Off to the Callovian again

[Ludwigia]

I've been working at this site on and off for several years and decided it was time for another visit. A colleague of mine joined me in my efforts a year or so ago and he's been working diligently at it ever since. He recently informed me that he had opened up an exposure one zone higher up (koenigi) above the one we have generally been working at (herveyi) and had freed up what seems to be a promising row of blocks, judging by the finds he was making. So I figured it was time to have a look. Sure enough, after a couple of hours of hammering and prying, I managed to extricate a good sized Macrocephalites and several Choffatias which were amongst the ever present shell breccia in these turbidites.

 

 

There was what appeared to be a nice surprise after I removed the next block.

 

I was nevertheless a little wary, since the preservation at this level isn't always optimal, but the only way to find out is to get down to it, right? After about a quarter of an hour, I could see that the outer whorls were pretty rotten and in no condition to be saved.

 

But I figured I might as well remove the overburden and at least try to save the inner whorls. This took about another hour.

 

As you can already see, there are cracks running every whichway through it. No good sign. And once I had extracted it, it became obvious that it wasn't worth saving, particularly since the innermost whorls were nonexistent. Normally if they were there I would have tried to glue it all back together, but like I said, it just wasn't worth it to me.

 

Well, that's the luck of the draw, isn't it? You'll never know until you've tried.

I decided then and there that I'd leave that row of blocks for another day and began to hack down through the soft marl below to the row of blocks in the herveyi zone where I managed to dig out a few nice little ones.

 

I found a few more later on, but didn't think to photograph them, since darkness was beginning to set in and I was starting to think about the can of Red Bull waiting for me in the car.

Despite the disappointing giant ammo, I must say that this was one of the more successful digs I've done recently.

I'll start posting more here once prep is under way.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice haul! 

Look forward to seeing them prepped.

[FossilNerd]

Nice finds Roger! Like Adam, I can’t wait to see them after you work your prep magic.  

 

A pity about the larger one. 

[Fossildude19]

[Ludwigia]

8 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice haul! 

Look forward to seeing them prepped.

 

7 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

Nice finds Roger! Like Adam, I can’t wait to see them after you work your prep magic.  

 

A pity about the larger one. 

 

6 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

This may take a few days. First I have to get the car in for a tire change.

[Manticocerasman]

always nice to see pics of your field trips

Nice finds .

[RuMert]

The small ones ought to turn out great. Good job!

[Ludwigia]

2 hours ago, Manticocerasman said:

always nice to see pics of your field trips

Nice finds .

Thanks.

 

1 hour ago, RuMert said:

The small ones ought to turn out great. Good job!

I'm hoping the same for the larger ones

[Ludwigia]

Well, the tires are changed and I even managed to make a start with the prep. The large one in the first photo in 2 pieces turned out to be a dud, but these ones are ok.

 

Pyrgotrochus macrocephali with a Chlamys textoria bivalve in the aperture. ø 6cm.

 

Irregular Echinoid Nucleolites sp. 2cm. long.

 

Choffatia sp. ø 7cm.

 

More coming up tomorrow hopefully.

 

[Ludwigia]

How could I forget this one? One of the larger ones. Another Choffatia sp. ø 11.5cm.

 

 

[Everhardus]

 Nice too see these finds. Seems you did very well and the preservation is pretty good on these these ! Is this grey marly layer what devides these zones ? 

[Ludwigia]

13 minutes ago, Everhardus said:

 Nice too see these finds. Seems you did very well and the preservation is pretty good on these these ! Is this grey marly layer what devides these zones ? 

The preservation in the koenigi zone is mostly not as good as in the herveyi, so I'm quite happy with these Choffatia. The gastropod and echinoid are from the herveyi zone. The herveyi zone ends precisely at the marly layer, at which begins the koenigi zone. Basically herveyi zone = Rotes Erzlager and koenigi zone = Graublaues Erzlager, although this also extends up into the Violettes Erzlager.

[Everhardus]

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

The preservation in the koenigi zone is mostly not as good as in the herveyi, so I'm quite happy with these Choffatia. The gastropod and echinoid are from the herveyi zone. The herveyi zone ends precisely at the marly layer, at which begins the koenigi zone. Basically herveyi zone = Rotes Erzlager and koenigi zone = Graublaues Erzlager, although this also extends up into the Violettes Erzlager.

So, if i understand right you were digging in the koenigi zone probably not that far up, maybe 1.5 meter or so ?

[Ludwigia]

9 hours ago, Everhardus said:

So, if i understand right you were digging in the koenigi zone probably not that far up, maybe 1.5 meter or so ?

Yes. It's the row of blocks at the very top of the exposure. You have to remove a couple of feet of debris which has slipped from above in order to get at it.

 

The last Choffatia from those blocks didn't turn out, as well as the large Macrocephalites, which was just missing too much substance and the inner whorls were nonexistent, so I've just lain it aside. I've pictured it below nontheless.

 

 

So now I'm left with the smaller finds out of the herveyi zone. The following two Choffatia and the Macrocephalites turned out to my satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

[Everhardus]

7 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Yes. It's the row of blocks at the very top of the exposure. You have to remove a couple of feet of debris which has slipped from above in order to get at it.

 

That explains it then, i didn't see any of that zone but there was a lot of debris !

[Everhardus]

Interesting stuff. I just found a paper in which, i guess, the lower Callovian is called the "Macrocephalus schichten" which is devided between 0,5 m. Rote lager, 2m, Graublaues Lager and on top 1 m Violettes lager.

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, Everhardus said:

Interesting stuff. I just found a paper in which, i guess, the lower Callovian is called the "Macrocephalus schichten" which is devided between 0,5 m. Rote lager, 2m, Graublaues Lager and on top 1 m Violettes lager.

Yes, that's the old name which is still used sometimes. They all belong to the Wutach Formation, which was described 2010 by Gerd Dietl. It begins with the Bathonian Orbisoolith, then come the 3 Erzlagers and it is topped by the Grenzkalk Member. The zones in ascending order are herveyi, koenigi, calloviense, jason amd coronatum. Koenigi stretches from the graublau into the violett, which is then topped by the calloviense. The last two are in the Grenzkalk.

[Everhardus]

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

Yes, that's the old name which is still used sometimes. They all belong to the Wutach Formation, which was described 2010 by Gerd Dietl. It begins with the Bathonian Orbisoolith, then come the 3 Erzlagers and it is topped by the Grenzkalk Member. The zones in ascending order are herveyi, koenigi, calloviense, jason amd coronatum. Koenigi stretches from the graublau into the violett, which is then topped by the calloviense. The last two are in the Grenzkalk.

These old names make perfect sense to me....

 

[JimB88]

Nice finds and great prep as usual Roger! Are gastropods rare there? Haven't seen too many of them in your posts. Is the echinoid an internal mold? It doesnt seem to have much surface detail (plates and such.)

[Ludwigia]

7 hours ago, JimB88 said:

Nice finds and great prep as usual Roger! Are gastropods rare there? Haven't seen too many of them in your posts. Is the echinoid an internal mold? It doesnt seem to have much surface detail (plates and such.)

Hi Jim,

 

You're right. Gastropods are not all that common. The echinoid shell is preserved, but extremely eroded, which is why the details are not there any more.

 

I didn't get all that much done today since I was concentrating mostly on commission work, but here are some small ammos which I prepped in between. 2 Choffatia and one Macrocephalites.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

Well, here's the last of the lot. Had to chuck away a couple of them, but most turned out ok.

 

 

 

 

[RuMert]

With your prepping skills everything looks fantastic no matter the preservation

[Ludwigia]

8 hours ago, RuMert said:

With your prepping skills everything looks fantastic no matter the preservation

[jeannie55]

Now this is really sad. I wrote a post and thought I sent it. If this is a repeat sorry bit you are truly an artist. I’m in awe of your skills 

[Ludwigia]

8 hours ago, jeannie55 said:

Now this is really sad. I wrote a post and thought I sent it. If this is a repeat sorry bit you are truly an artist. I’m in awe of your skills 

Not to worry. Sometimes our thoughts are distracted while we are doing something completely different than we had been thinking Thanks for your appreciation.