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Hi folks, looking for some input on Devonian fossil id


Dsailor

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Hi folks,

 

This is my first attempt at id'ing small braciopods and coral. Could you please give some input on if I am wrong or right. They are all from the Devonian period from the Schoharie NY roadcut. The last corals are from the uppermost section of the Becraft limestone.

IMG_0245.JPG

IMG_0246.JPG

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Hey Dom,

I think your coral may be Favosites sphaericus

Your other ID's look pretty good to me - Maybe @erose will have a look see. :) 

Nice finds, btw. 

Regards,

 

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13 minutes ago, FossilDudeCO said:

also try @DevonianDigger

Jay may have an idea since he is close!

 

Nice finds, btw

 

Possibly - but Jay may be more familiar with the Middle Devonian fauna. 

This is Early Devonian, about 4 hours east of where Jay is at. ;) 

Erich has extensive knowledge of the Schoharie area.  

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1 minute ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

Possibly - but Jay may be more familiar with the Middle Devonian fauna. 

This is Early Devonian, about 4 hours east of where Jay is at. ;) 

Erich has extensive knowledge of the Schoharie area.  

 

Bah the Devonian only covers what...60mya?

 

I am interested to see what that last one is

 

:popcorn:

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:P

 

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

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I am definitely more familiar with the middle Devonian, but I've been buffing up on NY's Devonian lately thanks to Amadeus Grabau's awesome publications.

 

The first brachiopod definitely looks like a Strophonella sp., but I wouldn't know which exact species in that area. Most of the others look plausible as well.

 

The coral looks more like a Halysites sp., perhaps catenulatus?

 

The Amadeus Grabau publication on the Schoharie Valley just so happens to be available for free through Google books!

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=i8JRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=schoharie+amadeus+grabau&source=bl&ots=MrjkEUyns3&sig=LceelBJb92QJb6dzzXR9Mr8vFwg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis_qqryeHRAhVC2SYKHXPrCacQ6AEILTAE

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Jay A. Wollin

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2 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

This is Early Devonian, about 4 hours east of where Jay is at.

 

2 hours ago, FossilDudeCO said:

the Devonian only covers what...60mya

That has to be some sort of time warp distance record:headscratch:

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It's clear (in side view) that the corals are tabulate corals, but I think, a top view of them would help to see the distribution of the corallites. Could you take a photo from the upper side?

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14 hours ago, DevonianDigger said:

 

 

The first brachiopod definitely looks like a Strophonella sp., but I wouldn't know which exact species in that area. Most of the others look plausible as well.

 

The coral looks more like a Halysites sp., perhaps catenulatus?

 

 

The coral Dom posted doesn't appear to have the chain like appearance of Halysites, ... to my eyes. :unsure: 

 

It looks more like this drawing of Favosites helderbergiae.

 

IMG_0252.thumb.JPG.5c47a5e402a0d10893fded4a6165fbf7.JPG      favosites.jpg      IMG_0254.JPG.6548e69a1fd7fdc2607ae3bd45a541de.JPG

 

Halysites catenularia                                                                                  Favosites SP.

 

1514.jpg                             IMG_0949.jpg

 

 

 

As far as the Strophomenid type brachiopod, I think that Cotistrophonella punctulifera is a good match.

 

  Strophomenids3-horz.jpg

 

Don't forget, Grabau's work, while quite comprehensive, is old,  and some names may no longer be in use, etc. 

 

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Definitely not Halysites. Favosites sp. is how I would label it. F. helderbergiae would be strong possibility but there may be more than a few species in those rocks. When it comes to things like corals and bryozoans I am happy just to nail the genus. But F. helderbergiae is a strong contender and you can always label it as a best guess.  Favosites spaeroidalis are spherical versus those fragments from a larger massive colony.

 

PS I have been away from the Devonian almost ten years now living in the Cretaceous Seaway. I would have to dust off some books and regain my chops to really help on this one.

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I'm late, as always, caught in something else. Thank you for the picture, Dsailor.The reason why I asked the top view was that the corallites looked closed-packed, not in chain like distribution. Now is clear that it is Favosites, as Tim said way back. Well done Tim! Just for comparative reason here is Halysites catenularius .

 

1.jpeg2.jpeg

 

Also, there is visible in the side view, that the corallite walls are rounded not prismatic like in Favosites .

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Yeah, there's no question. The image I was going off of did not at all illustrate those chains so I was basing my information off of an outdated and less-than-helpful source. Sorry for the misguided info :(

Jay A. Wollin

Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve

Hamburg, New York, USA

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59 minutes ago, DevonianDigger said:

Yeah, there's no question. The image I was going off of did not at all illustrate those chains so I was basing my information off of an outdated and less-than-helpful source. Sorry for the misguided info :(

 

No apologies necessary, Jay. We are all hear to learn.

And you just taught someone something, by making us prove a point. No questioning would be a very dull existence here.

We all make mistakes in ID'ing things. The point is to learn from it, and take it further next time. ;) 

The person who is never wrong, never tries. :) 

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I have to do that from time to time as well. ;) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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On 1/27/2017 at 6:55 PM, DevonianDigger said:

I seem to be making a lot of ID mistakes lately... think I'm going to take a back seat for a while and go back to learning, lol.

 

On 1/27/2017 at 7:02 PM, Fossildude19 said:

I have to do that from time to time as well. ;) 

Oh, me too. We all do on occasion. And I have gone back after getting new reference material and reworked my identifications many times.  My catalog is now a database and easily changed, but in the old days I learned to use pencil. 

 

One thing I also do is include the "Identification reference/source" in my catalog.  That way I can go back and try to figure out why I may have labeled something one way instead of the other. And I have a "notes" field in the catalog to list special features or qualities as well as why I landed on a particular ID.  But again, never feel that getting it only to the genus is a problem. For many researchers that is good enough.

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Thanks Erose,

Good to know. From a layman standpoint it is pretty tricky as I am not a taxonomist by any degree. I mostly just build stuff and read a lot and then occasionally find fossils. :)

 

Dom

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