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Orthoceras finds after rain


Rocky Stoner

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Hi folks,

  We had a nice rain last night.

Walked around the upper yellow shale garden and found these rinsed off lying on the surface.

Sort of strange, this is (practically) the only fossil I've found here in this spot. Just 200 yds. away is my other dig site that has all of the other examples I've posted, but none of the orthoceras has been found there.

I suppose there are many layers separating them, makes me wonder what the timeline would be relating to the different exposed areas.

The bulk of the orthoceras seems to be in one end of my current tilling. Soon I plan to extend the plowed area a bit further up the ridge in search of higher concentrations.

Cheers.

July 7.JPG

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The mahantango was prone to storms, maybe large ones pushed pelagic orthocerid s to the shallower closer to land bits?

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Great finds! :) 

 

Sometimes finding clusters of a particular fossil in one area is less about geologic time and more about deposition patterns. Just to add a bit more detail to what WhodamanHD said, tides have a way of sifting and sorting debris so that smaller stuff and bigger stuff get separated by the currents. Natural depressions on the sea floor become little waste bins for stuff sorted by weight and size, and if they get covered in mud due to storms, they effectively get frozen in time until after thousands and millions of years of more sediment piling on top, they fossilize.

 

If you ever go to a beach and look at the shoreline, you might be able to see this process in action where you get areas that are littered with little shell bits, and others with larger bits. 

 

The process, involving paleoenvironments and hydrodynamics among other things, is part of a fascinating branch of paleontological study called taphonomy. It is a little like forensics in figuring out how and why organisms were deposited in certain places and not others.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Any time. :) 

 

I'm hoping @Shamalama pops by at some point (the author of that great blog) to say more about the stuff you're finding. 

 

I'm still in awe and a bit of envy that you're able to pull this up from your own property. 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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I know the place I hunt, most layers have brachs and a few crinoids, while one or two 

Layers are chock full of crinoid columnals, presumably from a storm killing a large "Forest" of crinoids.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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that is a lot of nice cephalopods in one area

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Are you going to be able to dig up any chunks of matrix from that spot to see if it contains these orthocones, maybe to find out how densely packed they are?

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1 hour ago, Wrangellian said:

Are you going to be able to dig up any chunks of matrix from that spot to see if it contains these orthocones, maybe to find out how densely packed they are?

Hello Wrangellian, thanks for your reply.

That's the strange thing about this particular site. It is just a tilled area with about 3" of top soil tilled to a depth of about 6". Standard for a garden in these parts. I dug a test pit about 3' x 5' down to the undisturbed shale and found nothing except a few small concretions. I have pretty well determined that all of the ones I've found are just under the topsoil in the highly fractured several inches of shale directly below. I have never found a single one that was "in the matrix", they are all loose and on the surface after a tilling of the soil and a nice cleansing rain, of which we just had another this evening. I'm anxious to go look it over again in the morning. The matrix in this area is a very soft chalk-like shale that breaks up into small pieces after only a minimal exposure to the elements. I imagine that is partly why none are still in the matrix as the seasonal changes have separated long ago, being that close to the surface. (just a guess)

Thanks again,

regards.

 

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That's odd... You could be right, my local shale also is very much splintery after a little exposure to any kind of weather.

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I also meant to say, if I did excavate a pit maybe 3' deep with a machine, which I might do, I might very well find these in the matrix of given layers. The layering appears to be about 60 degrees from vertical in this area.

Good Lord the damage I could do with an excavator !

Cheers.

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12 minutes ago, Rocky Stoner said:

I also meant to say, if I did excavate a pit maybe 3' deep with a machine, which I might do, I might very well find these in the matrix of given layers. The layering appears to be about 60 degrees from vertical in this area.

Good Lord the damage I could do with an excavator !

Cheers.

Good lord, what some of us wouldn't give to have a licensed operator come by to one our sites with an excavator to help us out! :D 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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On 7/7/2017 at 8:32 PM, Kane said:

Good lord, what some of us wouldn't give to have a licensed operator come by to one our sites with an excavator to help us out! :D 

+1:)

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Hmmmmm, well .... Buffalo is sort of on the way to Ontario from here.:D

Seriously though, I just turned up a new patch, some interesting bits to show soon after clean-up !

I think I'll keep my digs to plow depth for now. At least until I have turned every stone.:)

I need to come up with more excuses.

So far :

New blackberry patch, 2 new flower beds, site grading for new (proposed) gazebo, 1 small plowed area for "wildlife" feeding patch ........etc.

:)

 

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Nice finds.

On 7/7/2017 at 8:32 PM, Kane said:

Good lord, what some of us wouldn't give to have a licensed operator come by to one our sites with an excavator to help us out! :D 

+1 :D

Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

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