MarleysGh0st Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 (edited) Yesterday was the Museum of the Earth's last field trip of the year, to Red Hill in North Bend, PA, a site know for its Late Devonian fishes and early tetrapods. The weather was beautiful for a drive into central Pennsylvania, particuarly when we were following the "direct" route Google Maps had given us, on some narrow, winding road over rugged hills. (On the way home, we took the longer, flatter route along the river.) After meeting at the little field station/museum for a quick overview, we headed out to the site. It was steeper than I expected and covered with lots of shale flakes that made climbing hazardous. Even finding a good ledge for my gear wasn't easy. At the end of the four-hour visit, I didn't have much to show for my efforts. Some tiny fish scales and some small pieces of matrix filled with microfossils. This was my "prize" for the day, a fragment of a tooth that appears to be from a lobe-finned fish called Hyneria lindae. Here's a specimen I had to leave behind: I was told this was a spine that might have been extending several inches into the matrix. (The shiny object is a US penny, for size comparison.) Ah, well, I'll leave this site to more experienced vertebrate collectors with some heavy excavating gear, while go back for my Middle Devonian invertebrates. I didn't get a photo of it, but the most interesting fossil that I saw someone else find was some charcoal. The significance of that took a while for me to appreciate. I mean, charcoal? Is that even considered a fossil? But at a time when the land was just beginning to be covered with forests, this charcoal was evidence that wildfires were already affecting them. This Red Hill charcoal has been the subject of research. I've found references for these papers (Cressler 1999 and Cressler 2001), now I need to download copies from the Cornell library and study them! Edited September 16, 2012 by MarleysGh0st Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 That site is a lot steeper than I'd imagined... A tooth, even a fragment, from a Devonian lobe-finned fish is a real prize; congratulations! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarleysGh0st Posted September 16, 2012 Author Share Posted September 16, 2012 That site is a lot steeper than I'd imagined... That was the reasonable part! Continuing along the road to the west, it becomes a sheer, vertical cliff. Our guides warned us away from that section, because you can't even hear the falling rocks before they hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 One of the few places that wasn't a quarry where I wore a hard hat by my own choice. Did you get to visit the museum/lab? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgrilusHunter Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 That site is a lot steeper than I'd imagined... No kidding, looks like a belayer here wouldn't be too far fetched. Seriously though, I would love to dig at Red Hill! Thanks for the report. "They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things." -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarleysGh0st Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) One of the few places that wasn't a quarry where I wore a hard hat by my own choice. Did you get to visit the museum/lab? Yes, briefly. For those who haven't been there, it's a very small museum, on the second floor of the Chapman Township Building. It's a very small town! Here's a photo of one of the display cases. Edited September 17, 2012 by MarleysGh0st Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFossilHunter Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 IS Doug Rowe still the paleontologist on site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarleysGh0st Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 IS Doug Rowe still the paleontologist on site? Yes, he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitekmastr Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 One of the challenges at Red Hill is time - there never seems to be enough time to follow thru esp. if you find something cool like the embedded spine. I think someone should arrange a 2 day trip there. There are some very large finds lurking in the fossilized soil and pond bottoms there - waiting to be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 I had a problem with that myself. They only let you dig there for four or five hours. And in that kind of rock you don't cover a lot of ground in such a short time. Plus for me it is a four and a half hour to five hour drive, so that's at least a ten hour drive there and back. Very cool place but not worth the drive for such a short digging time. Here is some of the charcoal in the rock that was mentioned earlier. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarleysGh0st Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 Thanks for that charcoal photo, Just Bob! Like with the specimen I saw, can you rub your finger over it and get a characteristic charcoal smudge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Thanks for that charcoal photo, Just Bob! Like with the specimen I saw, can you rub your finger over it and get a characteristic charcoal smudge? You sure can. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Upton Sinclair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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