Isle of Wight 2022

[Notidanodon]

Hi guys, managed to get my annual trip to the Isle of Wight in this august. I had a great time and found some amazing fossils.  I will write each report in this thread when I have time. 

The first trip wasn’t actually on the Isle of Wight but bracklesham bay, and the day started at 5:30  so I could get there for the low tide. 
For a summer trip this was actually amazingly successful so hope you enjoy  

 

Lovely view as usual!

Here are some not so hard spot your own fossils.  

big Venericor

All the finds.

And now for some closeups:

Striatolamia macrota, the top left one is interesting as it was found far down the beach where the wittering formation which doesn’t normally produce teeth is  .

Brachycarcharias lerichei

Anomotodon novus

turtle shell

Shark Denticles? Does anyone have any ideas?

All the Ray  plates and a rare section of associated Myliobatis.

My first partial croc tooth.

Physogaleus secundus

We went for a nice walk along the coast to west wittering where I found this fossil fish scale.

Until next time.  

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by will stevenson

[siteseer]

Hi Will,

 

That looks like a gar scale.  The opposite side might be shinier.

[Al Dente]

1 hour ago, will stevenson said:

shark Denticles? Does anyone have any ideas?

It looks like prismatic cartilage from a shark or ray.

[Notidanodon]

10 hours ago, siteseer said:

Hi Will,

 

That looks like a gar scale.  The opposite site might be shinier.

The other side is much the same so definitely not a scale  

 

10 hours ago, Al Dente said:

It looks like prismatic cartilage from a shark or ray.

Thanks that looks like a good match 

[rocket]

The Myliobatis-plates are nice.

When someone likes to see great Dino-Material from Isle of Wight End of September will be a special exhibition at Munich Show.

We go there, perhaps I will do some pics

[Notidanodon]

Day 2 I have like a million photos lol.

This was a trip to Whitecliff bay, the changing coastline made it quite hard to make it around to the chalk cliffs and I needed to make it there before the tide cut it off. So my first bit of hunting was in the chalk. First some scenery.
This is one of the best complete exposures worldwide of the late Cretaceous to early Eocene and is fabulous to look at  .

Here is a nice block of Echinorys Scutata that I didn’t collect.

On my way out I spotted this fairly rare complete belemnite with a phragmacone and spent ages chiselling it out  .

Here are the rest of the chalk fossils:

Brachiopod

Pecten

Brachiopod with some fish remains.

sponges

Echinorys scutata

 

another Belemnite

some more fossils

 

As I walked along the beach, I spotted this gleaming at me from some exposure of the upper members of the bracklesham beds, a nice bit of Trionyx turtle shell ( these are actually very rare.

Further down the beach, I did some collecting in the earnley formation (unit 11 of the bracklesham group, the Cardita beds) which are green glauconitic sands. Where I collected most of these fossils  

1. Venericor planicosta (big’uns)

2. Rare Eopleurotomaria scalarata

3. nice Nummulites

4. some Ampullina and other fossils.

Some Abdounia reticonus/beaugi, Striatolamia macrota and more vertebrate fossils..

Thanks for tuning in!  

 

Edited September 4, 2022 by will stevenson

[Yoda]

@will stevenson

 

Looks like you had a fantastic trip 

[Notidanodon]

1 minute ago, Yoda said:

@will stevenson

 

Looks like you had a fantastic trip 

I sure did  i still have yaverland, Compton, Shepards chine and Yarmouth to post!

[Notidanodon]

Onto Yarmouth , after the excitement of Whitecliff bay I was sure this would have to be a special trip to be as good.   And it was.

I strolled along the coastal path with my fossil hunting companion (who took a particular liking to the cuttlefish we found en route) until we reached an area where we could hunt fairly easily.

Now unfortunately there was very little to be found here so I got on my hands and knees and searched in the fine Shelly material at the top of the beach to find microfossils and I did manage to find a croc tooth and some vertebrae, a sign of things to come 

I proceeded to walk around the corner of the bay, further than I had ever before and this was where the true treasures lay. I crawled up and down this section of the beach for about 2 hours! But it was worth it.

here are the majority of the finds made here

1. croc teeth, the rooted one is a beauty!

2.a little bone of some kind

3. fish palate

4. other fish bits

5. fish vertebrae

Now on my way back, with my eye in, I started spotting bigger stuff in the harder to search large gravel. 

Here are some more finds from both places:

1. Croc Scutes

2. miscellaneous bones

 3. 3 bothriodon teeth and one in jaw bone, these are rare!

4. turtle shell

All in all a good days hunt, thanks for tuning in I’ve got a lot more to share  

Edited September 7, 2022 by will stevenson

[jpc]

Great stuff.  esp the Bothriodon teeth.  I had to look up my map of I of W to see where Yaverland is.  Is this the same bed that is at Bouldner?

[digit]

On 9/3/2022 at 5:05 AM, will stevenson said:

The other side is much the same so definitely not a scale

 

The outside surface may have eroded off a bit but the shape is unmistakably a ganoid scale from a garfish. These are incredibly common finds in the Miocene-Plio/Pleistocene of Florida and I've found older specimens back in the Cretaceous in Wyoming some years back.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=fossil+gar+scale&tbm=isch

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

[Notidanodon]

9 hours ago, jpc said:

Great stuff.  esp the Bothriodon teeth.  I had to look up my map of I of W to see where Yaverland is.  Is this the same bed that is at Bouldner?

Thanks  we accidentally put yaverland when it was actually Yarmouth, I will show what I found at yaverland later. Sorry for the confusion!

[Notidanodon]

6 hours ago, digit said:

 

The outside surface may have eroded off a bit but the shape is unmistakably a ganoid scale from a garfish. These are incredibly common finds in the Miocene-Plio/Pleistocene of Florida and I've found older specimens back in the Cretaceous in Wyoming some years back.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=fossil+gar+scale&tbm=isch

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

hi Ken, just checking we are talking about this aren’t we?

 

cheers,

Will

[digit]

 

9 hours ago, will stevenson said:

hi Ken, just checking we are talking about this aren’t we?

 

 

Nope. That's what @Al Dente identified as prismatic cartilage from some elasmobranch. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=prismatic+cartilage&tbm=isch

 

This is the (very definite) gar fish scale:

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=fossil+gar+scale&tbm=isch

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lots of nice finds, Will.

I particularly like the brachiopods and turtle bits. (Quelle surprise.) 

[Notidanodon]

49 minutes ago, digit said:

 

 

 

Nope. That's what @Al Dente identified as prismatic cartilage from some elasmobranch. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=prismatic+cartilage&tbm=isch

 

This is the (very definite) gar fish scale:

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=fossil+gar+scale&tbm=isch

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Ahh yes in that case i definitely agree yes, thats why i was so confused  

[Notidanodon]

2 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Lots of nice finds, Will.

I particularly like the brachiopods and turtle bits. (Quelle surprise.) 

Thanks Adam, i did find a few more brachiopods on this trip, they will come soon  

[Tidgy's Dad]

[Everhardus]

Very nice, good finds !

[nala]

Very nice finds and reports ,thanks!

[Notidanodon]

On 9/8/2022 at 10:28 AM, nala said:

Very nice finds and reports ,thanks!

Thankyou  I’ve got a lot more to share and have sent some exciting things off to be prepped

 

On 9/7/2022 at 11:59 PM, Everhardus said:

Very nice, good finds !

Thankyou  

[fifbrindacier]

I guess you enjoyed very much your trips, there's very finds here. I particularly like the Venericors and the Bothriodon teeth.

[Notidanodon]

Now not all fossil hunting trips go to plan and this one was a prime example of that. I decided to head to Compton bay to see if I could see the footprints. These weren’t exposed so I combed the gravel beds to no success and resorted to smashing coquina limestone which occurs on the vectis formation which ended up being pretty much devoid of anything interesting so I returned home practically empty handed  but the scenery was beautiful.  

oyster

wood with pyrite encrustation

soon I’ll be posting some exciting stuff.  

[digit]

That view makes a worthy consolation prize.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[minnbuckeye]

On 9/2/2022 at 4:02 PM, will stevenson said:

 

Shark Denticles? Does anyone have any ideas?

 

@Al Dente, I found a piece identical to this in the Peace River that was IDed as "shark skin". In fact, I was doing a fossil shark presentation at  local fair Sunday for our fossil club and had a few questions about the specimen. I would like to correct my labeling if shark skin can not look like this. After reading a few articles on prismatic cartilage, I am ALMOST convinced mine is mislabeled. But your thoughts would be appreciated.

 

@will stevenson, great report!! My wife and I were planning to visit southern England. However, Covid put our trip off. Your finds may hasten my re-planning of a delayed trip!