Another Linton Coelacanth Beauty

[Pagurus]

I rarely use the word, "literally", but clicking on your Amphibamus head was literally a jaw-dropping experience. Awesome fish too. Wow.

Mike

[Blastoid]

Holy heck. Fish in coal. I'll be....

Neat thing is that when you're all done splitting, you can take up blacksmithing, with all that nice coal!!!

[fossilcrazy]

Holy heck. Fish in coal. I'll be....

Neat thing is that when you're all done splitting, you can take up blacksmithing, with all that nice coal!!!

Blastoid,

I just had to comment on your post. When I initially started splitting the Cannel Coal, I thought burning it would be a good way to dispose of the coal. What a mistake that was. The coal started very easy but what a reek it gave off. The flame was blueish and must have kicked out an abundance of Sulfurous oxides. The combustion would literally bring you to tears. Now I know why the old timers discarded the Cannel Coal as unfit to sell. The coal will have to go to fill because it would be environmentally irresponsible to burn it.

[Auspex]

Regarding the disposition of the waste coal, has anyone ever searched it for microfossils?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Hats off, from this former Buckeye. I must say, you have found yourself some superlative niche collecting!

[fossilcrazy]

Regarding the disposition of the waste coal, has anyone ever searched it for microfossils?

Auspex,

The Linton Cannel coal is almost entirely made of microfossils. It is a Sporinite coal, meaning it is chiefly spores in composition. There is some lignite plant fragments in some layers. There is a Kerogen/Bitumen like residue that traveled through the coal and looks like glassy black tar. The high Hydrogen content coal burns readily. Supposedly the name Cannel was slang for Candle as one could put a match to a wafer of this coal and it would light like a candle.

On a slightly larger than microscopic level, small (1mm to 3mm) bivalve arthropods called Conchstracans can be found in mass mortality layers.

This picture shows a Haplolepis fish centered in a sea of those small Conchstracans. I would guess some event (temperature change, a toxin entered the water or the water became anoxic) quickly killed everything in the water column and littered the bottom with their carcasses. Interesting layer, interesting fossil and interesting story.

Frequently when I am examining a macrofossil under the microscope, I see a lot of neat things. Wish I had the time to scrutinize all the coal.

Edited September 8, 2013 by fossilcrazy

[fossilcrazy]

Rounded up some examples of small fossils from the coal:

A 5mm Xenacanth tooth

A 7mm Tetrapod plate

A Potporri of Sincarids, Conchcarids, Scales and a Shark tooth

[evannorton]

Fossilcrazy-

This is one of the best threads I have ever read on FF. The quality of the fossils is amazing. Any one of those - would be the prize of my possession. Thanks for all the effort in splitting the coal and thanks even more for sharing it!

Evan

[Everhardus]

Very impressive, stunning details.

[Missourian]

On a slightly larger than microscopic level, small (1mm to 3mm) bivalve arthropods called Conchstracans can be found in mass mortality layers.

IMG_1288.JPG

This picture shows a Haplolepis fish centered in a sea of those small Conchstracans. I would guess some event (temperature change, a toxin entered the water or the water became anoxic) quickly killed everything in the water column and littered the bottom with their carcasses. Interesting layer, interesting fossil and interesting story.

Interesting. How often are the fish and conchstracans associated with each other? I wonder if finding such arthropod masses at similar deposits could indicate certain taphonomic conditions that may lead to fish or other vertebrates being found.... or at least prompt one to search a little harder?

[fossilcrazy]

Interesting. How often are the fish and conchstracans associated with each other? I wonder if finding such arthropod masses at similar deposits could indicate certain taphonomic conditions that may lead to fish or other vertebrates being found.... or at least prompt one to search a little harder?

Missourian,

I know of another Fish/Conchstracans association in the Jehol Biota in the Mid to Late Jurassic. If you are specifically asking about the Linton association: I would say yes-the trend is they are found together in both the Sincarid layer and the Conchstracans layer. I am not able to conclusively say the Amphibians and Reptiles are also. I found so few Amphibians and no Reptiles yet.

[fossilcrazy]

Today was another pleasant find. This is the head of a Sauropleura Amphibian.

The entire Amphibian skeleton looks like this.

Today's find is the second head I have found to date. I just can't seem to uncover that whole animal.

[fossilcrazy]

This is the very first Sauropleura I found. It is a little better in that the teeth show up better.

[Fossildude19]

Congratulations on another extraordinary find, John!

Regards,

[Jeffrey P]

The more you find, the more the readers are learning about this fascinating paleo-ecosytem. You and others have done awonderful job of interpreting the finds, but hats off to you, all that careful hard work splitting, but oh so worth it. Linton, has to re-open. Has to. This site is a national treasure. Any ideas on how to recover it?

[Auspex]

You're killing me! Those buckets are real treasure chests!!!

[fossilcrazy]

I'm glad my fellow FF members enjoy the finds and brief details. Linton has been a special Paleo place for over a hundred years. The mine collapsed in 1921 and the coal piles were gone in about 2009. It would take a multi-millionaire to first buy the property the mine is on; then spends millions more to make an operational mine that sold the burnable coal and rescue the fossil Cannel coal. It is hard to believe, but the fossils would not justify the monetary expenditure. The fossils are well documented so it is unlikely to produce that much more unknown species for science. Looks like all good things have to come to an end. I would love nothing better than to see a new mining venture that searched the coal in a careful manner rather than made chunks of coal busted to grapefruit size and treated as an after thought. If anyone we know wins a really big lottery let's have a word with them about our good idea.

I think I'm fast approaching the half way mark in my stash. Thanks to all the well wishers that are pushing for me to find that whole Amphibian or Reptile. As I near the end of the last Linton stuff, I should make an album of the better finds.

[Jeffrey P]

I was thinking something similar to Penn Dixie where the property is owned and managed by a nonprofit, staffed by volunteers, and collecting is supervised. Perhaps a national or international nonprofit agency like the Nature Conservancy or the Trust for Public land could become interested in acquiring the site. Maybe a local Ohio-based land conservancy could become interested in the site. Or, perhaps such an organization might be able to negotiate an easement with the landowners in exchange for tax rightoffs and liability protection that would open the site to supervised collecting and scientific study. Worst case scenario; the State of Ohio or the Federal government which would likely prohibit amateur collecting, but might still use the site for scientific and educational purposes. Despite the fact that the site has been thoroughly studied I believe the possibility of finding a new species still exists. We also know a lot more about paleoecology than we did a hundred years ago and therefore more can be learned from this unique site. There are a number of fossil sites throughout the country such as Penn Dixie and Montour that are open because people cared enough to make it happen. I find that amateur fossil collectors tend to be fatalistic when it comes to site protection and when one is lost we usually just shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well, there are other places to hunt." The communities of hikers, backpackers, bird watchers, nature lovers are much more politically active and much, much more successful protecting THEIR sites. Couldn't we do better? Best of luck with your finds, but let's hope you're not the last collector at Linton. Still, your finds are AMAZING!!!

[fossilcrazy]

Well Jeffrey P,

I love your exuberance. Funny you mentioned Penn-Dixie. I was there when it was just an abandoned cement quarry that looked like a moonscape with abandoned vehicles, trash and tire prints everywhere, not a good place to find fossils. I worked with the Hamburg Natural History Society in it's infancy; first as a volunteer then as a Board member. I believed people needed a hassle free place to be able to collect fossils. The striking similarity between Penn-Dixie and Linton is that both being a place where ATVs, gun shooting and garbage dumping was/is the norm. There are times I found that not excepting "No" for an answer, goes a long way to getting things done. I also found the difference between a realist and a fatalist. If you have a clear vision of how to get from point A to point B - I'm on board! Where the expanse of Penn-Dixie quarry is likely going to have fossils to be found for many decades; the Linton Cannel coal comes from a small oxbow river channel measured to be very limited in size. Ironically, from 1920's until the 1980's there was really no interest in Linton. Things in that time period could have gone in a good direction. Who'da thunk.

[Plantguy]

Today was another pleasant find. This is the head of a Sauropleura Amphibian.

IMG_1295.JPG

The entire Amphibian skeleton looks like this.

sauropleura draw.jpg

Today's find is the second head I have found to date. I just can't seem to uncover that whole animal.

Hi John, you are getting too picky---just teasing! I'd probably settle for a eye socket or something much less, but I understand that you are working with site material that has produced alot of great complete stuff. Keep splitting and maybe an entire one is in there! Regards, Chris

[Jeffrey P]

Thank you for your response Mr. Crazy. Taking time from splitting rock must have taken some effort, especially when you're sitting on a goldmine like the one you've got. I definately appreciate the vision and all of the hard work that must have taken place to create the Penn Dixie site. Reopening Linton, I'm sure would take a similar effort. I'm curious how the Hamburg Natural History Society received their initial funding. You pointed out there are some fundemental differences between Linton and Penn Dixie which I'm sure would require a different sort of management- more like Red Hill, PA, another oxbow site, limited to groups, perhaps reservations required and more supervision. As far as scientific interest, I'm reminded that the Gilboa site was recently reopened and studied and much was learned about the paleoecology of this early forest. I recently expressed concern about the closing of Eighteen Mile Creek in a post. I have a history of work with environmental groups. I was the Chairman of our local branch of the Sierra Club and spoke at numerous public hearings on behalf of environmental issues. I would like to see something similar happen; concerned individuals speaking out for fossil sites that are recently closed or threatened. First, I'd like to hear the ideas of other members of the forum, maybe start a discussion post. I appreciate your concern and support. Again, best of luck finding treasures- maybe a complete amphibian or REPTILE. Let's hope.

[fossilcrazy]

Today was a brief searching day. Rain off and on (it is almost pointless to look at Linton coal while it's wet) This may sound unbelievable, but I do believe I found a Reptile and I almost threw it out! Frequently one will see Coprolites in the Cannel coal. They appear as nondescript rounded lumps of Gypsum microcrystals and Carbonaceous material. Well, I was moving a little fast and thought nothing of an elongated "Coprolite" or so I thought it was. Before I tossed it on the waste pile, I took a moment to smudge the lump. My curiosity level went up when some stuff looked like bones. Not that a lot of alarms went off, because frequently bones and scales can be seen in the digestive waste. When I acid washed the lump, it was clearer that it was a carcass. Later at the microscope, I tried to identify what was there, I saw bones I haven't seen before. Resorting to my reference "The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America" was mentioned an early Reptile called Eoserpeton. Googling the name showed a skeletal drawing of a Linton specimen. I'll be darned if a lot of these unfamiliar bones were shown. Holy Smokes, if that wasn't what I was waiting for! And to think a brief off the hip decision kept me from heaving it. Now I'm wondering how much other stuff I've missed and tossed?

Here is a pic of what I believe is one of the earliest Reptiles -Eoserpeton.

The counter part didn't appear that helpful except to confirm the large block is the ventral view and the other is the dorsal view. Here is a size scale.

Edited September 12, 2013 by fossilcrazy

[fossilcrazy]

Here is the drawing I used to ID the fossil specimen.

I know there are some skeptics saying "how can you tell from that mess what you have?" Easy just match up numberous specific bones that agree completely.

Looks like this fossil is rare enough, that the only right thing to do is surrender it to the researcher that introduced me to the Linton site.

Edited September 12, 2013 by fossilcrazy

[piranha]

This is the very first Sauropleura I found. It is a little better in that the teeth show up better.

Everything is incredible, especially this toothy prize.... Congrats!

[Jeffrey P]

OH MY GOD!!! This is off the charts COOL!!! You'll have a museum collection by the time you're done.