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A Trip To The Paleocene Of Crosswick Creek


njfossilhunter

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JefferyP and I went to a Paleocene site just over the boarder in to Ocean County N.J. for some invertebrate collecting. The Vertebrates are very very fragile and can brake apart very easily . So after much attempt..I decided to try to dig out a rather large chuck or block of matrix that had the most abundant amount of shells in it which was the more brownish sandy layer just above the sandy greenish with more glauconite then above,,,which made it much easyer because the layer below was rather harder.  While digging  I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to get both sides or valves from the same individual  and like I mentioned above I just pull out a few large blocks and took it home with me and see what I can find. Out of the first block I found a bunch brac's and placed the better ones aside and I decided to expose the shells still in the second block as best I can with doing the slightest amount of damage . So Far this is what its looking like.  Jeff mention that this will be a good display piece and I totally agree with him.....So A display piece it will be.....Thanks Jeff ...Great Idea..:)  

 

 

2017-03-09 16.12.26.jpg

2017-03-09 16.12.56.jpg

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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do you put any consolidant on these delicate fossils?  Vinac?  Butvar?  It would help a bunch in keeping them whole. 

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1 minute ago, jpc said:

do you put any consolidant on these delicate fossils?  Vinac?  Butvar?  It would help a bunch in keeping them whole. 

 

Yes I do.....Right now they are in the process of both drying out a trying to expose the shells ..So when everything is dried out and done I will consolidate the whole block.  

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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Looking good so far, Tony. :)

Congratulations on a neat display. 

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Looks good!

You should be aware that these brachiopods (Oleneothyris harlani) very rarely have both valves still together.  Indeed, the shells are thick near the beak and quite thin and fragile near the margin, so most specimens are also incomplete in that they only preserve the thicker beak region.  They form almost monospecific shell beds in Paleocene deposits from New Jersey to as far south as North Carolina.

 

Don

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2 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Looks good!

You should be aware that these brachiopods (Oleneothyris harlani) very rarely have both valves still together.  Indeed, the shells are thick near the beak and quite thin and fragile near the margin, so most specimens are also incomplete in that they only preserve the thicker beak region.  They form almost monospecific shell beds in Paleocene deposits from New Jersey to as far south as North Carolina.

 

Don

 

Thank You Don for the ID and the rest of the interesting info on the marine environment that created these shell beds.

Here is one shell that I was able to save which I thought might have the other valve intact but when I cleaned it up it Wasn't 

what I saw. The inside of these are very interesting.

Please excuse the one pic which for the life of me I couldn't get it in better focus...

 

2017-03-09 20.32-vert.jpg

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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8 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

 

 Oh thank You sooo very much for this copy....You just saved me a lot of trouble searching for papers about these Brac's......Your the.... BEST......:1-SlapHands_zpsbb015b76:  

 

capture-20170309-195107.jpg

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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Congratulations Tony on a nice display piece there. I'm impressed you were able to remove one valve completely from the matrix without shattering it. They're SO FRAGILE and usually have cracks running through them they usually just fall apart when the supporting matrix is removed. Good one. Interesting to see the backside. Enjoyed collecting with you. Crosswicks Creek Hornerstown Formation is definitely a change of pace.

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24 minutes ago, Jeffrey P said:

Congratulations Tony on a nice display piece there. I'm impressed you were able to remove one valve completely from the matrix without shattering it. They're SO FRAGILE and usually have cracks running through them they usually just fall apart when the supporting matrix is removed. Good one. Interesting to see the backside. Enjoyed collecting with you. Crosswicks Creek Hornerstown Formation is definitely a change of pace.

 

Thanks Jeff.....The one I pictured above did crack in half when I was stabilizing it  ,,,But I was able to glue it back together with some Paleo Bond believe or not...If you look carefully you can see the seam running down the whole long length of the fossil it may have all ready been cracked but it broke clean and It went back together nicely with a little effort. 

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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On specimens in unconsolidated matrix I use acetone in a squirt bottle to help release the fossils.  It is wet and helps soften the matrix but dries very quickly so as not to soften the fossil too much.

"A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington

"I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain

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what you've depicted is only the base of the brach shell. The thinner full shell body isn't preserved in your block but you can see hints of it. I like Mike R's advise on using acetone!

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here's a pic I got from George Phillips at MMNS. I have them from NJ and NC but no pics handy.

Oleneothyris_(A).JPG

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