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My latest prize


Mediospirifer

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Yesterday (Wednesday--it's now after 1AM), my husband and I went out hunting with Mikeymig (hi, Mike! Thanks for the trip!).

We were looking around a steep slope of Windom shale pieces (Upper Devonian). I was mostly looking for loose brachiopods and horn corals, both of which were fairly plentiful at this site. In one area, I noticed a cluster of small corals on the path at my feet, and stopped to pick them up.

One of the smaller pieces was suspiciously round....

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Blastoid! It's about 1 cm wide.

Mike identified it for us as Nucleocrinus. Apparently, they're rare at that site.

This is a first for me. I've never found a blastoid (or a crinoid calyx) before. :D And if I hadn't been looking closely at my footing, I probably would have stepped on it!

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Nice, great find.

For an unknown reason we don’t find those in the Devonian deposits in Belgium.

Kevin

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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That's a beauty!

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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Blastoids are always special. Great to find a fossil that has a lot of detail on it. Devonian ones not that common.

For some reason I usually find blastoids in multiples, rarely 'just one'. They likely accumulate together via their shape, gravity, etc.

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Mediospirifer,

Congratulations on the wonderful find!

You must have great eyes to have caught that!

The detail on it is incredible.

Well done.

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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Thanks, everybody! I was pleased when I got a good look at it under magnification. :D I agree, it is a beauty.

Tim, I wouldn't say my eyes are "great", but I sharpened my pattern-recognition abilities with a lot of jigsaw puzzles as a teenager. If I know what shape I'm looking for, I'm generally pretty good at spotting it. In this case, I was looking for round rather than angular and flat, and there were two good-sized horn corals and a couple of smaller ones (similar size to the blastoid) within a square foot area. I didn't realize what it was until I picked it up! I was also looking more carefully at the ground underfoot because I knew the shelf we were walking on tended to collect fossils.

We found several other cool pieces on that trip. After I get them cleaned off, I may post some more photos. :D

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Nice pics. I'm glad I sent you down that path first. I would have walked over it. :)

Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.  
led zeppelin

 

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png IPFOTM.png IPFOTM2.png IPFOTM3.png IPFOTM4.png IPFOTM5.png

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Big congrats. That's a wonderful find. I mostly collect Middle Devonian and haven't found one of those yet. It's very, very high on my wish list. And that's such a lovely specimen. Maybe someday I will get lucky too. In the meantime, enjoy yours. Thanks for sharing.

P.S.- Would love to see your other finds as well.

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Thanks, guys!

Mike, I appreciate the opportunity to hunt with you. It was fun, and you have some really good sites! :D

Jeffrey, we found a lot of smalls. I'm still cleaning them! I'll have to post some examples sometime.

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