Yearly trip to Troyes - 2016

[elcoincoin]

Hello all,

 

As each year i made my trip to Troyes and her albian layers in Champagne.

 

On the first day, we decided to head to a first exposure on the bank o the lake.

We didnt find much : a few small ammonites, gastropods, bivalves and corals ..... also a few crab fragments, but definitly not much to brag about....

Most of the spot was covered by a layer of dead waterweed, hiding everything.

After a quick meal we decided to head to spot 2, another spot by the lake. At second spot, it was even worst : the whole exposure was buried under dry weed.

 

Since there was not much reason to keep on we decided to call it for the day ....with  a very very poor loot.

 

On second day i headed alone to our third spot, harder to reach. After a quite long walk in the mud, i reached the exposure. That one was totally free from weed.

 

The spot was very rich. 90 % of the stuff i collected were crustacean parts. Actually the only intersting stuff... but very interesting

 

As a teaser, here come a group view of a part of the etyus martini carapaces i found. The most abundant crustacean of the day.

 

 

Stopping it for today, to be followed a trip in the numerous species of crustaceans i was able to find....

 

See you soon

 

 

[PFOOLEY]

[belemniten]

Wow ! Nice ! 

[jpc]

super collection de petits crabes.  

[ynot]

[elcoincoin]

Let s start with the specie thas was the more abundant. Prolly found more in 1 afternoon more than i ever get in total, the biggest ones ( well big = 3 cm) and amongst the better preserved.

 

Etyus Martini : samples here got still the thin carapace layer with the "globulous" aspect

 

sample 1 .

 

 

sample 2

 

 

Back side :

 

 

Next specie : Notopocorystes stokesii

 

Its also usually a common specie but this year, we found a lot of fragments, only a few complete or semi complete ones.

On this sample, u can see a bit of the remaining thins carapace layer (bottom left quarter), the rest being internal cast.

 

 

Last specimen for today :

 

Cretacoranina broderipii : with half  of the carapace layer still present.

 

 

[Fossildude19]

Excellent finds!  

Thanks for showing them. 

Regards,

[elcoincoin]

This time ill finish with crab species found during that trip

 

next specie is Eucorystes carteri, not many specimen this year

 

 

Next one, is one than eluded me for quite a long time. Very small fellow.... Very hard to spot. I found my first and only so far last year. I actually picked a bit of "Its prolly nothing but lets bring it and figure it once cleaned". It appeared after a good bath that it was actually Sabellidromites scarabaea. This year i found 10 specimens...

 

 

 

Next one was a first timer for me. I had nailed it in the book, as the one to find this year.... And actually managed to find one : Dioratopus spinosus aka "Pikachu".

 

 

I also found big amount of claw bits, some that can be attached to a shrimp specie, some not.

 

Here s a few....

 

With one finger of the claw

 

 

With the other

 

 

 

and with the arm articulation

 

 

 

and to finish for today an example of the smallest and smoother ones.... which are attributed to the genus Calianassa .

 

 

If you dont have a crab indigestion yet, you can see more pictures either on my TFF galery

or on my flickr https://flic.kr/s/aHskGSsvyW

 

Next time last part of the trip : shrimps and barnacles !

[Plantguy]

Wow...I dont recall anyone showing that many carapaces of diff species without showing lots of separate concretions/nodules. Are theyactually weathering out in an actual bed? Aticulated/Are there lots of legs/appendages as well? Fascinating! Thanks for showing us. Regards, Chris 

[elcoincoin]

Yes they weathering out from the bed.

They are a lot of claw / leg bits but  according to litterature they are from shrimps, not crabs, and everything is disarticulated.

 

That leads me to the last part of the topics :

 

Shrimps (and barnacles)

 

This year i found quite a bit of shrimps body parts, more than i ever collected in total (12 or so) (specie : Hoploparia longimana )

 

like those :

 

 

and

 

 

 

and also  this more or less complete one (head and body are always separate) (both side)

 

 

 

To finish with crustaceans found during this trip :

 

A piece of barnacle goose : Cretiscalpellum unguis

 

 

After that day in the albian and the 2 other unproductive spots, we decided we were done with the albian clay and that we would head to B plan for the last day in the area.

Driving 1 hour and and half from there toward North and the lutetian sands of  Epernay area and specially the site of Fleury La Riviere, but this will be a story for another post.

 

 

I hope you had enjoyed the crustacean trip.

[ynot]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

Tony