the pavement of the forest road below the outcrop, I have also dug out about 15 Vaccinites specimens. Then there is the outcrop within the forest, which yielded also at least a dozen Vaccinites, still with a lot of potential. And all the other outcrops of the rudists limestone that I have not checked out in detail yet for loose rudists. Also still a lot of potential there and still a lot to do.... Hope, you enjoyed ! Franz Bernhard
  22. Hello! Having discovered some new rudist occurrences in the lower part of the upper Santonian - lower Campanian clastic-marine Afling-formation at Römaskogel hill near Kainach, western Styria, Austria, about 6 weeks ago. Here I would like to present a very specific visit to one of these sites at 05/15/2021. It was aimed to recover some more parts of already known rudists from the outcrop at site #30. Here we go! Approaching Römaskogel, the hill in the middle. Its 1006 m high, the snowy mountain in the background is the Gleinalpe mountain, nearly 2000 m high: Already near Römaskogel hill, again the hill in the middle. These meadows are much steeper than they appear in the pic: Location of the rudist outcrop along a forest road: Rudist outcrop, scale is 1x1 m. The rudist-bearing zone is about 80 cm thick and tips gently towards south to southeast. Individual conglomeratic rudist-bearing beds are separated by layers of siltstone. The whole extensions of the rudist-bearing zone seems to be at least about 300 m, with about 5 outcrops and indications known until now. This is the best outcrop discovered so far. Right part of the rudist outcrop. At the lower end of the scale, the next pic. The digging spot of this day is to the left of the pen: Rudists ("Vaccinites Rö1") in conglomerate in the outcrop, diameter is about 5 cm: The digging site as left at 05/06/2021 and found again a week later at 05/15/2021. I had already recovered two parts of #4901 and one part of #4910. The soft siltstone in the footwall of the rudist bed clearly facilitated the recovery of the remaining parts from the relatively hard conglomerate. The pen is 13.7 cm long: Intermediate stage of recovery. The rudists are orientated parallel to the bedding plane. They are flattened, the two big ones lying with the flat side on the bedding plane. The smaller one is orientated "on edge" to the bedding plane: Here is a primitive, highly schematic and out-of-scale sketch of the situation. #4901 and #4910 are also oriented antiparallel: Dig site after removing all the rudists. #4901 yielded two more fragment (total of 4), with the very last tip still remaining in the outcrop. #4910 yielded also two more fragments (total of 3, completely recovered). #4914 recovered in two fragments: Right part of the rudist outcrop after recovery of these three rudists. Notice the difference to the start of the recovery : Here is the complete specimen #4910. It consists of 4 fragments, that were already naturally broken. Uppermost part was found 05/01/2021, next part was found 05/08/2021, lower most parts are from 05/15/2021. The rudist is strongly flattened (about 1:2), as most of the specimens from this bed, and about 21 cm long. I don´t know the species yet, working name is "Vaccinites Rö2". (Remember, nothing was known in that area until about 6 weeks ago.) The shell has a flame-like structure, which can be nicely seen in the naturally weathered transverse section. These structure corresponds to the fine longitudinal striation of the shell. Otherwise, the rudist is smooth without any ribs. In the cross section, the P-pillars are barely visible to the right, the L-pillar is not visible: Not much time was put into this recovery, most of the day was spent prospecting an area nearby. "Discovered" a freshly widened forest road (actually as wide as a good highway!) which perfectly exposes the mostly alluvial and reddish Geistthal-formation and the following clastic-marine Afling-formation for some 100 m thickness. Not much was found, but its a very, very impressive section. Here is my prospecting area (Römaskogel is in the lower left corner) and route (in blue) of that day. Red R indicate the last (highest) reddish beds: Still a lot to walk and observe during my next trip, especially to the east of the already explored area.... You never know what you will find. For example, #45 and #46 are small Trochactaeon indications. But these will be followed up next spring, when the green has gone again. Or not at all . I only made one pic during prospecting, that of a thin (1-2 cm) seam of subbituminous coal withing silt-claystone, located between conglomerate beds (#47). Such occurrences are well-known in that area: So, that was quite a typical day in the field for me: Some collecting at known sites, but more prospecting for new sites! Thanks for looking and your interest! Franz Bernhard
  23. Ludwigia

    Pterotrigonia sp. (Van Hoepen 1929)

    From the album: German Gastropods and Bivalves

    5.5cm. long. From the Late Cretaceous Heimburg Formation in Blankenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt.
  24. From the album: Plantae

    5cm. From the Late Cretaceous Heimburg-Formation, Santonian at Blankenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt. A leaf from one of the very first deciduous genera.
  25. Could not resist collecting some more Trochactaeon snails at Breitenbach-11 in Kainach, Styria, Austria last Saturday (10/10/2020). Especially the upper T-bed contains rather well preserved (for the formation, of course ) snails. But always the right amount of weathering is needed (not too much, leads to disintegration of snails; not to less, they will adhere firmly to the rock). Still some potential there. Worked only with a screwdriver, needed only a few very gentle hammer taps. No prepping, just a short brush with a soft tooth brush. For more info about the area, have a look at my previous post: Trochactaeon - Gosau of Kainach, Styria, Austria - Summary Franz Bernhard
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