Fossils from the middle and upper Santonian of Gelsenkirchen / NW-Germany

[rocket]

In 1995 (long ago...) a friend of mine and me digged at a highway-constructionsite in nw-germany. It was the Highway Nr. 2 between Gelsenkirchen and Gladbeck in famous Ruhrgebiet-Area. The construction site opens at a lenght of 3 km sandy sediments from middle Santonian, Zone of Uintacrinus socialis. We really found a lot..., beach sediments with everything from plants over echinoderms up to vertebrate fossils (some lang-living ones...), and stored it. Till now. Some weeks ago I started to clean, glue, sort..., to write a paper about it. Hope to finish in 2025, lot of work... I go to show piece by piece fossils from this site, might be one a day, might be one a week. depends.

Start is a nice Cretalamna appendiculata, approx. 2 cm long, root is a little bit damaged.

[Ludwigia]

[rocket]

small snail, no name for the moment. Not unusual to find snails there but this has mother of pearl on it. The only one I ever found there

 

 

[Advantage]

I`m enjoying seeing your Santonian specimens, thanks.

[rocket]

3 pics of some limpets, Brunonia cf. irregularis, fine preservation with brown shell, unusual. But this site had many unusual fossils and preservations

All are small ones, maximum size was 15 mm, this has 13 mm. Just in prep, fraaaaaagile....

 

 

[Al Dente]

10 hours ago, rocket said:

3 pics of some limpets, Brunonia cf. irregularis, fine preservation with brown shell, unusual.

Could this be a brachiopod? Looks similar to Discinisca, which would explain the brown phosphatic shell.

[rocket]

1 hour ago, Al Dente said:

Could this be a brachiopod? Looks similar to Discinisca, which would explain the brown phosphatic shell.

 

this is what I thought first in the 90th, but the result was "Snail". Unusual preservation, in deed. Its the only snail in this preservation from this site, everything else is without shell. But, will be prooved again next time, will send one to a specialist for this snails (if it is)

Edited February 2, 2023 by rocket

[rocket]

in a sandy layer (base of upper middle santonian) snails are "phosphatic". Its a special way of preservation we have in some sediments in warm and not deep water-sediments

 

[rocket]

and, after a full box of snails, one with parts of Ammonites. Preservation is unique, all incomplete, only chambers, 95% Baculites, all small (max size 2 cm)

 

 

[rocket]

so, before this thread goes forgotten, some new material

Belemnites had not been rare and good indicators for the stratigraphic position. We found Gonioteuthis granulata (approx. 50 ones between 3 and 7 cm) and some not identified ones (a dozen). Another, more rare Belemnite was Actinocamax verus. This is a small belemnit, maximum was 50 mm.

When I go on preparing the paper I will do new pics. Hope this (mediumbad ones) will give you an impression about.

 

[rocket]

bottom layer was grey "Emschermergel", soft sandy and marly sediment. Locally full of fossils, normally marine invertebrates.

Rare are angiosperm plant remains, this is an undetermined leaf (could be a Lauraceae, but...)

approx. 7 cm long

 

 

[Wrangellian]

Nice to see another Santonian site to compare with my local stuff.

I was not aware of any occurrences of Uintacrinus outside of North America until yours. Do you have pics of them?

Also, I thought Uintacrinus was an Upper Santonian index fossil (but then I'm not sure if it is divided into Lower/Middle/Upper or just Lower/Upper).

[rocket]

10 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Nice to see another Santonian site to compare with my local stuff.

I was not aware of any occurrences of Uintacrinus outside of North America until yours. Do you have pics of them?

Also, I thought Uintacrinus was an Upper Santonian index fossil (but then I'm not sure if it is divided into Lower/Middle/Upper or just Lower/Upper).

 

Uintacrinus socials occurs at many places in Europa. The british Uintacrinus are popular and some sites in germany gave to opportunity to find some. Normally totally discarticulated, but sometimes it was possible to find half complete ones. Normally you find them only in a small layer (approx. 2 - 3 feet) at the base of the upper Santonian. But, in Gelsenkirchen we found isolated elements in the upper middle Santonian. Not many, but it seems that Uintacrinus occurs from middle santonian up to middle upper. Not easy to decide.

I add some pics of isolated elements and a nice half-complete one from Münsterland basin (not in my collection )

 

 

 

[rocket]

nice ones from Great Britain are shown at this wonderful website:

 

Uintacrinus (discoveringfossils.co.uk)

[Wrangellian]

14 hours ago, rocket said:

nice ones from Great Britain are shown at this wonderful website:

Uintacrinus (discoveringfossils.co.uk)

Thanks... It makes sense that it has a broad distribution as it was not tied down to anything like stalked crinoids were. I know Marsupties is worldwide.

It's also interesting that you can narrow them down to thin layers. Over here the layers are not easy to distinguish - it's all deep Haslam shale, largely undifferentiated - and you have to go by what fossils you are finding to know what zone or stage you're in.

Edited February 23, 2023 by Wrangellian
clarification

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love the Uintacrinus. 

[rocket]

28 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Thanks... It makes sense that it has a broad distribution as it was not tied down to anything like stalked crinoids were. I know Marsupties is worldwide.

It's also interesting that you can narrow them down to thin layers. Over here the layers are not easy to distinguish - it's all Haslam shale - and you have to go by what fossils you are finding know what zone or stage you're in.

we had been always a bit curios about the distribution. Base of the upper Santonian was a hardground. Lot of burials in it, so we had always been unsure if the Uintas really come from the top or if the are part of deep burrows. My opinion is, that they occure in top of middle Santonian, not at the base of upper. 

[rocket]

As I post it piece by piece and there are many pieces..., @Wrangellian: if you love to see something with priority from this site to compare with your material, let me know. 

[Wrangellian]

11 hours ago, rocket said:

As I post it piece by piece and there are many pieces..., @Wrangellian: if you love to see something with priority from this site to compare with your material, let me know. 

I'll wait to see what you have... so far there is not much similarity besides the Uintacrinus. Different preservation, I guess - our Haslam Fm is dark shale (deeper than yours apparently). We do have some plant material including similar leaves. Do you see any Glyptostrobus or other conifers?

[rocket]

8 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

We do have some plant material including similar leaves. Do you see any Glyptostrobus or other conifers?

Some indetermined conifers, think it will be Geinitzia

I add a bad pic and do better ones next days. Many years ago we wrote a small paper about this taxon from upper santonian, was 2001. I check if I have a pdf of it, otherwise I can do a copy

 

[Wrangellian]

2 hours ago, rocket said:

Some indetermined conifers, think it will be Geinitzia

I add a bad pic and do better ones next days. Many years ago we wrote a small paper about this taxon from upper santonian, was 2001. I check if I have a pdf of it, otherwise I can do a copy

Thanks, but don't worry about it unless you have it handy.

[rocket]

small news, too much to do, not enough coffee , but finished two more fossils from this fantastic site

Both preserved in "Nodules", one is a Nautiloide (Eutrephoceras sp.), the other one is a shell on the nodule. This is full of small fossils, mostly bryozoans, serpulids, shells and plant remains

 

 

[doushantuo]

I can feel your pain("not enough coffee")

Edited March 23, 2023 by doushantuo

[rocket]

24 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

I can feel your pain("not enough coffee")

 

hard times we live in 

[doushantuo]

we hunter-gatherers have tough lives