My Best Carboniferous Finds

[deutscheben]

Fascinating, what a great find! What have you used to help with identifying your fish specimens? I am finding lots of pieces in my local black shale but having trouble figuring out what they are. 

[Petalodus12]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:55 PM, deutscheben said:

Fascinating, what a great find! What have you used to help with identifying your fish specimens? I am finding lots of pieces in my local black shale but having trouble figuring out what they are. 

Lots of different resources. I tend to utilize scientific papers, with one of the most useful being this one: 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/abs/an-early-actinopterygian-ichthyofauna-from-the-scottish-lower-coal-measures-formation-westphalian-a-bashkirian/95E50DDDE1BD6702D91EE0937C71A084

 

It is not open access, so I use my university credentials to read it. I can send along some of the useful figures from the article via PM if you'd like.

 

[Petalodus12]

I've been having a lot of luck recently with my backyard site. Because I have found an area where the formation I work is buried, but exposed, I have been able to work with much larger chunks of shale. Although both chemically and physically the rocks are quite weathered, the simple fact that I have more formation to work with has allowed me to find many more fish bones and other interesting finds. 

One of the best is this fish jaw, which is most probably from a Paleoniscoid. In comparison to my other finds from this formation it is quite large and well preserved. The teeth are covered by a fine layer of shale, but can be seen as bumps above the jaw. 

It is not identifiable to species; however, I have found multiple different jaws with distinct patterning on the bones and tooth arrangement, which indicates multiple different species being present in this layer. Jaws can be especially useful as the size and shape of teeth are logically related to the diet of whatever possessed this jaw in life. 

 

[deutscheben]

19 hours ago, Petalodus12 said:

Lots of different resources. I tend to utilize scientific papers, with one of the most useful being this one: 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/abs/an-early-actinopterygian-ichthyofauna-from-the-scottish-lower-coal-measures-formation-westphalian-a-bashkirian/95E50DDDE1BD6702D91EE0937C71A084

 

It is not open access, so I use my university credentials to read it. I can send along some of the useful figures from the article via PM if you'd like.

 

Thanks! I am affiliated with a university as well so I shouldn’t have any problem accessing it.

 

[jdp]

Excellent actinopt jaw!

[Fossildude19]

Very nice!

Cropped:

 

 

[Petalodus12]

1 hour ago, jdp said:

Excellent actinopt jaw!

Thanks!

[Wrangellian]

I've missed this topic until now too... great stuff and good info! The Mooreoceras and the Asterophyllites are my faves, not surprisingly if you know me, but I would be very pleased to find that fish and the other vertebrate bits too.

[Petalodus12]

6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

I've missed this topic until now too... great stuff and good info! The Mooreoceras and the Asterophyllites are my faves, not surprisingly if you know me, but I would be very pleased to find that fish and the other vertebrate bits too.

I am glad that you have enjoyed it! The rocks around the Pittsburgh area definitely produce a little bit of everything!

[Petalodus12]

On 3/3/2021 at 4:33 PM, Petalodus12 said:

Hi all,

I've been away from the Forum for awhile, as I am quite busy with classes. 

However, with the warmer weather in my area I have been able to collect a good bit at my backyard site. Last week, while cleaning off the rocks that I had collected before splitting them, I recognized an unusual piece of fish bone sticking out from under the matrix. I quickly washed it off and realized that it could possibly be an articulated skull roof from an actinopterygian, which would make it the first truly articulated material I had found at my backyard site, and a possibly scientifically important find. @jdp was very helpful and confirmed my suspicions. This is an important find because articulated material is quite rare from the formation in which I hunt (Casselman) and research in that area is rather lacking.  It is also a great find for me personally, as I have always wanted to find something important on my own property. It should not be understated that this is quite the accomplishment for me, as I have been working this deposit on almost every day with good weather for 3 years now. I am not sure if I have mentioned it beforehand, but the state of this deposit makes it exceptionally hard to collect from. There are virtually no surface exposures of the layer I collect from, and the rocks that I do find are often severely weathered by roots and frost. Needless to say this makes finding rarer material nearly impossible in this deposit, but fortunately I got lucky. 

 

Because of the COVID-19 situation it will probably be a long while before I donate this specimen- all of the researchers for the Carnegie Museum work remotely now, and so much of their activity is on hold. I am an employee there in education and know the staff in the Vertebrate Paleontology department, so once things go back to normal this specimen will be in their collections.  I will post on this thread with any updates. For now, the specimen is safely packed away in a small, padded box. 

 

Stratigraphy of the site:

 Duquesne Shale

Casselman Formation

Conemaugh Group

Age: Missourian (~303 MYA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After communicating with the Carnegie Museum's Vertebrate Paleontology department, this specimen is, in fact, scientifically useful and will be donated to their collection. As I stated before donation is on hold due to COVID but it has now been formalized. I am beyond glad to know that a specimen dug out of my own backyard will now be going in to the scientific trust. As proceedings continue I will give updates. 

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

Here's another actinopterygian dermal bone from the backyard site for today. I have been finding quite a good many bones recently, which has given me some opportunities to learn about the anatomy of the fish that they came from. This one is 1/2 of the pectoral girdle (shoulder) of one of these fish. These are quite common and always make for an interesting find.

It's also nice as it is one of the only readily identifiable bones that I have found. Hopefully I can find an articulated specimen at some point, so that I can see all of these bones in their natural placings.

 

[Petalodus12]

Hi all,

It's been awhile. I have been away from the site for a good long time; that being said, I have made some pretty great progress with my specimens from the Duquesne shale. Along with discovering many more bones of these fish, I have begun legitimate research on this unit through a volunteer project with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I can't say much about the project at this time, but what I can say is that it is quite exciting and is quite literally a dream come true. Eventually, I will be donating all of my significant finds, or perhaps even all of my Duquesne collection, to the museum (pending available space). I have already donated the Diplichnites trackway which I posted about a while ago. I am also back at school now, so I will be quite busy for the fall. I will try to post incrementally, when I get the chance.