PA Fossil Finder Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 Great corals! I can't wait to see what they look like when they're cut and finished. It looks like the butterfly was a Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus). Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 Great Zebra Swallowtail fossil hunting mascot there, Kara. Looks like you made it to the big coral shoal and had some fun there. Glad you all had some fun collecting (not hunting for) silicified fossil corals. The Withlacoochee is a great alternative for summer fossil hunting when places like the Peace River are out of reach. I'm out in the Dominican Republic at the moment and enjoyed catching up on this topic this morning. Hope to get my chance at the Withlacoochee sometime soon. Will enjoy seeing what Sir Tommy took away from that trip when he is back in the States. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted July 13, 2016 Author Share Posted July 13, 2016 Hello all, I am still in Japan for a few more weeks. I will post up more stuff and pics when I get back. It's just so hard to post from iPhone. I had an awesome time very fun and can't wait to do it again. I am also trying to see what fossil fun I can get into here in Japan. Thank you for posting for us Yes posting from your phone can be a real pain. I thought you said you were going to Japan but wasn't sure. Hope you have lots of fun over there and have a safe trip home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted July 13, 2016 Author Share Posted July 13, 2016 Hi Kara, nice report. Was just commenting on your Sarasota trace earlier...you've been busy! Continued hunting success! Regards, Chris My birthday was last week and I decided to take the week off. That left me with extra time for one of my favorite past times, fossil hunting. Great report Kara, thanks for sharing! You got quite the haul there! Next time I'm I Florida maybe I can join! Congrats! Thank you. Let me know and maybe we can get a group hunt together. I always enjoy meeting up with other TFF members! Great corals! I can't wait to see what they look like when they're cut and finished. It looks like the butterfly was a Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus). Thank you. Yes, that's the name of the butterfly, for some reason I was drawing a blank when typing up the trip report. Great Zebra Swallowtail fossil hunting mascot there, Kara. Looks like you made it to the big coral shoal and had some fun there. Glad you all had some fun collecting (not hunting for) silicified fossil corals. The Withlacoochee is a great alternative for summer fossil hunting when places like the Peace River are out of reach. I'm out in the Dominican Republic at the moment and enjoyed catching up on this topic this morning. Hope to get my chance at the Withlacoochee sometime soon. Will enjoy seeing what Sir Tommy took away from that trip when he is back in the States. Cheers. -Ken We went straight to the large shoal so that we wouldn't have a full load before we got there. The plan was to check out other spots on the way back which worked out great. It really is the perfect summer spot with great water temps and plenty of shade. We'll have to plan another trip once you and Tommy are back in the country. I know the friend that I borrowed the kayak from is now chomping at the bit to make her own trip up there! Kara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted July 14, 2016 Author Share Posted July 14, 2016 I forgot to post pictures of this piece. It was one of the last corals I collected that day and by the time it was pulled up out of the water I was pretty tired from all the hammering. Not sure if I hit it too hard or if the coral head was already weakened but the first hit caused it to shatter. I'm still torn as to whether or not that was a good thing. I have most of the pieces and could probably fit it back together but I probably won't. I'm thinking about displaying the three biggest pieces together with the small pieces sitting next to them in a glass jar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Nice one Kara. Looks like it's some druzy quartz--nice and sparkly. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 Do any of these corals preserve enough structure on the surface to be able to distinguish species? Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Do any of these corals preserve enough structure on the surface to be able to distinguish species? From what I understand (and, as always, I'm willing to be corrected as needed), these come from a species identified as Siderastrea silicensis. The genus Siderastrea is still extant--though this species is only found in fossil form. I've just finished a coral reef survey workshop in the Dominican Republic (returning home tomorrow) while diving in Samana Bay last week I saw many examples of the two extant species here: S. siderea and S. radians. There seems to have been a monoculture of this species in the area that left the copious amounts of these in the Withlacoochee River (for us to find and enjoy). I've never seen evidence of other fossil species of other mounding, plate, or branching corals. It is possible they were there back in the day but failed to leave a trace in the fossil record. I do know that some of the other TFF members who have collected a great number of silicified fossil corals from the Withlacoochee have turned up what appears to be a closely related species (or growth variant) that looks very similar but has a much larger polyp structure. Cheers. -Ken 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khyssa Posted July 19, 2016 Author Share Posted July 19, 2016 Ken, do you have any idea why we only find fossil coral in that portion of the Withlacoochee River? It just seems strange that there are no signs of other types of sea life. Kara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Good question. Apparently, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth--with the bounty of silicified coral I never stopped to ask why nothing else is there. My guess--and it's only a guess--is that the large coral blocks had enough mass to persist long enough to allow the silicon-laden waters that percolated through them to transform them into silica-based pseudomorphs before they had a chance to fade away and be lost from the fossil record. I don't recall anybody finding mollusk shells or echinoderms there but perhaps they are present but just very uncommon. Siderastrea corals of today tend to like shallow well-lit sandy bays and lagoons where they can grow to quite substantial sizes (or at least could while coral reefs were still able to develop. I'm guessing the environment where these were growing was much the same back 25 mya? If I remember from my Roadside Geology of Florida book, the Florida peninsula was once cut-off from the mainland by the Gulf Trough or Suwanne Channel which transported vast amounts of silica sand to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of northern Florida. Sounds like it would be a great area to grow Siderastreas and later to pack them in a matrix of silica sand so we could collect them when we were good and ready. Would love to hear from anybody on the forum who actually knows a bit about the geology of Florida and may have a more educated opinion. For those unfamiliar with extant Siderastreas, here are what they look like on today's reefs: Cheers. -Ken 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flmermaid744 Posted July 25, 2016 Share Posted July 25, 2016 Wow! Your agatized coral is amazing! Much prettier than the pieces I've accumulated from the Suwannee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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