ADAM'S SILURIAN

[Tidgy's Dad]

From the same chunk of limestone is a small clump of the phaceloid rugose coral Kodonophyllum truncatum.

I posted a nice matrix-free twin of this species halfway down on page 5 of this thread. So I haven't spent too long digging these out.

The biggest one has a diameter of 1 cm.

You can see the edge of a third corallite in the picture below:

Edited October 16, 2023 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

There are lots of bryozoans, of course.

I think that these are Hallopora elegantula, quite a chunky ramose species with widely spaced zooecia.

This specimen is about 2.5 cm from one end to the other, not counting the bend. About half a centimetre in diameter at the widest point, presumably nearer the base. Notice what looks like spines, actually caused by the raised and irregular zooecial walls that are sometimes higher where two walls meet.

The "spines":

And the end shows some of the openings:

A second possible specimen, but might be Monotrypella.

And a rather blurred third?

 

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lots of really tiny stick bryozoan fragments.

Most are probably Rhonbopora mawi. 

And one little fragment of a fenestellid.

 

And this thread has now had 20,000 views!

Thanks to all who've had a looksie and I hope it has proved entertaining and informative for some of you. 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Tidgy's Dad

[minnbuckeye]

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

And this thread has now had 20,000 views!

 

And I have accounted for most of them as I have been day in and day out digging through your information on the Waldron Shale to help me ID my fossils!!!!! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:35 AM, minnbuckeye said:

 

And I have accounted for most of them as I have been day in and day out digging through your information on the Waldron Shale to help me ID my fossils!!!!! 

I'm always delighted when my threads are of some use to people and help with IDs.

 

Meanwhile, my latest lump of rock from the British Wenlock Limestone Formation also includes brachiopods.

Though not the best, to be honest.

This one would be quite nice if I could dig it out a bit more. I think it's the raised central ridge of the brachial valve of Gypidula galeata.

Anastrophia?

The orthid Dalejina hybrida, I think, sticking vertically out of the matrix.

A  rather squashed little rhynchonellid, not sure which one:

[Tidgy's Dad]

Fifty-odd years ago I went on one of my frequent childhood trips the the Natural History Museum. In those days the Geological Museum was separate, though in the same building and you could walk through one to the other. I spent a lot of time in both. I can't remember if it was a school trip or a family outing but, in the end, I made a little purchase in the museum shop.

Back then, I don't think they sold real fossils, just replicas, so I purchased a small, resin crinoid calyx and arms of the Wenlock crinoid Dimerocrinites decadactylus. Crinoids were my favorite fossils as a youngster and I already loved Wenlock fossils, had some in my collection but no crinoids except ossicles.

But when I moved to Morocco, nearly twenty years ago, I threw the little thing out. Regret it now.

wifey couldn't get hold of a Dimerocrinites decadactylus, at least not at a reasonable price, but she did get me the chunk from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation from the Wren's Nest, Dudley shown in the posts above for my birthday.

And this is why:

A lovely base of the calyx of Sagenocrinites expansus.

I love my wifey.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

wifey wanted to get me a specimen of Resserella waldronensis from the Waldron Shale for Crimbo to go with my beautiful Resserella canalis the Much Wenlock Limestone. (see near the bottom of page 9 of this thread).

But she couldn't get one.

But she noticed there were some Resserella elegantula from the Wenlock Rochester Shale of New York and thought she'd get me one of those.  Except that she made a slight error and obtained the same species from the Early Silurian of Scotland instead.

Much that I'd like specimens from the Waldron and the Rochester, this is just gorgeous and brilliant.

Just like wifey.

The first piccie isn't very good but shows the scale and the nice label.

Here it is as it arrived:

And after a little pin prepping:

[Baking Geologist]

I’m really enjoying your brachiopods.  Seems like my undergraduate paleontology professor specialized in brachiopods but his name has long left my brain.  He was a very poor instructor sadly.  
 

His shortcomings were more than made up for by the two following paleontologists I studied under at UT El Paso and Northern Illinois University.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 1/4/2024 at 2:46 AM, Baking Geologist said:

I’m really enjoying your brachiopods.  Seems like my undergraduate paleontology professor specialized in brachiopods but his name has long left my brain.  He was a very poor instructor sadly. 

Yeah, some of my palaeo professors seemed to be constantly out in the field and some of the replacements were decidedly dodgy.

You have clearly spotted that I have a love for brachiopods. I'm very glad you're enjoying them too.

But I love the Wenlock for the whole range of organisms that existed across North America, Britain, and the Balto-Scandinavian regions and the similarities and differences between them.

This is another one I received from wifey for Christmas to add to my collection.

The most common nautiloid in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation in the UK is Dawsonoceras annulatum, but number two would appear to be this one; Kionoceras virgatum. This specimen was found at Shadwell Quarry, Much Wenlock, Shropshire.

It came to me listed as Orthoceras canaliculatum, but as the genus Orthoceras is now restricted to the Mid Ordovician of Balto-Scandinavia, the species was transferred to Kionoceras and later synonymised with what had been Orthoceras virgatum which had precedence as it had first been described by Sowerby and Murchison a mere  12 pages earlier in their seminal " The Silurian System. Part 2. Organic Remains."

Edited January 8 by Tidgy's Dad

[Bobby Rico]

On 12/22/2023 at 10:36 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Dimerocrinites decadactylus, at least not at a reasonable price, but she did get me the chunk from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation from the Wren's Nest, Dudley shown in the posts above for my birthday.

And this is why:

A lovely base of the calyx of Sagenocrinites expansus.

I love my wifey

Some cracking birthday presents mate. Your wifey did you proudly , she a star.. 

 

Have noce weekend Bobby 

Edited January 6 by Bobby Rico

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 1/6/2024 at 11:15 PM, Bobby Rico said:

Your wifey did you proudly , she a star..

As is Mrs R. We're both rather lucky.

Though the last couple were Christmas gifts.

And our great mutual friend Mike, @minnbuckeyehas also helped expand my Silurian collection with some more Waldron Shale fossils from Indiana, Some really nice gaps filled.

First off is the little ball-sponge Astylospongia praemorsa which I mentioned earlier in the thread and have wanted for some time.

The sponges in the British Wenlock are doniated by massive or layered stromatoporoids and chaetetids while here in the deeper water and mud of the Waldron we seem to have these little beasties representing sponges.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I am jolly glad that wifey failed to find me a Resserella waldronensis for Christmas and got me a Resserella elegantula instead. ( see a few posts above on this page.)

'Cos the brilliant Mike has only gone and sent me a beautiful example of R, waldronensis which was high on my wish list.

Mike, I'll do the mystery brachiopods you sent next, but I couldn't resist posting this beauty.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Mike @minnbuckeyealso sent me these three little beauties with a request for ID.

There are quite a few species of rhynchonellid found in the Waldron Shale, but these are quite distinctive with their tear-drop shape, a deep sulcus near the anterior, and having a single rib in the sulcus and two on the fold, They used to be called Camarotoechia acinus but, as Camarotoechia was rather a wastebasket taxon was moved, along with some other species from the Waldron, into Stegerhynchus. Some recent articles, retailers, and faunal lists have now renamed it Diabolirhynchia acinus. However, the Treatise lists Diabolirhynchia as only occurring in Morocco and Mauretania, though it probably needs another update. These do look much more like Diabolirhynchia than the other species of Stegerhynchus, externally at least. I cannot find any official papers or mention of the genus change to Diabolirhynchia, even on Google Scholar, but it may not be available online yet.

I am calling it Diabolirhynchia acinus at the moment, though.

Here are some pictures of the first specimen.

Edited January 29 by Tidgy's Dad

[minnbuckeye]

The IDs are helpful!!! Great photos, especially the Resserella waldronensis

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 1/31/2024 at 3:24 PM, minnbuckeye said:

The IDs are helpful!!! Great photos, especially the Resserella waldronensis

Thank you very much for the compliments, my friend.

Resserella is such a beautiful genus that even my photography can't fail to make them look gorgeous!

Anyway, here's the second specimen of Diabolirhynchia acinus:

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is the third new Waldron Diabolirhynchia acinus.

[Tidgy's Dad]

I think this is the largest brachiopod that I have from the Waldron Shale.

And the first that I have from this species, the unusual rhynchonellid Uncinulus stricklandi.

I have seen this listed as Trigonirhynchia stricklandi, but I don't believe this to be correct.

[Tidgy's Dad]

A rather battered example of Atrypa reticularis newsomensis  from the Waldron Shale. The valves seem to have been crushed horizontally apart creating a gape at the anterior, though the hinge held firm. Interesting, as atrypids are nearly always found with both valves together and firmly closed, or less commonly as single valves. I wonder if the spiralia are still in there?

2 cm wide.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This one had me baffled for quite a while.

It's clearly an atrypid, but I could not find a suitable match to begin with.

The atrypids usually listed for the Amherstburg Formation/ Formosa Reef are the common Atrypa reticularis newsomensis and the less common Atrypina disparilis. I have also seen Zygospira ? minima and Gotatrypa muldae listed, but I am not certain it is true and my specimen here doesn't match them anyway. It is much more like Spinatrypa, but isn't. I was thinking it was a frilly Atrypina disparilis, but this is too frilly and much too big. See my Atrypina disparilis halfway down page 12 of this thread. 

So, I did some research on TFF and in the Treatise and found that the genus Atrypa can occasionally get frilly like this as the overlapping waves along the growth lines continue to grow, usually breaking off due to perforations, but sometimes not doing so, resulting in the frills. So this is also A,reticularis/ A. reticularis newsomensis/ A. newsomensis. whichever you prefer. Again, I mentioned this on page 12 when discussing the nomenclature and it seems that some sources use Atrypa reticularis for the standard version and Atrypa newsomensis for the frilled variety with 'proto spine bases'. @minnbuckeye

 

 

 

[Brian James Maguire]

On 8/11/2018 at 1:28 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Here is another Favosites colony. I tried cleaning these, but the corallite walls are so thin they chip off too easily. 

This colony is bigger, 8 cm wide, 7 cm long and 5 cm high. 

It has many brachiopods stuck to it which I am thinking of trying to remove.

What do you think?

 

Thats a nice piece, i would leave the brachs personally 

[Brian James Maguire]

On 1/13/2024 at 3:24 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

I am jolly glad that wifey failed to find me a Resserella waldronensis for Christmas and got me a Resserella elegantula instead. ( see a few posts above on this page.)

'Cos the brilliant Mike has only gone and sent me a beautiful example of R, waldronensis which was high on my wish list.

Mike, I'll do the mystery brachiopods you sent next, but I couldn't resist posting this beauty.

 

Thats a beauty 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 3/16/2024 at 11:27 AM, Brian James Maguire said:

Thats a nice piece, i would leave the brachs personally 

Yes, I did leave them in the end. I have these species free from matrix anyway.

 

On 3/16/2024 at 11:33 AM, Brian James Maguire said:

Thats a beauty 

Thank you.

I agree, all three species I have of this genus are gorgeous.

One from England, one from Scotland and one from the USA. 

 

This is a rather worn and incomplete single valve of Eospirifer radiatus, but it's a decent size and I am very happy with it as I have the same species from the Wenlock of the UK, see halfway down Page 9 of this thread. So it's nice to have a representative example from the Waldron Shale as well.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This one is great!

I posted a rather smashed-up Meristina maria at the top of the previous page, but this one is bigger and better! Yummy!

Quite a decent size compared to my other Waldron Shale specimens.

[Bobby Rico]

On 1/13/2024 at 3:24 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

R, waldronensis

That's a beautiful fossil.