Western Adventure Part IV: Colorado

[Jeffrey P]

On 9/22/2021 at 4:38 PM, traveltip1 said:

Looks like a fun adventure....

Thanks Greg, it was fun. Glad you enjoyed it too. 

[Wrangellian]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

I would say that's hardly the case. Maybe because I visited two sites with the same formation that it appears so. I'm sure a lot of similar material can be found on Vancouver Island, but you would know all about that.  Glad you enjoyed the trip.                    

No, they're not all the same, of course, especially when you include the Paleozoic sites of which there are less over here but there is a lot of Mesozoic (esp. Cretaceous) and the baculites we find on Hornby Island could be easily mixed up with those you found, and the Ino's look the same as ours too. Also there are several Eocene lake deposits in BC that look much the same as the ones from the Western US states, and yet the preservation style is quite different from the Cretaceous stuff! I have remarked in the past that the Lower Cambrian sites up and down the West, from BC to California, look very similar too, e.g. there seems to be no black shale from that age, only orangish/beige muddy shale with Olenellid cephalons.

Of course someone is bound to come along in the next 10 minutes and give me an example that contradicts my generalizations....

[jpc]

3 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Thanks JPC. Maybe next time I'll visit Eastern/Central Wyoming. I hear there's some real good collecting up there. 

I have heard that rumor as well.  

[Norki]

On 9/19/2021 at 3:40 PM, Wrangellian said:

I get the impression (sorry) that fossils are basically the same all over the West! (including here)

Thanks for taking us along.

I know what you mean. Baculites, Placenticeras, and Inoceramus are seemingly everywhere in the interior plains, they must have all been super successful and prolific genera to have dominated in the Western Interior Seaway for so long...

 

edit: Oh yeah, and of course Baculites and Inoceramus on Vancouver Island! Though it makes me wonder why Placenticeras never seems to occur in those deposits (unless you count Hoploplacenticeras I guess), maybe it wasn't suited for living in the Pacific Ocean.

Also, nice finds OP!

Edited September 30, 2021 by Norki

[Wrangellian]

We don't have scaphites either. Other than that, a lot of similarity.

[Jeffrey P]

18 hours ago, Norki said:

I know what you mean. Baculites, Placenticeras, and Inoceramus are seemingly everywhere in the interior plains, they must have all been super successful and prolific genera to have dominated in the Western Interior Seaway for so long...

 

edit: Oh yeah, and of course Baculites and Inoceramus on Vancouver Island! Though it makes me wonder why Placenticeras never seems to occur in those deposits (unless you count Hoploplacenticeras I guess), maybe it wasn't suited for living in the Pacific Ocean.

Also, nice finds OP!

I wish to point out that Placenticeras, Inoceramus, and Baculites are also found in New Jersey's Upper Cretaceous. In fact, I found small fragments of Placenticeras and Baculites there earlier in the summer. Unfortunately, due to a lack of exposures except for stream embankments, the fossils tend to be very fragmentary, though I have seen complete Inoceramus and Placenticeras from N.J., though these are quite rare. The Chesapeake/Delaware Canal used to produce very large complete Placenticeras ammonites before they covered the exposure about 40 years ago. Here are some examples from the C/D Canal in the MAPS collection. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Jeffrey P

[old bones]

Great trip report! I enjoyed all the photos!

[Wrangellian]

On 9/30/2021 at 4:26 PM, Jeffrey P said:

I wish to point out that Placenticeras, Inoceramus, and Baculites are also found in New Jersey's Upper Cretaceous. In fact, I found small fragments of Placenticeras and Baculites there earlier in the summer. Unfortunately, due to a lack of exposures except for stream embankments, the fossils tend to be very fragmentary, though I have seen complete Inoceramus and Placenticeras from N.J., though these are quite rare. The Chesapeake/Delaware Canal used to produce very large complete Placenticeras ammonites before they covered the exposure about 40 years ago. Here are some examples from the C/D Canal in the MAPS collection.

No one said those taxa did not exist outside Western N.A, but it sounds like such sites are rare over there.

Thanks for showing the picture.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Wrangellian