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Back to the divisum zone


Ludwigia

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Maybe some of you remember way back a few years ago when I started reporting on my adventures in the ditch at the side of the road in the Upper Danube Valley. At that time I was excavating the Kimmeridgian divisum zone, but after a couple of years the digs got so close to the cliffs that it was time to leave it in peace. Since then I've been digging in the hypselocylum zone, which is deeper and far enough away from the cliff to be completely safe to work. There is however still one safe spot in the divisum zone that I keep walking past and thinking that I should have a go at it someday, but it's covered with such a large amount of overburden that I can't be bothered. Up until now. I've managed over the last couple of years to recover most of the available species from the hypselocylum zone, with the exception of a couple of extremely rare ones, and that's the main reason I keep on digging there. But I just needed a change today, so I thought I'd finally try my luck at that safe spot. We'd had quite a bit of rain over the past week, so I ended up using a lot of the overburden to build a dam and sluices in order to drain away the water which had accumulated directly at the place I wanted to dig. This took at least an hour, but it did the job, and I could get down to it. Here are a couple of shots I took after I'd spent a few more hours working at the exposure. As you can see, it was quite a muddy matter :P Thank goodness my wife does the laundry without complaint.

 

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It turned out to be well worth the effort. Here are my finds of the day.

 

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Now I can hardly wait to get to work on them, particularly that one at the top. I'll keep you posted on that.

 

 

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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19 minutes ago, Everhardus said:

I see you’ve been quite busy ! Yess the top one looks great allready !

 

1 minute ago, Ruger9a said:

Wow, what a fantastic find!

Thanks guys. I'll have that top one done tomorrow. Guaranteed.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Great finds Roger! Your efforts were well worth it! I too am keen on seeing that top one prepped. Well, all of them, but especially the top. :) 

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The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.  -Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

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I knew there was a reason that I liked you, ludwigia.  I just figured it out.  Not only are you doing some real work to collect good fossils, but you have THREE Estwings on site.  Three!

 

10 Points from the Wyoming judge.   

 

Do those green ammonites stay green when you prep them?  

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Hmn. I must admit I'm a big fan of the divisum zone. Wonder why? Can't wait to those luscious treats prepped. Good luck Roger. 

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9 hours ago, jpc said:

I knew there was a reason that I liked you, ludwigia.  I just figured it out.  Not only are you doing some real work to collect good fossils, but you have THREE Estwings on site.  Three!

 

10 Points from the Wyoming judge.   

 

Do those green ammonites stay green when you prep them?  

:) There is one club hammer and two extremely long-handled pick hammers. I use one of them as a "bergeisen" together with the club hammer, like the old miners used to do. Does an excellent job splitting layers and concretions. Much better than chisels in my opinion since it has a lot more clout.

The green, as you surely know, comes from Glauconite. Some purists don't abrade them after having cleaned them up with the stylus, since they want to retain the "Grünlinge", as the well-known ones from the Gräfenberg quarry are called. I prefer to abrade them lightly in order to remove the remains of the matrix which tend to stick to the steinkern. This is of course detrimental to the deep green color, but the green tint still does remain. And besides, they weren't originally green anyway.

 

8 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

Now I am in the mood for a trip to Germany.

Ammos are my favorites.

As I've already offered to other members here, you're welcome any time :)

 

7 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Hmn. I must admit I'm a big fan of the divisum zone. Wonder why? Can't wait to those luscious treats prepped. Good luck Roger. 

Thanks Jeff. The spot is quite farther down to the left of where you and Ralph and Aza were digging, right at the point where the layer begins to dip down under the ditch. I figure I'll be able to do a few more excavations there, but after that I'd have to open up a deep mining operation.

 

2 hours ago, caterpillar said:

I think you have found a good Crussoliceras. Isn't it?

You guessed it. C.divisum, the zone ammonite. You may have noticed the one on the left in the block as well. It looked promising for a good multiblock at first, but it's turned out to be just a partial, so I'll be removing the Crussoliceras from the block completely.

 

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Wow, that site looks 'sploorpy'..you have a very patient wife! :P 

Cant wait to see how the ammos look after your done with em'.

:popcorn:

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17 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

Can't wait to see the photos of your finished product.

 

15 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

Great finds Roger! Your efforts were well worth it! I too am keen on seeing that top one prepped. Well, all of them, but especially the top. :) 

 

3 hours ago, caterpillar said:

Yes, I've seen the one in the left. I can't wait to see the block prepared

 

1 hour ago, JimB88 said:

Wow, that site looks 'sploorpy'..you have a very patient wife! :P 

Cant wait to see how the ammos look after your done with em'.

:popcorn:

I got started on them this morning and began of course with the one at the top. As I already mentioned above, the half visible ammo to the left on the block turned out to be just that. Half an ammo. So I just decided to remove the good one completely from the matrix. I've mentioned in previous threads that this exposure is a sponge reef, so I had to contend with a lot of heavily concretized sponges which build the hardground here and these ammos had come to rest on the sponges in a particularly densly populated section of the reef. Most of the sponges aren't worth saving to me, since they go on forever sometimes in an unmanageable chaos. Sometimes there are some interesting bits and bites just laying around and waiting to be picked up, as was the case with the one pictured below. Anyway, because of the described situation, most of the ammonites had only one good side. But when you display them, you normally only see one side, right? So, without further ado, here's the one from the block. A Crussiloceras divisum with ø 12.5cm.

 

A1631a.thumb.jpg.b1a16e824b4b9e21c92ba8f4f3b7a2b5.jpg

 

And here's what the reverse side looks like, to give you an idea about what I was talking about.

A1631b.thumb.jpg.8f1eb870f83264bdab3b16aed6d3f5b4.jpg

 

Here's the piece of sponge I mentioned. I found it interesting because of the attached oyster and the small tube worm on it.

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Stauroderma buchi 6x4cm.

 

And here are a couple of smaller ammonites which I finished off as well.

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Rasenia (Eurasenia) trifurcata ø 3cm.

 

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Discosphinctoides sp. 4.5cm.

 

More to come tomorrow.

 

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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<searches for passport>

 

<realizes stuck in CONUS due to pandemic>

 

<cries quietly in office with lights off for a bit>

 

Green. Ammos. and. inverts.

 

:drool:

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43 minutes ago, RuMert said:

Nice piece with sponge and worm

And quite well preserved as well. I picked it up because of that and the oyster and didn't see the tube worm until after abrading it.

 

16 minutes ago, jpc said:

Very nice.  They still look pretty greeninsh.  : )

 

That's what I was hoping.

 

13 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

<searches for passport>

 

<realizes stuck in CONUS due to pandemic>

 

<cries quietly in office with lights off for a bit>

 

Green. Ammos. and. inverts.

 

:drool:

Not to worry. Things can only get better from now on (hopefully).

 

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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I like the one sided Crussiloceras divisum.  Although the sponge, oyster and worm so come in a close second.

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38 minutes ago, Ruger9a said:

I like the one sided Crussiloceras divisum.  Although the sponge, oyster and worm so come in a close second.

 

4 minutes ago, Adam86cucv said:

They cleaned up beautifully.  As always excellent hunt and prep.

 :envy:

Thanks guys. Here are two more Discosphinctoides sp. I did this afternoon.

 

A1634a.thumb.jpg.178a05360ed3b19c47e687877106e076.jpg

 

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  • I found this Informative 5

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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