Bouldnor Cliff 09/01/2018

[TXV24]

Hi, 

 

I thought I'd share some of my finds from what was a pretty good trip up to Bouldnor Cliff on Tuesday morning. This was my first collecting trip in over a month due to tides, being ill over Christmas and being generally busy, so I missed out on most of December. But hopefully I can start getting back into going twice a week again as usual. Low tide was at 09:48 so I decided to head for Bouldnor instead of Hamstead, as it's a lot easier to quickly access. 

 

My hope was that the prolonged stormy weather we've had for a couple of weeks now would have brought up some nice finds, and I wasn't disappointed. Walking along the shingle I quickly spotted a worn mammal vertebra sticking out of the sand, then a couple of metres away in an area of mud was the distal end of an anthracothere humerus. Pieces like these can be pretty rare finds so I was really pleased with them. They both seem likely to be from Bothriodon based off their larger size.  Moving further along the coast the productivity dropped and the finds were the usual fish vertebrae, alligator scutes, and Emys fragments punctuated by the occasional piece of rolled bone. I checked the surface of the log bed and any shelly horizon for bones or teeth that may be weathering out, but unfortunately no luck there.

 

An interesting sight though was the log bed's huge tree trunks. Usually obscured by sand the log bed marks the boundary between the Upper and Lower Hamstead Members. It correlates with a eustatic lowstand attributed to the onset of antarctic glaciation and rapid global cooling. Around this bed is where the mammal fauna at Bouldnor passes through the famous Grande Coupure, marking the extinction of earlier endemic Eocene mammals like palaeotheres and anoplotheres, who are replaced with rhinocerotids, carnivorans, and a wide range of artiodactyls and rodents, including entelodonts and anthracotheres. The log bed represents a large log jam in fluvial swampy conditions, intermixed with the trees were the carcasses of mammals (a nearly intact Anoplotherium skeleton eroded out of the bed between the 1960's and 2002). Large tree trunks of pines and redwoods can be seen weathering out on the foreshore, and look pretty impressive. There's a long hiatus after the log bed, before the deposition of the Upper Hamstead Member above. 

 

Having passed the log bed, productivity picked up again and within the space of around 20 metres I made some pretty nice finds, including teeth from Bothriodont anthacotheres, an alligator tooth, a large section of trionychid costal plate, alligator jaw fragments, and a large cervical vertebra from an alligator (Diplocynodon sp.). Despite missing the neural arch and cervical ribs on one side the vertebra is quite well preserved and unworn, and is definitely one of the best bones I've collected from the Bouldnor Fm. I walked on a bit further towards Cranmore but decided to turn back as the tide has begun to turn. 

 

Overall, it was a great trip with some really nice finds. I'm planning on heading up to Hamstead for a full day of collecting on Saturday so I'll post on how that trip goes. 

 

Thank you, 

 

Theo 

 

1. Worn Bothriodon vertebra

2. Distal anthracothere humerus, most likely Bothriodon

 

3. Diplocynodon cervical vertebra

 

4. Front view of the Diplocynodon vertebra

[Fossildude19]

Pictures aren't showing for me.  

[caldigger]

Me either. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nor for me. 

[TXV24]

@Fossildude19 @Tidgy's Dad @caldigger Bear with, I copied and pasted the image links from Google Photos so that's probably why it's not working:

 

Here are the images: 

 

1. Worn Bothriodon vertebra

 

 

2. Distal anthracothere humerus Bothriodon sp.

 

3. Diplocynodon cervical vertebra 

 

4. Front view of the cervical vertebra showing the articulatory surface.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Worth the wait! 

Nice finds! 

[FossilDAWG]

Very nice!! 

 

Thanks for posting the images directly to the Forum.  We always have problems, sooner or later, with links to file sharing sites.  Nothing like a bunch of posts referring to dead links to rob a thread of its educational value!

 

Don