ADAM'S SILURIAN

[doushantuo]

looking at this now(becaus it is useful) :

My version has pix with " blurred morphological detail"

 

Notice the remarks on thecal distinctions

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks, Ben. 

Here's another one of maybe the same species, still in the same block,the white arrow points to it.

This one 8 mm long and a little over half a mm wide, but rather more coiled. 

i'm not sure. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This next rock is from the same horizon, but was an exposed slightly weathered surface, rather than split open like the first piece. 

It had some of the same species in it. 

The rock is 6.5 x 2 cm.

You can see the hooked thecae preserved in a mix of pyrite, rock and impressions on the piece below. Monograptus trinagulatus. 1.4 cm long and 1.5 mm wide.

And a couple of Neodiplograptus.

This one is 2 mm wide.

And some other bits.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

And another little block, this one is 7.3 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. 

It has a couple of really beautiful pyritized graptolites in it. 

And a Neodiplograptus close up 

Specimen 1.7 cm long and almost 2 mm wide.

Monograptus triangulatus fimbriatus.

8 mm long and about three quarters of a mm across.

A close up. Stunning.

 

  

[Tidgy's Dad]

And finally for the Llandovery, but not for Silurian graptolites, I have this block her, packed with 'em! This is from near the top of the Skelgill Formation, so from the middle part of the Llandovery, the Aeronian Epoch. The fossil surface of this block is 8cm by 4.5cm. 

I'm not quite sure about these, all seem to be the same species and they're pretty long, the longest is a whopping 4.5 cm long and both ends are missing, so they were long graptolites. 

Maximum width of 1.5 mm. Is this Glyptograptus? I'm really not sure on this one. 

 

And that's the end of my Llandovery, thank you for looking, next up i shall begin my Middle Silurian - Wenlock specimens with a whole lot of wonderful specimens from the UK, some I found myself in the Malvern Hills and in Gloucestershire, and some from the West Midlands kindly posted to me by two of the wonderful members here! 

Stay tuned. 

 

[doushantuo]

I will.

Any guy posting on the (classical) Lower Paleozoic of the UK has my unstinting admiration to contend with.

[doushantuo]

fun fact(Snelling/Leicester Uni/2009):

[Bobby Rico]

 

These are nice blocks.  I hoping to find some. I always think they look drawn onto the rock by pencil , it is all in the name. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 5/31/2018 at 10:42 AM, Bobby Rico said:

 

These are nice blocks.  I hoping to find some. I always think they look drawn onto the rock by pencil , it is all in the name. 

Indeed.

But i can't draw, so it wasn't me. 

The first of my Wenlock fossils from Wren's Nest, Dudley, West Midlands, UK is a bit of a mystery. 

First, I thought sponge. 

The I thought algae. 

Now I'm thinking chaetetid, so back to sponge again. 

I think it's Solenopora filiformis, but am open to being told that i'm an idiot. Even if i'm right, actually.

It's 3.2 cm across at it's widest point and about 2 cm high. 

Thanks to @JohnBrewer for this one, hope you're okay John, not seen you about for a bit. 

@Spongy Joe@TqB Any clues chaps? 

[TqB]

Hi Adam - I'm not well up on blobby things from there - Solenopora looks reasonable, chaetetid or not. See what Joe says.  Might need a section.

[Spongy Joe]

I'm thinking a section, personally! It probably is a Solenopora, which probably is indeed a chaetetid... but there's not a lot to go on from the detail in this specimen. I don't actually know the Wenlock Limestone algae - they're either not common, or they're very easily overlooked!

[Tidgy's Dad]

There's a bit broken off, and no detail visible inside. 

Also, I read somewhere (and I can't find it now) that the internal structure is often not preserved. 

Still, probable Soleopora is good enough for me at the moment. 

Thanks, chaps. 

 

[JohnBrewer]

On 02/06/2018 at 3:05 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Indeed.

But i can't draw, so it wasn't me. 

The first of my Wenlock fossils from Wren's Nest, Dudley, West Midlands, UK is a bit of a mystery. 

First, I thought sponge. 

The I thought algae. 

Now I'm thinking chaetetid, so back to sponge again. 

I think it's Solenopora filiformis, but am open to being told that i'm an idiot. Even if i'm right, actually.

It's 3.2 cm across at it's widest point and about 2 cm high. 

Thanks to @JohnBrewer for this one, hope you're okay John, not seen you about for a bit. 

@Spongy Joe@TqB Any clues chaps? 

That’s the only one I’ve ever found there and it’s a regular haunt Adam. 

 

Grabbed some matrix last week. Have sieved the dust and anything over 4mm. Will send you some when home next week.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Just now, JohnBrewer said:

That’s the only one I’ve ever found there and it’s a regular haunt Adam. 

 

Grabbed some matrix last week. Have sieved the dust and anything over 4mm. Will send you some when home next week.  

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! 

Nice to see you back, John, as the only one it's even more special, I thought it was something more unusual when it first arrived. 

I think I'll be working on the Wenlock pieces you and Candace sent me for weeks to come! 

Which is great.

[JohnBrewer]

Just now, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! 

Nice to see you back, John, as the only one it's even more special, I thought it was something more unusual when it first arrived. 

I think I'll be working on the Wenlock pieces you and Candace sent me for weeks to come! 

Which is great.

 

away burning candle at both ends, couple of good gigs  

[Tidgy's Dad]

I have cleaned up the Solenopora a tad. 

Wenlock limestone is pretty darned hard, even with my new pin vice. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

And then one of my own specimens, collected during an 'A' level field trip to Hobbs Quarry, Nr. Longhope, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England in 1983. 

This is Favosites , maybe F. gothlandicus, one of the most common corals from the Wenlock Limestone. It's about 3 cm at it's widest point and has a couple of bits of bryozoans and what not stuck to it as many Wenlock fossils tend to do, everything gets smashed up and fossilized together in a sort of three dimensional hash-plate. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

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?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

You can see in the second photo above, on the right hand side, a sort of conical tube.

Here it is in more detail, I'll see if i can get a better photo later using the loupe. 

What's visible is about 4 mm long and 1.5 wide at the widest. 

What do you think; tiny coral (can't see septa) ? Hyolith ? Tentaculitid ? 

Shall I try to dig it out?

[Bobby Rico]

52 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

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

I would leave them as is. The association for me makes it visually  an interesting piece . Prep looks great  to me  too 

[TqB]

18 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

You can see in the second photo above, on the right hand side, a sort of conical tube.

Here it is in more detail, I'll see if i can get a better photo later using the loupe. 

What's visible is about 4 mm long and 1.5 wide at the widest. 

What do you think; tiny coral (can't see septa) ? Hyolith ? Tentaculitid ? 

Shall I try to dig it out?

 

Maybe cornulitid?

[Tidgy's Dad]

Could be! 

6 minutes ago, TqB said:

Maybe cornulitid?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is another Favosites. 

This specimen comes from the Wren's Nest, Dudley, West Midlands, England, courtesy of the Jovial John @JohnBrewer

Bur note, that compared to the specimens above that i collected from Hobbs Quarry, this coral has large calyces surrounded by smaller ones, much less regular in size. The old literature lists this as a different species Favosites forbesi, but the modern interpretation seems to be that this is only a regional variation , so this coral now seems to be regarded as Favosites gothlandicus var. forbesi. Interesting. Thanks, John. 

The specimen is 6.5 x 6 cm and about 3.5 cm high.

Can't be seen to clearly in the photo above, but the structure in the broken 'root' is very detailed.

@thelivingdead531, you may also be interested in this, Candace, as you also sent me a specimen of this coral, which I'm currently working on.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is a smaller Favosites gothlandicus var. forbesi, also with extreme thanks to @JohnBrewer

Wren's Nest, Dudley, West Midlands, UK. 

This one is 3.2 cm long. 

narrow end 8 mm across.

Wider end 1.4 cm across.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

And then there is this Favosites gothladicus var. forbesi , also from the Wren's Nest but kindly posted to me by Kind Candace @thelivingdead531

It's only a tiddler, but very beautiful and the rock it's in contains at least two very interesting bryozoans as well. 

Diameter 0.8cm

Another bit next door. 

Width 2 cm.

 

Another angle with a beautiful bryozoan in the shot.