Frozen fossils. Part III

[Wrangellian]

3 hours ago, Norki said:

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These photos are a repost from another thread, but I think they show that snow doesn't always need to be an obstacle for finding fossils:

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Wow! They're like giant-sized versions of RuMert's ammonites! (obviously I missed your original topic)

[Wrangellian]

On 1/30/2021 at 7:59 AM, RuMert said:

To get to the fossil layer (Amoeboceras serratum ammonite zone) we had to remove: 1. snow

2. compacted Holocene layer with occasional stones/bricks/glass fragments (which was not hard as it easily broke into big pieces)

3. soft Jurassic clay feeling like earth

Near the riverfront the target layer started just there

This shows dedication. I am a bit soft and would be deterred by these conditions like some of our other members, though I have collected in the winter here in my local area before, when the weather wasn't too bad and the ground isn't (totally) covered in snow. We don't get very much snow but we get a lot of rain - especially this year! It needs to be somewhat dry for me to collect: when the shale is wet, it and the fossils tend to fall apart more easily, so it's not so much the temperature as the wetness that prevents me from collecting here in the winter.

I'm surprised that your flaky-looking ammo's hold together well enough in the water to collect. I like your other fauna (the bivalves etc) as much as the ammonites, the preservation is very nice.

[Norki]

34 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Wow! They're like giant-sized versions of RuMert's ammonites! (obviously I missed your original topic)

The cold makes the ammonites shinier, obviously.

[RuMert]

Thanks everybody for the comments!

7 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

I'm surprised that your flaky-looking ammo's hold together well enough in the water to collect.

They are found in dense clay, preventing anything destructive from happening to them. When clay blocks break, they are tightly attached the the break surface, imprints and normal alike. Some still fall out as the one with red arrows. They are pyritized (if whole) unlike those in "summer sites"

7 hours ago, Norki said:

The cold makes the ammonites shinier, obviously

Great ammos and great site. I missed the report too it seems

[Wrangellian]

7 hours ago, Norki said:

The cold makes the ammonites shinier, obviously.

Ha! Well here on the Wet Coast, the ammo's on Hornby Island are somewhat nacreous, the ones in Nanaimo are white, and the ones here in the Cowichan Valley are dark brown to black. Can you shed some light on that? 

[Wrangellian]

16 minutes ago, RuMert said:

They are found in dense clay, preventing anything destructive from happening to them. When clay blocks break, they are tightly attached the the break surface, imprints and normal alike. Some still fall out as the one with red arrows. They are pyritized (if whole) unlike those in "summer sites"

Great ammos and great site. I missed the report too it seems

The last time I collected nacreous ammonites they were flaky, sort of the way yours look (but not as nice). They did not survive extraction well at all. But of course preservation and matrix vary all over the map - around here it's shale/mudstone, which is harder and more splintery than clay. Soft/splintery fossils inside harder splintery matrix, Ugh!

[RJB]

Wow!  What a thread.  Thanks for all the photo's.  Love them

 

RB

[Sjfriend]

22 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

Beautiful ammonites! @RuMert How many hours of sunlight do you have on the winter solstice?

 

Unrelated question but how do you alaskans (@Sjfriend @AK hiker) get used to the 19+ hours of no sun a day? That's like the sun setting at 2:30

As @jpc said, part of it is twilight last a long time. Where I live, on the shortest day the sun goes down at 4pm but you still have an hour of usable daylight (where you can still see color). So even though the day says 5.5 hours of sun we get actually get about 8 hours of stay outside light. Of course that is if there are no clouds, where where I live that doesn't happen a lot due to being by ocean.

 

As as @AK hikersaid, find indoor activities (like napping lol). Funny, when sun goes down at 4pm by 7pm you're thinking it's midnight already!

[Everhardus]

Amazing stuff, thanx for showing !

[TriloCrabs]

On 2/1/2021 at 7:16 PM, Norki said:

The cold makes the ammonites shinier, obviously.

Shiny Omanytes, lol!

[RuMert]

Finally sorted our the finds. That's all I have (+ a few imprints) after 3 days of digging. Not so rich But I did find a small Oxfordian shark tooth (4 mm long)  in a sturdy phosphorite concretion and something that might or might not be interesting but needs prepping

[Notidanodon]

Possibly a synechodus? For the sharks tooth, nice finds

[RuMert]

Thanks! It's quite possible, but I don't think I can clean the left side and the right one is broken

[RuMert]

I'll post here this season's trips to Bronnitsy not to multiply topics. There will probably be a couple more as the hole we made has to be finished  and afterwards there are plans to visit the site with our paleontologists to gather material on ammonites and protozoa. Here are some pics from the latest trip

 

This is how the place looked after a month's rest and snowfalls

 

 

some snow removal

 

 

and it's back to "normal"

 

[RuMert]

in situ or almost

 

[RuMert]

The better finds. As I said, the site is not that rich

 

The pyritized part is 3,5 cm

 

The tuskshell was complete but I somehow lost the tip at home (IMHO)

[Wrangellian]

That site seems pretty rich to me!

I have the same trouble with pieces going missing when I collect my local sites, both at home and in the field, especially with things like scaphopods. Glance away for a second then look back, and a piece is suddenly missing, and try as I might, I can not locate it again. In the field it's particularly difficult because the piece falls down into the gaps between the debris and it would require a whole new large-scale excavation to recover it.

[RuMert]

Yep, that "suddenly missing" thing is irritating Especially when you take measures to ensure it wont. Reminds me of the missing money scene from Amityville

[Wrangellian]

Yes, there were times when I could have sworn there was some sort of gremlin up there that wanted to annoy me by hiding fossils!