Schoharie Creek 2/05/17

[Dsailor]

Went out to Schoharie creek today. It is about a two hour drive and I left at 8:15. Arrived at the site at 10:15 and parked at the road closed barrier on Stryker rd. It was about twenty degrees and windy and I walked down the road to get my bearings and scope out the site since I had never been there before. I figured out a good way down and it was much warmer down in the river valley. I saw some really eroded fossils and decided to try and split some rocks to find some fresh stuff. Right away I found some broken and jumbled black stems and other unidentifiable stuff. I kept going and found some cool stuff. There was snow on the ground and that made things much more difficult. So I did what I could and here is what I found.

 

this branching stem:

 

[Dsailor]

Brachiopods

[Dsailor]

And what I think is a Bryozoa, maybe phaenopora teuis

[Dsailor]

[Darktooth]

Nice finds! We are gonna have to change your name to Braveheart!

[Pagurus]

Cold and windy and snowy and you still made excellent finds. I stopped at the creek last Spring and found a few nice brachiopods and gazillions of tadpoles, but none of the nice plants you found. It was beautiful in the Spring but I'm afraid I don't have your dedication to go there in February! I'm real glad you were successful. Thanks for sharing your hunt here on the forum.

 

Mike

[Fossildude19]

Dom, 

Glad you got out and found some cool things, despite the adverse conditions.

Well done - and nice finds. 

Thanks for posting your report.

Regards,

[FossilDAWG]

I am not familiar with " phaenopora teuis " and Google did not bring up anything, but " phaenopora tenuis " got several hits on old papers.  I think this species may have been reassigned to Escharopora.

 

That being said, your fossil does not seem to have a bryozoan structure to me.  I see no evidence of a regular arrangement of openings to the individual zooids.  Rather, the texture more resembles an impression of bone, or rather the sort of fossil you get when fish bone is mostly gone but leaves a thin film of the bone on the rock.  Also. the upper edge (upper in the photos) shows a regular undulating pattern of knobs and the opposite edge is smooth.  This pattern is also unlike bryozoans that I am familiar with, though I must admit I am not a bryozoan specialist by any stretch.  To me, the fossil suggests a portion, including the tip, of a gyracanth fin spine.  I assume these fossils are Devonian, judging from the plant and brachiopod fossils?  Anyway, something to consider.

 

Don

[Dsailor]

8 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

I am not familiar with " phaenopora teuis " and Google did not bring up anything, but " phaenopora tenuis " got several hits on old papers.  I think this species may have been reassigned to Escharopora.

 

That being said, your fossil does not seem to have a bryozoan structure to me.  I see no evidence of a regular arrangement of openings to the individual zooids.  Rather, the texture more resembles an impression of bone, or rather the sort of fossil you get when fish bone is mostly gone but leaves a thin film of the bone on the rock.  Also. the upper edge (upper in the photos) shows a regular undulating pattern of knobs and the opposite edge is smooth.  This pattern is also unlike bryozoans that I am familiar with, though I must admit I am not a bryozoan specialist by any stretch.  To me, the fossil suggests a portion, including the tip, of a gyracanth fin spine.  I assume these fossils are Devonian, judging from the plant and brachiopod fossils?  Anyway, something to consider.

 

Don

That would be cool if it was a fin spine. Yes, they are NY devonian. The texture does look like bone or even wood. The distinctive shape is what made me think Bryzoa. I will try to take a close up with my real camera and put it in fossil ID.

[Dsailor]

Thanks guys, In hindsight I should have brought yak tracs because it was pretty icy. I found that the rocks that split nicely were not fossil bearing and the rocks with fossils split randomly at all angles and in tiny pieces so I gave up on that pretty quickly. I had the best luck by far looking for smaller rocks that had split but were still intact in their shape. These provided the best fossils by far since they had naturally split along the fossil but were protected from erosion. I look forward to going out there

this summer and seeing what I can find. I also don't recommend whacking yourself on the knee with a lump hammer and then driving for two hours. I almost fell out of the car my knee was so stiff

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations. Your efforts to collect in challenging conditions is well noted. Looks like an interesting site, containing both terrestrial and marine species. The "bryozoan" definitely looks like the spine of an armored fish, I'm guessing a placoderm. Devonian fish fossils in New York are at best uncommon except for a handful of sites. Yours is quite a find.

[Dsailor]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Congratulations. Your efforts to collect in challenging conditions is well noted. Looks like an interesting site, containing both terrestrial and marine species. The "bryozoan" definitely looks like the spine of an armored fish, I'm guessing a placoderm. Devonian fish fossils in New York are at best uncommon except for a handful of sites. Yours is quite a find.

Thank you, I used to work outside in North Dakota through the winter so cold weather isn't a big deal but the snow on the ground was a pain. Hopefuly I can find more info on the "spine" and see if anyone wants to take a close look at it.  You are pretty close to me so if you ever want to go out shoot me a PM

[Plantguy]

Very cool material! No pun intended. Thanks for showing us. Regards, Chris 

[Dsailor]

On 2/6/2017 at 9:51 AM, FossilDAWG said:

I am not familiar with " phaenopora teuis " and Google did not bring up anything, but " phaenopora tenuis " got several hits on old papers.  I think this species may have been reassigned to Escharopora.

 

That being said, your fossil does not seem to have a bryozoan structure to me.  I see no evidence of a regular arrangement of openings to the individual zooids.  Rather, the texture more resembles an impression of bone, or rather the sort of fossil you get when fish bone is mostly gone but leaves a thin film of the bone on the rock.  Also. the upper edge (upper in the photos) shows a regular undulating pattern of knobs and the opposite edge is smooth.  This pattern is also unlike bryozoans that I am familiar with, though I must admit I am not a bryozoan specialist by any stretch.  To me, the fossil suggests a portion, including the tip, of a gyracanth fin spine.  I assume these fossils are Devonian, judging from the plant and brachiopod fossils?  Anyway, something to consider.

 

Don

Hi Don,

 

you were exactly right, it is a gyracanth spine. Very impressive id'ing