Back in the Aalenian again

[Ludwigia]

As many of you have probably noticed, I've been concentrating my fossil hunting efforts mostly on the Kimmeridgian in the Danube Valley or on the Callovian in the Wutach. Yesterday I felt like having a change of scenerey, so I decided to visit the classic site at Scheffheu in the Wutach Valley. I didn't realize it at the tme, but I hadn't been back there for a day of serious collecting for 5 years. My, how time flies! At any rate, it was amazing to see how the site had changed over these few years. The beaten path up the hill, which leads first through woods and which used to continue on up to the top through stone strewn open spaces was now practically overshadowed with tall shrubs and trees and only opened up at the very top. The exposures were basically the same ones, but some were now covered with debris and others were better exposed due to land slips. Also, some of them which had been composed of steely hard rock which was practically impossible to break into were now sufficiently weathered to be able to have a go at them. This time I thought to take along my camera, so I can give you a few impressions.

First, a shot of the exposure in the middle Jurassic Aalenian which I decided after a bit of reconnaissance could be worth a closer investigation.

 

 

I then decided to create a bench at this spot, which was out of the sun.

 

I could tell by the makeup of the stone that I was in the staufensis Bank and it didn't take all that long before I had found a few ammonites. Yes, it was a little muddy in spots.

 

In situ pics with a few ammos before and after excavation.

 

Even though the matrix was weathered making for cracks, it is still extremely hard, so it's not always possible to extract the fossils in one piece. You just have to make sure to collect up all the bits and then there's some puzzle work to do at home.

 

After a couple of hours at this level, I decided to try get down lower to the next fossiliferous layer, the sinon Banks, which provides a slightly different fauna. I had to remove a few larger blocks to this purpose.

 

It was somewhat tedious, but it worked.

 

Continued....

 

 

[JimB88]

[Ludwigia]

Allowing for some more finds.

 

 

 

After another couple of hours, I decided to do some exploring, found another exposure higher up in the Bajocian and expended practically the rest of my energy prying large blocks out of the rock formation, but this time I didn't have any luck. Nevertheless, I made it back down the hill to the car and was happy with my finds. Now I've just got to get down to prepping them. I'll post them here as I get them done.

[JimB88]

beautiful sutures on that last one already!

[Ludwigia]

2 minutes ago, JimB88 said:

beautiful sutures on that last one already!

There are gonna be a few nice ones by the looks of things. This site is famous for its shiny calcite steinkerns.

[Malcolmt]

Most excellent post!!!!! great pictures... now if only they were arthropods or echinoderms.

 

Your lucky to have such a wide variety of sites. As you know over here even though we have some great sites, there are not a lot of them that we can get access to on a regular basis.

[PFOOLEY]

Now that is a fine trip report, good sir!  Looks like peaceful area...lets hope it doesn't take another five years to get back to it.

Is the Aalenian the home of your namesake?

[Kane]

Thanks for taking us along! It looks like a great site, and I agree that some of those are going to be gorgeous when you get a chance to prep them. I salute you, good sir!

[belemniten]

Great finds and pictures ! Thanks for sharing 

[Phevo]

Thanks for taking us along it was a very nice trip report

 

Looks like you'll have alot of nice ammo's for your efforts 

[Ludwigia]

2 hours ago, Malcolmt said:

Most excellent post!!!!! great pictures... now if only they were arthropods or echinoderms.

Wouldn't that be nice

Quote

 

Your lucky to have such a wide variety of sites. As you know over here even though we have some great sites, there are not a lot of them that we can get access to on a regular basis.

Yes, it's nice to have a bit of variety, even if it's mostly limited to varous ammonite species, although there are a few sites for little Miocene shark teeth.

 

44 minutes ago, PFOOLEY said:

Now that is a fine trip report, good sir!  Looks like peaceful area...lets hope it doesn't take another five years to get back to it.

Is the Aalenian the home of your namesake?

Peaceful it is, except for the odd echo of hammer on stone. Yes, Ludwigia is at home in the Aalenian. I think I only found one of them this time.

 

38 minutes ago, Kane said:

Thanks for taking us along! It looks like a great site, and I agree that some of those are going to be gorgeous when you get a chance to prep them. I salute you, good sir!

 

22 minutes ago, belemniten said:

Great finds and pictures ! Thanks for sharing 

 

14 minutes ago, Phevo said:

Thanks for taking us along it was a very nice trip report

 

Looks like you'll have alot of nice ammo's for your efforts 

 

Thanks, guys I'm hoping for some nice ones.

 

 

[PFOOLEY]

11 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Peaceful it is, except for the odd echo of hammer on stone.

That is peculiar. 

[Miocene_Mason]

Some beautiful specimens, thanks for sharing your trip!

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, WhodamanHD said:

Some beautiful specimens, thanks for sharing your trip!

Thanks and you're welcome.

[Ludwigia]

I managed to get 2 things prepped this evening. The first one was a nice little surprise that was just lying on the ground under my feet.

 

It's a partially calcitized steinkern of what I believe to be a Pleurotomaria sp. gastropod.

 

The second is a nice steinkern specimen of one of the most abundant ammonites at this site, Ancolioceras opalinoides.

 

[Monica]

 

 

Wow.

Monica

[Fossil-Hound]

@Ludwigia well done my friend. Looking forward to seeing the others prepared. 

[ynot]

Well done Roger!

Thanks for the tour of Your other collection site.

[Ludwigia]

@Monica @Fossil-Hound@ynot Thanks everyone. More to come.

[JohnBrewer]

the prep work. The steinkern is fantastic!

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, JohnBrewer said:

the prep work. The steinkern is fantastic!

Thanks, John

 

I managed to get a few more done today, although it may now take a while before I get back to the rest of the batch, since a local collector just brought me some work to do for him. I had started out on one of the larger ones in matrix, but once my friend had dropped his things off, I decided in the end to do a few small ones, since they wouldn't take so long to complete. The first ones are all the common Ancolioceras opalinoides, but the last one is a much more rare Brasilia decipiformis of which I've only found one other one in the past, and that was 12 years ago! I wasn't sure what it was at the time, but good old Volker Dietze, our German Middle Jurassic ammonite pope, created a new species 3 years ago to which it fits to a tee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ynot]

Hey Roger,

Very nice! loving the suters on the last one, congrats on the rarity.

[Ludwigia]

6 hours ago, ynot said:

Hey Roger,

Very nice! loving the suters on the last one, congrats on the rarity.

Thanks, Tony. That last one's remaining in the collection for sure.

[Shamalama]

 

Hope you were able to save this one. If you look closely, it says "For Shamalama" in cursive along each suture. 

 

Congrats on such great finds!

 

[Ludwigia]

12 minutes ago, Shamalama said:

 

Hope you were able to save this one. If you look closely, it says "For Shamalama" in cursive along each suture. 

 

Congrats on such great finds!

 

Thanks, Dave. I'll let you know how it turns out.