A Weekend in Brechin

[Kane]

Just got back from Brechin and had a lovely time collecting with TFF members Malcomt and Ludwigia. Managed a pretty decent haul for my first time up there, and definitely my thanks to Malcolm who is a real veteran of the place in pointing out where to look and how to work the rock. It was a bit of a drive for us, but it was lovely. We had to leave a bit earlier to beat the traffic.

 

So, pictures equal thousands of words, and all that. A few of our other members will probably have some other stuff to add to this thread. 

 

First up are hash plates. I am personally fond of them, and since these are in an Ordovician formation (Verulam) I've never collected before, it is all a great novelty to me. Gastros, brachs, byrozoans, trilo-bits, etc: 

And, a healthy serving of gastropods. I particularly like the large, high-spired ones (Fusispira sp.?) that weathered right out of the rock for easy surface collecting.

[Kane]

Plenty of crinoids, but most of them weather out as stalks. The cystoid (Pleurocystites?) was found by Malcolm who kindly gifted it to me. I can't recall the species name so he'd be better able to confirm that. A gorgeous and uncommon piece!

We have a bryozoan in the second pic (Stictoporella?), but also this echinoderm-y specimen I found in the scree. I am told it is an uncommon one to find, but I don't know much about it yet.

[Kane]

But let's get to the trilobites (one of the real reasons I was there!). These rocks are plentiful with Isotelus bits. I've grouped a few cranidia, a spine, and a hypostome in the one pic. The other one is all pygidia - with a fairly big one Deb found that is about 4 inches wide. A bit beat up, but pretty cool nonetheless!

I'm not yet sure if this is a single trilobite just slightly disarticulated, or two (likely just one).

This is a Ceraurus just missing his pygidial spikes. I plucked it out from between some fallen rock. It is in Malcolm's capable hands right now for prep.

[Kane]

The rollers! I managed to find my own "Kermit" (Isotelus). The one on the far end is a Flexicalymene that I found rolled out of the spoil piles within a few minutes of arriving at the site. The middle one might be an enrolled Ceraurinus, and I found that five minutes before we left for home.

A closeup of what is possibly Ceraurinus.

I found this in the fallen rock as well, not too long before we had to leave. Not much of it left, but this might be a ventral view of an Isotelus judging by the visible hypostome there.

[Kane]

Last, but not least, a TFF "family photo" of those of us who were there on Sunday: Roger, Malcolm holding the rock saw that he was using to cut out a gorgeous crinoid multi-plate, and me. What a fantastic time!  

 

There's still more for me to go through, but these are the highlights of a great trip with great folks.

[Darktooth]

Great trip report and pics Kane. I love the trilos. Sounds like a excellent time. Glad this was a successful hunt for you. Congratulations!

[Fossil-Hound]

@Kane awww... what a happy family. Great report. Some of the trilobites are going to look really good once prepared. You found some really nice big rollers. Congratulations!

[belemniten]

Nice finds and great trip report Kane  Congrats !

[Yvie]

Wow great finds,that's real hardcore with the cutter.lol

[Monica]

Beautiful finds, Kane - thanks for sharing!

 

Perhaps one day I can join in on the fun up in Brechin...this past weekend Viola went off to Girl Guide camp, which would have made it possible for me to join you at the quarry, but my husband and I had already planned a trip out to Stratford to see "Twelfth Night," the Shakespearean play which has the character for which Viola is named.  So it appears we all found a way to enjoy the lack of rain this past weekend 

 

I hope that all is well, and be prepared to get a PM from me to try to arrange a bit of brachiopod-collecting in your area sometime in the summer! 

 

Monica

[doushantuo]

Great trip treport,great fossils.

I hope you could dissuade Malcolm from sawing your leg off?

[JimB88]

Great report! Awesome trilo's! The 'crinoid' looks more like a cystoid to me and is also awesome!

[Kane]

Thanks, all! And I appreciate if anyone who is familiar with the Verulam Fm can help with some more fine tune IDs on some of these. I also hope that a few others who came out this weekend will be posting their beauties when time allows.  

[Fossildude19]

Nice finds, Kane!  

 

Thanks for the excellent report and pictures. 

Some of those trilos will prep out quite nicely, I'm sure.  

 

[JohnBrewer]

Great finds and nice to hook up with likeminded rockheads.

[Fossil-Hound]

@Kane was reading from Trilobites of New York this weekend and it said that hash plates are the result of loose thin mud as opposed to more well preserved shale from thicker, denser mud. I have a plate from Penn Dixie that is covered in Greenops pieces but unfortunately hash plates rarely capture a complete trilobite as they are a bit more fragile than those brachiopods so that piece just has trilo-bits. Excellent finds though. Hash plates are very interesting. I need to get a microscope to study some I have lying around. Maybe I'll post a nice big one later. Good luck on prepping!

[Kane]

11 minutes ago, Fossil-Hound said:

@Kane was reading from Trilobites of New York this weekend and it said that hash plates are the result of loose thin mud as opposed to more well preserved shale from thicker, denser mud. I have a plate from Penn Dixie that is covered in Greenops pieces but unfortunately hash plates rarely capture a complete trilobite as they are a bit more fragile than those brachiopods so that piece just has trilo-bits. Excellent finds though. Hash plates are very interesting. I need to get a microscope to study some I have lying around. Maybe I'll post a nice big one later. Good luck on prepping!

Yep. A lot of the Verulam consists of storm-tossed mudstones with interbeds of encrinal stuff. In some of the rocks, you can see the wavy lumps, so not exactly a peaceful deposition of sediment, but a lot of churning. In one taphonomy paper I was reading, there was mention of brachiopod positioning and assemblage as a means of determining deposition conditions. These were largely choppy seas. 

 

The digital microscopes can be a cheaper option, but you might need to track down some stacking/stitching software to avoid the depth of field issues.

 

Not much prep I can do with any of these given the type of matrix it is, and the tools in my possession.  Just a few minor and careful matrix removal, but nothing more than that as it is nowhere near as forgiving as PD shale.

[Fossil-Hound]

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

Yep. A lot of the Verulam consists of storm-tossed mudstones with interbeds of encrinal stuff. In some of the rocks, you can see the wavy lumps, so not exactly a peaceful deposition of sediment, but a lot of churning. In one taphonomy paper I was reading, there was mention of brachiopod positioning and assemblage as a means of determining deposition conditions. These were largely choppy seas. 

 

The digital microscopes can be a cheaper option, but you might need to track down some stacking/stitching software to avoid the depth of field issues.

 

Not much prep I can do with any of these given the type of matrix it is, and the tools in my possession.  Just a few minor and careful matrix removal, but nothing more than that as it is nowhere near as forgiving as PD shale.

 

Hence the reason why @Malcolmt is one of the few guys on TFF who preps out this stuff. 

[JohnBrewer]

@Malcolmt do you normally carry one of those choppy cutty things in your back pocket when out hunting?!  

[Malcolmt]

Always great to meet up with friends from the Fossil Forum. Kane and Debbie are great people to collect with. That "echinoderm-y specimen" is in my opinion the better part of the theca from Amygdalocystite probably Amygdalocysties florealis

 

I suspect the rolled trilo Kane found at the end was a ceraurus of some type not a ceraurinus

 

I always bring the rock saw. It is the only way not to destroy good specimens and a way to get them down to a size and weight that us old folks can lug out of the field. I found a plate with 5 crinoid calyx's and it was probably in a 200 pound boulder. 

[Malcolmt]

Here is the plate of crinoids that I found

 

 

 

Here is Kane being Kane.....  

 

 

Moving it so that I could cut it easier.....

 

[Ludwigia]

Hi guys. Just popping in for a minute on my sister-in-law's pc. Can't post any photos or such from here, but suffice to say that it was a pleasure to make Kane and Deb's acquaintance and that I'm looking forward to our planned trip to Hungry Hollow. Nice finds, Kane! I didn't find much more worth keeping for me after you left, but I'm happy enough with that little crinoid crown that Malcolm allowed me to take. What would we do without that guy? 

[Northern Sharks]

My first reaction to your echinoderm'y' piece is that it is a somewhat weathered but extremely rare (from this area) bryozoan called Constellaria. Wish I'd paid more attention and realized that the trip was this past weekend, I likely would have joined you.

[Northern Sharks]

This is the finest example of Constellaria I've seen from that particular quarry and was good enough that another member made a special trip up to the pit from Arkona just to see if I'd missed any. I did and he was quite happy with what I'd left behind. Of course, this was before I knew just how rare it was.

[Kane]

15 minutes ago, Northern Sharks said:

This is the finest example of Constellaria I've seen from that particular quarry and was good enough that another member made a special trip up to the pit from Arkona just to see if I'd missed any. I did and he was quite happy with what I'd left behind. Of course, this was before I knew just how rare it was.

I had no idea what it was, or that it was rare, until I showed it to Malcolm. There was another, smaller piece in about the same condition as the one I found that I didn't have time to go back for. 

 

It would have been great to meet up! We'll have to do it next time because, well, now that I've been once I'll have to come up again and again until maybe I can find all 23+ different trilobites in that formation!