Richmond ,NW Queensland ,2020

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Hello All this is a wrap up of our finds from our Richmond trips 2020

This post is about two trips combined where I visited the same location which is Richmond , NW Queensland Australia. The dig site is a public dig area which contains Cretaceous marine material from the Toolebuc formation. This site is well known for its abundant fish, shark ,marine reptile bones and rare bird/ pterosaur fossils.

Growing up in the North Island of New Zealand and I have been collecting fossils since I was a kid however fossils from vertebrate animals are exceedingly rare in that area (Except Shark teeth) therefore my knowledge of vertebrate fossils is very poor. So, going out to Richmond which has abundant vertebrate fossils is a dream come true I have learnt so much over the last 3 years heading out there.

The first trip was in July which I did with my partner and kids and the 2^nd trip was in October which I did solo due to the extreme weather at the time. Due to the weather which was 42C and threat of severe storms I located the area I wanted to dig and did most my work at night with lamps, there were also less flies at night which made it more pleasant.

During the two trips we found several turtle bones which was exciting and unexpected, it wasn’t the kind of marine reptile bones we had in mind. We found a small ichthyosaur tooth and a neural arch. There are layers of material known as fish mash which contain large amounts of small fish bones. Amongst this we found a few larger fish bones and a fish tail. My partner also found the largest and first sharks’ tooth of our trip she was very happy about this.  We collected some of this material which we took home and broke up and sieved for shark teeth and any other rare or unusually specimens.

 

Working alongside my 11 year old son we broke up and processed the fish mash material where we found a few smaller turtle bones and sharks teeth our best finds were 3 johnlongia teeth these are usually rare so we were good finds, the third tooth which he found he was able to ID the tooth which was great to see how much he has learnt. Also goes to show how much better his eyes are than mine as I missed it.

  

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone on the forum who has given me advice and helped me ID fossils especially Mike D’Arcy without your help we would of never made these finds thanks a lot mate.

Cannot wait to get back out there.

 

 

 

 

Finding the dig site before dark, yes the silly looking mask is required to keep the flies out.

The dig site at night.

My wifes tooth.

 

I will put more pictures in comments

 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Johnlongia teeth

 

 

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Turtle Bones scale of squares are 1cmX1cm

 

 

 

 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

 Ichthyosaur Fossils

Small Tooth ( A bit damaged) 

 

Neural arch

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Fish Tail

 

Fish Tail.

 

 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Large Fish bones

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Fish Jaws small ,scale of squares 5x5mm

 

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Unsual Fish teeth

 

Large fish tooth 

 

Small tooth 3mm long Most Likley Lizard fish

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Other Shark teeth

 

 

 

 

[connorp 1,558]

Very nice finds!

[Tidgy's Dad 15,221]

Great finds.

Thanks for sharing.

[PaleoNoel 1,260]

Cool finds! Nice variety and certainly a formation you don't see on the forum everyday..

[Ludwigia 6,963]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like that micro matrix was well worth sifting.

[Jeffrey P 3,019]

Very impressive finds! Those turtle bones and micro fish jaws are especially cool. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

On 14/01/2021 at 3:13 PM, PaleoNoel said:

Cool finds! Nice variety and certainly a formation you don't see on the forum everyday..

Cheers hoping to add plenty of more finds from this formation this year.

[Huntlyfossils 30]

On 14/01/2021 at 8:23 PM, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for sharing. Looks like that micro matrix was well worth sifting.

Sure was 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

On 15/01/2021 at 3:08 AM, Jeffrey P said:

Very impressive finds! Those turtle bones and micro fish jaws are especially cool. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. 

Thanks for that im more than happy to share

[rodrex 9]

very nice finds

[Paleoworld-101 578]

I especially like the complete turtle humerus (or femur?). Have you found any ichthyosaur vertebrae before? I never had much luck finding those at Richmond. The paddle bones seem more common up there. 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

57 minutes ago, Paleoworld-101 said:

I especially like the complete turtle humerus (or femur?). Have you found any ichthyosaur vertebrae before? I never had much luck finding those at Richmond. The paddle bones seem more common up there. 

No I haven't , I have been looking out for them , I have found a few of what I think are paddle bo es. My understanding is the other formation in the area which has the really hard moonrocks has a lot more complete bones but are hard work to prep. I tried to break a few of these and they were that hard the hammer rebounded and almost got me in the head.The turtle bones are very dense so seem to preserve a bit better in the softer material.

[Paleoworld-101 578]

1 hour ago, Huntlyfossils said:

No I haven't , I have been looking out for them , I have found a few of what I think are paddle bo es. My understanding is the other formation in the area which has the really hard moonrocks has a lot more complete bones but are hard work to prep. I tried to break a few of these and they were that hard the hammer rebounded and almost got me in the head.The turtle bones are very dense so seem to preserve a bit better in the softer material.

 

I believe the yellowish/pale moonrocks come out of the same formation as is present at the council quarries (i.e. the Toolebuc), albeit a different horizon or part of the formation. Unless you are talking about the fossil concretions within the Allaru Mudstone. Are you referring to the council quarries as having softer rocks? Ichthyosaurs are still quite plentiful there. I think the protostegid turtles were just more numerous within the Eromanga at this time, followed by ichthyosaurs (Platypterygius), and plesiosaurs being relatively rare. 

[Huntlyfossils 30]

Yes im talking about the council quarries oh I didnt realise the moonrock were from the same formation. I was thinking of the Allaru mudstone which has some different fossils as they have ammonites as well which are rare in the Toolebuc. I still haven't found an ammonite out there yet.