Bracklesham bay bonanza (not really) 30/3/21

[Notidanodon]

Hi guys

hope everyone’s having a great Easter, if you celebrate it.

A few days ago I got to go fossil hunting for the first time in monthswhile it wasn’t the most productive as the beds were covered by sand and not much erosion had taken place but I found enough in some micro matrix I bought home to warrant a trip report  

The geology of bracklesham bay

To the left, the yellow is wittering fm. Some fossils can be found here but not many. The best area to hunt is the green earnley fm. Which produces the most abundant fossils, here is a photo of it when exposed

the fossils to clay ratio averages out at about 3:1 in some beds!

on this hunt, the area I focused on was the E5 palate bed, but I found a lot  from the turitella bed and the nummulites bed  

to the right, is the marsh farm fm, this is good for finding fossil corals, such as this

 

anyway, a good source of info is this great video on YouTube, where I got a lot of this info from 

 

for identification of fossils, I like to use this website

http://dmap.co.uk/fossils/bracklesham/vert/brackvert.htm There are some great specimens to check out on there, but not all species at bracklesham bay are listed there  

 

we set out at 3 in the afternoon to be at the beach 2 hours before the 6:30 low tide, at bracklesham the best hunt is on the falling tide. It was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky, when we got there, we even went in the sea! Not for long though, as we all would get frostbite. Soon the hunt began.

here are some pics of the site and me  

not much was found in the first hour and a half, only a few small ray bars, the most common vertebrate find here, and this luck would sadly continue, it was a very poor day for hunting sadly, I was the only one on the beach that day out of 4 others that came out with anything other than shells, sad considering on a good day you can walk out with 50-100 vertebrate bits, at bracklesham you are at the mercy of nature I guess   
After an hour of little luck, I found something that made my day, a very rare bone, anything other than sharks and ray is very hard to come across here, in my time collecting here; I’ve seen 3 people walk off with an auriculatis but only 1 other with a complete bone like this, so I’m super happy  

it has been identified as trionyx marginatus.

after half an hour more of not finding anything, I went to collecting matrix as I wasn’t finding much.

 

I have run out of time to post now so I will put the rest of my finds up later today   

[JamieLynn]

Great report and photos!! Even though you might not have found much, just being out on that beautiful beach is a good thing!  

[oyo]

1º - Blessed are you who can go out to collect fossils, I've been locked up for months.

4 hours ago, will stevenson said:

2º - Nice coral. If you want to keep it with a suitable label, put Goniopora websteri (Bowerbank, 1840).

3º - Someone can always appear touching the balls that Goniopora is a poorly defined genre and things like that. In any case you will have a good literary reference of your specimen, you can also consult Milne-Edwards & Haime 1850 and Ducan 1880 for more information.

[Notidanodon]

Onto the finds 

starting with the invertebrates, I gave most of them to some other hunters on the beach as they were looking for invertebrates and hadn’t found much

 

1. Nummulites britannicus

2.ostrea (maybe edulis)

3. venericor, these can get much larger, I have one that is over 10cm

4. turbinolia sp. 

5. various turrilites species

6. Fissidentalium grandis

7. various bivalves

8. granosolarium, nipteraxis or omalaxis 

9. various gastropods

10. a bit of the goniopora websteri 

Edited April 5, 2021 by will stevenson

[oyo]

Goniopora for the coral please. Goniophora is a clam.

[Notidanodon]

 Now onto my favourite vertebrate bits  

1. various ray bits, myliobatis dixoni, aetobatus irregularis

2. the first fish scale I have found, any ideas

3. various vertebrae from micro matrix searches

4. various bone bits

5. Various broken sharks teeth

6. Very unsure on this, based on cusp shape, I think isurolamna affinis 

7. Various fish teeth

8. rhizoprionodon ganntourensis I think for all of these, what do you think?, I got some close ups of the best one

9. I think this is abdounia but it’s very large, what did you think

10. Abdounia reticona

11. a fish jaw, it’s hard to see the sockets

12. Abdounia minutissima

13. daysatid

 14. orthopristis kokeni 

15. finally the trionyx marginatus phalanx

 

 

Thanks for checking in everyone, have a great Easter  

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by will stevenson

[Notidanodon]

2 hours ago, oyo said:

Goniopora for the coral please. Goniophora is a clam.

Edited  thanks 

[Myrmica]

What amazing finds!  You are lucky to have such a diverse site within reach, and no hammering required..

[bthemoose]

Glad you were able to get out! I especially like the shark tooth micros.

[Al Dente]

This one is Rhynchobatus.

 

 

[Notidanodon]

8 hours ago, bthemoose said:

Glad you were able to get out! I especially like the shark tooth micros.

Thanks, I like the micros too, they are often in good condition as the beach is very Sandy and the waves are very gentle  

[Notidanodon]

8 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

This one is Rhynchobatus.

 

 

Oops yes thanks, I really need to improve on my ray identification 

[sharkdoctor]

Great trip report and finds, Will. I especially loved the site photos and explanation. BTW, thanks for the ID site. Gives a great sense of the fauna for the site.

 

[Notidanodon]

41 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

Great trip report and finds, Will. I especially loved the site photos and explanation. BTW, thanks for the ID site. Gives a great sense of the fauna for the site.

 

Glad you liked it   That site does have some great specimens on it, my dream is to find an auriculatis lol