Miocene_Mason Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 2 hours ago, Doctor Mud said: So who was the owner? C. Megalodon is a good candidate. Not many associated verts found around the world.... They are found occasionally over here, here’s some from the Calvert Marine Museum, I took pictures for just such an occasion. Sorry the one is sideways, it has a GW vert for comparison. “...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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Ps I’d also consider basking shark vert. as a candidate (especially angle of the curve) I have a picture of one of those too if you want it. “...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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 3 hours ago, WhodamanHD said: Ps I’d also consider basking shark vert. as a candidate (especially angle of the curve) I have a picture of one of those too if you want it. Basking shark verts have a very delicate internal structure and tend to collapse easily. May be why these verts are compressed and dissacociated within the concretion. Basking shark verts have a central foramen (hole). Prepping will help. Love to see the photo of the basking shark vert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 One of the other major finds of the day. I'd say some sort of bird. I think the lowest bone is a humerus? My first thought was penguin, but is that a carpometacarpus on the upper left? Looks wrong for a penguin flipper. Field of view is 20 cm high. @Boesse - what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 That is definitely an associated penguin skeleton! Vertebrae and perhaps a coracoid up top, another humerus on the left, and perhaps part of the sternum in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Nice (new) finds! Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miocene_Mason Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 1 hour ago, Doctor Mud said: Basking shark verts have a very delicate internal structure and tend to collapse easily. May be why these verts are compressed and dissacociated within the concretion. Basking shark verts have a central foramen (hole). Prepping will help. Love to see the photo of the basking shark vert. This is correct. Not a great picture, but enough for a comparison. Shadow is due to it being so curved that the light in the display case is behind the lip. Would make a good bowl of it didn’t have a hole in it.Also for CMM “...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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 1 hour ago, Boesse said: That is definitely an associated penguin skeleton! Vertebrae and perhaps a coracoid up top, another humerus on the left, and perhaps part of the sternum in the middle. Yes - that's the bone I thought was a humerus. Thought this was a dead ringer for penguin, but got "distracted" by the bone to the bottom left. Thought it was a metacarpus. Thanks Bobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 33 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said: This is correct. Not a great picture, but enough for a comparison. Shadow is due to it being so curved that the light in the display case is behind the lip. Would make a good bowl of it didn’t have a hole in it.Also for CMM The steep sides on the conical face of the vert is also supposed to be diagnostic of basking shark verts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izak_ Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Wow awesome finds! Would love to go to NZ for crabs one day!! Are you allowed to bring the crabs back to aus @Doctor Mud? did you freight them or bring them on the plane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Splendid thread! Love all the crabs and the penguin is amazing! Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Awesome thread. I love Crabs. Wish we had nodules like those around here. Guest I will have to make a trip to NZ some day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 17 hours ago, Doctor Mud said: Was looking at one of the blocks with the verts in today and saw this: Reminded me of a Basking shark gill raker . Image below for comparison. Yup that's precisely what that specimen is - is that associated with the vertebrae? I have a locality in the Purisima Fm. I published on a few years ago where the most abundant vertebrate fossils were isolated gill rakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimTexan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Wow you hit the jackpot! Awesome and very exciting post! i assume this is on the South Island. I’ve been to NZ, but didn’t go fossil hunting. Love the pics. The penguin is pretty cool too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 3 hours ago, Boesse said: Yup that's precisely what that specimen is - is that associated with the vertebrae? I have a locality in the Purisima Fm. I published on a few years ago where the most abundant vertebrate fossils were isolated gill rakers. Thanks once again Bobby! Yes, this is in one of the blocks with the shark vertebrae in. It's a big block with many verts in it. Have basking shark fossils been reported from New Zealand before? What is the age of the Purisma formation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Purisima Fm. is uppermost Miocene-late Pliocene in age, and aforementioned Cetorhinus locality is ~4-5 Ma (early Pliocene). Cetorhinus is not listed in the Fordyce and Roberts 2009 comprehensive faunal list for NZ and I'm not aware of a published article by Keyes or anyone else on the subject. Fossilworks produced no published records of Cetorhinus in NZ or Australia, and there's no mention of basking sharks in Kemp (1991) either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Thanks for the great trip report and congrats on the amazing finds... giant crabs AND penguin. I have been there decades ago and am curious as to how many boulders you hoofed up the hill form the beach. That is a helluva hike with an 88lb rock. Also curious as to how they get to Oz. I shipped a few partials home from NZ, and it was not cheap. Used up much of my apricot picking income... Great finds, cool video. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 On 14/01/2018 at 8:41 PM, Foozil said: Wow awesome finds! Would love to go to NZ for crabs one day!! Are you allowed to bring the crabs back to aus @Doctor Mud? did you freight them or bring them on the plane? 14 hours ago, jpc said: Thanks for the great trip report and congrats on the amazing finds... giant crabs AND penguin. I have been there decades ago and am curious as to how many boulders you hoofed up the hill form the beach. That is a helluva hike with an 88lb rock. Also curious as to how they get to Oz. I shipped a few partials home from NZ, and it was not cheap. Used up much of my apricot picking income... Great finds, cool video. Thanks again. Thanks guys. It sure is a challenging hike to get off the beach. In a way I'm happy people can't drive to the beach. Also makes you think about what you really want. The limit for me in a pack is 50 kg at a push, "comfortably" 30 kg. So usually 2 concretions per trip. Some of these finds can go back with me, but the important stuff will get donated to the Canterbury Museum. They have shown a definite interest in the penguin. I hope to find someone who is interested in the associated shark vertebrae too. I have a few connections now through universities and museums in NZ and I send photos of potentially interesting finds. I really encourage anyone finding vert material anywhere in New Zealand to contact a museum or university. In the past I've bought an extra piece of luggage and filled up a tub with fossils. That only covers up to 20 -30 kg a pop though. I haven't shipped really big concretions before (>20 kg). I'll be looking into options... Anyone else shipped something like this? I just lugged up the penguin concretion today. I usually only lug one pack load up per visit. And this would be up to 50 kgs. I used the trolley today and I think this big sucker was at least 80 kg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 10 hours ago, Boesse said: Purisima Fm. is uppermost Miocene-late Pliocene in age, and aforementioned Cetorhinus locality is ~4-5 Ma (early Pliocene). Cetorhinus is not listed in the Fordyce and Roberts 2009 comprehensive faunal list for NZ and I'm not aware of a published article by Keyes or anyone else on the subject. Fossilworks produced no published records of Cetorhinus in NZ or Australia, and there's no mention of basking sharks in Kemp (1991) either. Thanks Bobby, I find the literature confusing on the stratigraphy and age of the area I hunt. The inland concretionary horizon is early Miocene and referred to as Mount Brown formation. Further up the coast it is referred to as the Greta siltstone and is Pliocene I believe (need to check this). I find a lot of Sectipecten Wollastoni which is an indicator for the late Miocene (NZ stage = Kapitean) so 7.5 - 5.5 mya where I hunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6ix Posted January 16, 2018 Author Share Posted January 16, 2018 Wow man thats some dedication. Anyone who has been there will know the work involved - even with a sack barrow with flat tyres I have a suspicion it might be cheaper to change where "home" is LOL I'm still stoked with the vertebra - looking forward to the next trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 On 15/01/2018 at 5:29 AM, KimTexan said: Wow you hit the jackpot! Awesome and very exciting post! i assume this is on the South Island. I’ve been to NZ, but didn’t go fossil hunting. Love the pics. The penguin is pretty cool too. Thanks! Yes this is the South Island. Was really surprised to find the penguin. One of those days when I wasn't expecting much and we found two really awesome things. One each Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 2 hours ago, 6ix said: Wow man thats some dedication. Anyone who has been there will know the work involved - even with a sack barrow with flat tyres I have a suspicion it might be cheaper to change where "home" is LOL I'm still stoked with the vertebra - looking forward to the next trip! I agree. Love Australia, but I'm addicted to hunting the Canterbury coast. And I know some pretty awesome people who live near there too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Simply awesome finds, Doc!! I see lots of prep-time in your future. Lol ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echinoid Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Drooling over those finds! - especially the penguin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Mud Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Update time, Sadly I don't have a prep palace right now, but the individual basking shark vert, the penguin and some @6ix's huge basking shark vertebrae block are in the capable hands of Al Mannering who does wonderful prep for the Canterbury museum. It makes me a little sad that I don't have the time or place to prep big pieces like this right now but Al is the man and I will get to see these fossils in all their glory in the nit too distant future! Has to be my best trip to NZ fossil hunting ever. Just when you think you know a locality, a whole bunch of new things and information come to light. Some mysteries have been solved, I learned a lot about the site, met a new local collector (thanks to @Dave (POM) Allen) and found some awesome things. Also really enjoyed hanging out with @6ix and his whanau (family). Ill post updates on the prep of these fossils in the future..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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