Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi, 

 

It's been a while since I've put anything up on here so it figured it would a good time to share some of my finds from this spring so far. With such a productive winter the start of this spring on the Bouldnor Fm. coast was a bit slow with several trips in which little was found (odd for what is usually a heavily productive site) but as March and April came round the finds started coming in faster and better. Access at Bouldnor is now very dangerous and pretty much impassable due to thick and deep silt and mud which has covered part of the beach (which I found out the hard way trying to get through), along with two recent cliff falls which have brought several oak trees down onto the beach. Hamstead and Cranmore are as good as ever with a lot of the winter's mudflows now eroding away and making the foreshore a lot easier.

 

IMG_0620.thumb.JPG.785829f1ec08118e8a9df3a22da1cb55.JPG

(Hamstead Ledge on a spring low tide)

 

Mammal finds have been pretty nice so far this spring, as usual all Bothriodon, and alongside them I've also made some nice alligator and turtle finds including two partial Emys in-situ in the Upper Hamstead Mbr. Here are some of the highlights:

 

1. More pieces of the large Bothriodon mandible I first found in January have turned up scattered over the same area. I now have part of the hinge, two sections with P2 - Mand a part of the underside of the mandible from further forward. I regularly check the site on my collecting trips so hopefully yet more of the jaw will turn up. (The positions of the fragments may be slightly off in the image below but it gives a general idea)

31198243_360987564391413_1617885057_o.thumb.jpg.b90c2c258e7ca48d0b1e9d67b32a0374.jpg

 

2. Bothriodon caudal vertebra. This is one of my favourite finds from this spring. I was originally excavating a small micro-vertebrate site when I felt the tool make contact with a large bone, I dug a bit deeper into the clay and found this vertebra with the processes fragmented around it. Luckily with a bit of super glue the processes were easily reunited with the vertebral body, after 33 million years apart. Unfortunately I couldn't locate the other transverse process or neural spine in the matrix nearby so I think they may have been broken off on the Oligocene coastal plain. 

30785176_360988151058021_413756441_n.jpg.129c579cb2f33866b7702cc29ab75692.jpg

 

30776733_360988164391353_965467075_n.jpg.e32eb32f3c1fc045fd79aa2801f0c1dc.jpg

 

3.  Bothriodon upper molar in a fragment of maxilla 

30850237_360987481058088_900230570_o.thumb.jpg.af42f72d74e24fbfc9a4abe4a88ea291.jpg

 

4. Section of Bothriodon mandible with a nice mental foramen. Unfortunately no in-situ teeth with this one. 

30826326_360987727724730_2013626951_o.thumb.jpg.d5be2cc25b87d5dfdf083fc9b5775d31.jpg

 

5. Section of mammalian limb bone with evidence of rodent gnawing. This was an in-situ find eroding out of the Upper Hamstead Mbr. on the foreshore. Gnaw marks like these are really common on in-situ material especially on limb bones. I don't think the rodents were scavenging the flesh off the bones, more likely they were extracting calcium and phosphate or were simply using it to grind down their continually growing incisors. Either way it shows that for at least a period a lot of these bones were exposed to the elements and accessible to the variety of rodents present on the coastal plain. 

30867750_360987371058099_225992538_o.thumb.jpg.b0e9a008d7a70471179b1ba0d71dd462.jpg

30946209_360986994391470_1166507455_o.thumb.jpg.d60f79459973b1333738c0bd19aee385.jpg

 

6. Nice quality Bothriodon intermedial phalange 

30826311_360986954391474_647767577_o.thumb.jpg.5c670cad061d451ba4a31dfcdfe84cd9.jpg

 

7. Large Diplocynodon alligator frontal bone 

30849394_360986944391475_166611077_o.thumb.jpg.1fc5b0935977b824aa172ec11f17cd17.jpg

 

 

 Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the finds!

 

Theo 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great finds, especially finding more bits of that jaw. 

As usual a nice report and thanks for sharing.:)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome finds! Love the jaw and the vert!

“...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

Some very impressive finds there. Congratulations and thanks for showing them. I'd love to visit there someday. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...