Adam's Ordovician.

[Tidgy's Dad]

And, still from Lawrenceburg, an orthocerid nautiloid, probably Treptoceras duseri which would go rather nicely with my Canadian Treptoceras, but it could be one of several other species. It's a bit squished! 

You can see the siphuncle here, bent down from a near central position.

Sipuncle :

Posterior : 

Siphuncle again : 

detail. 

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

More great specimens you got a fantastic collection.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

More great specimens you got a fantastic collection.  

Thanks, Bobby. 

Yes, I'm very happy with my Ordovician section. Possibly my favourite period.

 

Here's the bryozoan I broke free of the Cyclonema whilst prepping ith my pins :

So a big shout out and thank you to Ralph @Nimravisfor this and the three gastropods and orthocerid  pictured above. 

[Bobby Rico]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

So a big shout out and thank you to Ralph @Nimravisfor this and the three gastropods and orthocerid  pictured above

Ralph sorted you right out your last posts here very kind . I think orthocerid has some good details . I may photograph one of mine for my macro thread , now you showed me that they can come out nice.  Cheers Bobby 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 7/8/2020 at 3:31 PM, Bobby Rico said:

Ralph sorted you right out your last posts here very kind . I think orthocerid has some good details . I may photograph one of mine for my macro thread , now you showed me that they can come out nice.  Cheers Bobby 

Cheers, mate. 

 

I got these next couple from @Kasia, collected on her trip to Sweden last year. Thanks, Kasia. 

'Orthoceras' was, for many years, a waste basket taxon for many straight shelled cephalopods, but more recently it has been established that it is a genus limited to Balto-Scandinavia, so I was hoping that these Swedish finds could be from the type genus, true Orthoceras sp. 

Sadly it was not to be, as these rocks from the Hallekis Quarry, near Kinnekulle are from the Kunda stage at the end of the Early Ordovician or beginning of the Middle Ordovician are from the Holen and Lanna Limestone Formations or Members of the Huk Formation and don''t contain the genus Orthoceras itself. 

These limesones are sometimes known as the "Orthoceras Limestone" or the "Orthocerid Limestone". 

Orthocerid limestone might sound more accurate but actually isn't much. Orthocerids belong to the Order Orthocerida which is only one group in the subclass Orthoceratoidea of mainly straight shelled cephalopods, a sister group to the nautiloids, but NOT even nautiloids, so the expression "orthocerid nautiloid" is also incorrect. 

Orthoconic is a nice adjective to describe straight shelled cephalopods but includes many orthocerids, actinocerids , ellesmerocerids, endocerids, bactritids and even baculitid ammonites. 

Anyway, the rocks at this quarry are also known as the "Endocerid Limestone" as up to 90% of the fossil cephalopods are said to be endocerids with only 10%  orthocerids except in the very top of the succession where orthocerids dominate. The siphuncles are not well enough preserved to make an id, but these are probably endocerids and therefore true nautiloids and not orthocerids at all. 

Maybe Proterovaginoceras incognitum.

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Trilobite Time! 

Starting off with a few Moroccan specimens.

The Colpocoryphe rouaulti and  Flexicalymene in the box have been covered earlier in this thread. I've also posted the echinoderms previously. 

[Kane]

Trilobite time is my most favourite time! 

I do spy some Asaphellus and a nice Ectillaenus (?benignensis). Nice!

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Kane said:

Trilobite time is my most favourite time! 

I do spy some Asaphellus and a nice Ectillaenus (?benignensis). Nice!

I thought these might interest you. 

And you are, of course, correct in what you've spied. 

I will start with the Ectillaenus benignensis, purchased for a very small price from an extremely nice man in a shop in Ait Benhaddou. 

The specimen probably comes from the First Bani Group, maybe the Ouine-Inerne Formation, of Jebel Bou Issidane a bit South of Alnif, Tinghir Province which is in the Draa-Tafilalet Region of Morocco. This is where they seem to be found predominantly and Ait Benhaddou is on the main route from Alnif to Marrakech, so that fits nicely. 

Here it is in my hand at Ait Benhaddou, you can see a badly filled hole in the anterior left of the pygidium, but otherwise I think it's rather nice. the characteristic little lines of pits can be seen quite clearly on the pygidium here. The pits on the cephalon can be seen better in other photos.  

At home :

And detail of the pits :

[piranha]

23 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Ignore the bit of label you can see saying Colpocoryphe grandis as this isn't recognized from Morocco yet, it's a Colpocoryphe rouaulti.

 

 

You have this info reversed  

 

Destombes, J. 1966

Quelques Calymenina (Trilobitae) de l'Ordovicien Moyen et Supérieur de l'Anti-Atlas (Maroc).

[Some Calymenina (Trilobita) from the Middle and Upper Ordovician of the Anti-Atlas (Morocco).]

Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc, 188:33-52

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, piranha said:

 

 

You have this info reversed  

 

Destombes, J. 1966

Quelques Calymenina (Trilobitae) de l'Ordovicien Moyen et Supérieur de l'Anti-Atlas (Maroc).

[Some Calymenina (Trilobita) from the Middle and Upper Ordovician of the Anti-Atlas (Morocco).]

Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc, 188:33-52

Oh my goodness.  indeed. 

I am clearly very confused. I thought I hadn't changed my labels from last time and should have checked my files. 

I must learn not to rely on my rather muddled memory. 

Thanks, Scott, I expect you'll have to tell me again in a couple of months. 

[piranha]

That reminds me I also need to work on some of my muddled memories ... at least the label is already correct this time!

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, piranha said:

That reminds me I also need to work on some of my muddled memories ... at least the label is already correct this time!

Scott scatterbrained? Scant substantiation. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Asaphellus sp. 

Lower Ordovician Fezouata Formation, Zagora area, Morocco.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is another Asaphellus sp. 

But what interests me is the thing on the edge of the rock. 

It has segments that curve away from the anterior rather than towards it. It seems to be layered and convex on both sides. It has a flange on one side. 

What is it?

Aglaspid? Xiphosurid? Some crushed weird echinoderm? 

Any help would be most welcome. Still Fezouata Fm. so Early Ordovician. Scale of the first pics is in inches. 

Scale now in cm. and I've removed a bit more matrix : 

Nice shot of part of the trilo.....

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here are a couple of lovely Isotelus sp. pygidia sent to me by the altruistic Mike @minnbuckeye Thanks again, Mike. 

They are Late Ordovician from the Maquoketa Shale Group near Elgin, Fayette County, Iowa. 

The bigger one is 3.8 cm wide.

And, on the reverse, a single segment from the thorax. 3 cm across.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The mystery fossil seems like it might be a trilobite pygidium. 

 

Still, onwards.................

and 

This is a little Kermit. 

Anataphrus vigilans from the Maquoketa Shales in Eldorado, Iowa. 

(yes, there really seems to be another species called A. kermiti. Wonderful) 

He's a little battered, but I absolutely love him.

Thanks once again to Mike, @minnbuckeye

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is a lovely little Flexicalymene retrorsa roller from the Arnheim Formation of Mount Orab, Ohio. 

This was obtained in the small fossil exchange that accompanies Sara.

 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/93827-sara-the-world-traveling-ceratopsian/&

This wasn't one of Doren's offerings, but it was dear Doren who started the thread. So thank you once again, my friend. 

Anyway, I got out my prepping pin, recently, and attacked it : 

It probably needs a little more work when I've got the time, but I think it's beautiful.

Some of the fine detail :

And it goes very nicely with the other specimen I have from the same location that just has its cephalon curled under. You can see more of that one on Page 6 of this thread.

 

 

[connorp]

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Anyway, I got out my prepping pin, recently, and attacked it

That is some quite nice pin work! How long did it take?

[Tidgy's Dad]

17 hours ago, connorp said:

That is some quite nice pin work! How long did it take?

Thank you! 

I'm not sure, I sort of do a bit here and a bit there, this took two and a half weeks, but not every day, and sometimes ten minutes a day, other times an hour or two. 

I would guess at about 6 hours? I think I really need to do another hour or so with my finest pin to get the best result, but I'm happy for now. 

[Rob in Idaho]

Great fossils and some nice prep! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Rob in Idaho said:

Great fossils and some nice prep! 

Very kind of you to say so. 

[Wrangellian]

What Rob said! The Moroccan fossils you have access to are enviable, but you're also receiving some nice things from this side of the pond and elsewhere. And the prep job is great - I wish my local stuff was preppable with a pin, even if it took 6+ hours!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Wrangellian said:

What Rob said! The Moroccan fossils you have access to are enviable, but you're also receiving some nice things from this side of the pond and elsewhere. And the prep job is great - I wish my local stuff was preppable with a pin, even if it took 6+ hours!

 

Thanks, Eric. 

But the matrix does defeat me on occasion. 

And my fingers hurt. 

[Wrangellian]

Oh well, we all suffer for our art or science as the case may be!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Now it's time to return to my favourite hash plate from the St.Leon Roadcut, Indiana. 

This one if you recall : 

As well as several species of brachiopods and bryozoans, it contains a shed load of trilobits! 

I think these are also Flexicalymene, but whether F. retrorsa, F. meeki, or both I don't know. 

First a couple of tiny pygidia, this first one 3 mm long. 

And this one about 3.5 mm wide :

Librigenae (free cheeks). The first one is 1 cm long : 

And this one is 9 mm long :

Thanks to Ralph, again. @Nimravis  The hash plate that never stops giving!