ADAM'S SILURIAN

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 8/23/2018 at 2:32 PM, Kane said:

Speaking of Welsh, you might appreciate this one. In order to accommodate bilingual provisions, having signs in both English and Welsh in Swansea is mandatory. A council worker tasked with this made a funny error:

This translates to: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated"

It does actually say that. Golly.

Here are two specimens of another species of tabulate coral, also favositids, but from the family pachyporidae, more closely related to Thecia, than to Favosites. It is the branching tabulate Thamnopora cristata, which has also previously been called Favosites cristata and Pachypora cristata. Some species of Thamnopora have been added to the genus Thamnoptychia, particularly later Devonian forms, but I believe this genus is still accurate here. 

The first specimen came from @JohnBrewer (i think!) and, as you can see, i thought about prepping it out, but then decided against it. There's lots of other bits of things in the matrix. It's 1.3 cm long and 0.5 in circumference. 

This second specimen is from Candace  @thelivingdead531 and is 1.cm long and about 3 mm in diameter. What's interesting about this one is that you can see a much smaller but similar looking bryozoan parallel and underneath the specimen. Most bryozoans are smaller than, and have smaller openings, than most corals and the angles of the openings are not as vertical as those in corals, but of course there are exceptions. 

[Wrangellian]

On 8/23/2018 at 4:50 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yup. 

Though I had to look up the second one, most unusual word, even in Welsh. 

Funny, I had to look up the first one.

I'm enjoying your Silurian stuff.. nice to see amid all the usual Ordovician and Devonian I see on here (which is nice enough).

If you had more time with your prepping, where would you go from here? Is there a way to clean up the white scratches once you're done with the pin vise, such as applying weakly acidic water?

[Bobby Rico]

 Very nice and great photography , Wren’s Nest must have been a stunning coral reef.

[Tidgy's Dad]

4 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Funny, I had to look up the first one.

I'm enjoying your Silurian stuff.. nice to see amid all the usual Ordovician and Devonian I see on here (which is nice enough).

If you had more time with your prepping, where would you go from here? Is there a way to clean up the white scratches once you're done with the pin vise, such as applying weakly acidic water?

I could dig the things out of the matrix and spend weeks individually cleaning each calyx.

I can remove the little white marks just with water and a stiff toothbrush, but haven't done it with that last one yet. 

Thanks for your interest, I probably prefer the Ordovician and Devonian overall, but this Middle Silurian Wenlock limestone stuff is just incredible. Some really beautiful specimens to come! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

14 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

 Very nice and great photography , Wren’s Nest must have been a stunning coral reef.

Agreed, it must have been amazing. And we can only imagine the colours. 

The last tabulate coral I have from the Wenlock limestone is another from the Pachyporidae, a little piece of Trachypora seelyi, also a genus with some species reassigned to the genus Thamnoptychia, but I think this one's still valid as, though the two genera both share very widely spaced corallites, Thamnoptychia seems to have star patterns between and Trachypora pores.  (I'm not very sure of this id, so any help much appreciated) 

It's a little 'un, only 1.2 cm long, 1 cm at it's widest and 4 mm thick. each corallite is over a millimetre in diameter. 

This was sent to me by @JohnBrewer and is from the Wren's Nest. Thank you! 

So that's the tabulates, most of the more usual ones found in the Wenlock limestone, very happy with those. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Before I move on to rugose horn corals, I'll add this one to the reef mix. 

I've already posted a specimen of the enigmatic sponge group Chaetetida, so here's an example of the other 'odd' group now accepted to be sponges, the stromatoporoids. 

This one is the encrusting Labechia conferta, from Wren's Nest, Dudley, once again courtesy of @JohnBrewerThanks again, you've done me proud, John. 

The surface is covered in well spaced bumps rather than pores or holes and it's got a structure of pillars in cross section. 

It's 2.8 cm long, 1.9 broad and 1 cm deep, though the actual fossil is only a millimetre thick. 

I love the colour of this specimen. 

hmm, it seems to be photo proof. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Oh, and again before the horn corals, I'll just collect together some of the odd bits and pieces I've found. 

These first ones could be single corallites from the creeping, encrusting tabulate epibiont Aulopora, or else they could be from a cornulitid. Not sure Interestingly, they all come from the Hobbs Quarry location, I've not found any from Wren's Nest yet. 

First one on a Favosites, and is 5 mm long and 1.5 mm in circumference at the widest point.

And this one on a rugose horn coral, 3 mm x 1 mm.

[Plantguy]

On 8/16/2018 at 8:37 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Back to my 1983 field trip to Hobbs Quarry again now. 

This is a lovely specimen of the encrusting favositid coral Thecia expatiata , or Thecia (Thecia) expatiata also often referred to as Thecia swinderniana. 

It is 6.5 cm long, 5.5 cm wide and 1.2 cm high at the most , but it tapers to wafer thin on the other side.

Squashed on top of it is a brachiopod, possibly Isorthis (?) and rather wonderfully, growing on the underside is a colony of the bryozoan Fistulipora. More about these two extras at a later date, though I have seen Fistulipora growing on the underside of Thecia elsewhere and I think it's rather amazing that this bryozoan seems to have 'enjoyed' a protected life encrusting the tiny gap under another encrusting organism.  

   

 

 

And could that be an echinoderm holdfast to the bottom centre on that last photo? If so it is attached to the same gap that the bryozoa is growing in and the stem maybe came through the groove to the South East of it and then grew up toward the surface? 

Looking closely, I think I see another couple of the 'holdfasts' Protection under the coral? Or maybe the coral was flipped and the echinoderms anchored to the fresh surface? 

Interesting. 

Cool piece...like the association...

Regards, Chris 

[Tidgy's Dad]

7 hours ago, Plantguy said:

Cool piece...like the association...

Regards, Chris 

Thank you kindly! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

And then there is this thing, (one photo posted earlier) which is from Wren's Nest, Dudley, again thank you to Candace @thelivingdead531

A worm such as Keilorites?

But I'm leaning towards it being a connecting tube between corallites of Aulopora. (Corallites not preserved or broken off) 

Length 1.9 cm, maximum width 2.5 mm

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Horn corals are always pretty difficult to identify without a polished thin section, cross-section or acetate peel, but some species can be ruled out of an id due to size, shape and external morphology. But the Wenlock limetone has quite a lot of solitary rugose corals so, my attempts at naming them that follow are tentative at best and i'm actually just listing them as solitary rugose corals. 

Anyway, I'm suggesting that this one is Tryplasma loveni. 

This one is from Hobbs Quarry, Longhope, Gloucestershire, England, from my productive visit during the nineteen eighties. 

It's 2.7 cm long and 1.2 cm at its maximum circumference. The calice is rather squashed so no internal structure is revealed, I'd have to cut it under the attached brachiopod and I'd really rather not.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

This is another probably miles off guess - Cyathophyllum pseudoceratites.

Found during a hike in the South Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, during a hiking expedition in 1984. 

I'm afraid i don't know exactly what the name of the little, partly overgrown quarry in the Wenlock limestone was called, or indeed, exactly where it was, as I was lost, but it's a third location for my Wenlock limestone fossils 

This one's 1.4  cl high and the diameter of the corallite is actually greater , at 1.6 cm.

I cut and polished the top, but it only revealed a thin rim as this coral has a deep chamber at the top. I'd have to cut it half way down to get the internal structure and I'm, again, not prepared to do that, so my guess is pretty blind and all one can really say with certainty is that it's a solitary rugose coral. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

For once with these horn corals, I'm a little bit more confident with this id, due to the size, shape, ornamentation and twinning of this specimen, I'm moderately confident this is Kodonophyllum truncatum. 

I've prepped this a little, but this one's from the Wren's Nest and courtesy of @JohnBrewer, so thanks once again, John! 

It's only small, 9 mm high 1.8 cm across and with the biggest calyx 8 mm at it's widest. 

Very pretty, though.

The base / apical end:

 

 

[TqB]

That's a little beauty with some fine detail. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

27 minutes ago, TqB said:

That's a little beauty with some fine detail. 

Thank you. 

Yes, luckily most of the matrix was slightly softer than usual on this one, which helped a lot. 

[Bobby Rico]

34 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Thank you. 

Yes, luckily most of the matrix was slightly softer than usual on this one, which helped a lot. 

Nice one . I am with Tarquin great details. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

59 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Nice one . I am with Tarquin great details. 

Thanks, Bobby! 

Nice to have you back with us. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here are the last of my Wenlock Limestone rugose horn corals. 

When they first started naming them, many of the horn corals were lumped under "Cystiphyllum" 

Most of them have now been reassigned to other genera, but Cystiphyllum does still exist. 

These three specimens may be Cystiphyllum, perhaps C. siluriense, perhaps C.cylindricum, or maybe Spongophylloides grayi (which was C. grayi). 

Can't tell without more internal structural detail but here they are anyway. 

The tallest one is 2 cm high. 

The one on the left that I've nearly finished prepping is from @JohnBrewer, the other two (work in progress) from Candace, @theliv , thanks so much guys, you've made my Wenlock reef a much more diverse place. 

This one is more eroded and smooth, but, as usual, my photos don't do justice to the detail. 

These two are from before prepping, you can see from the first pic, that a little progress has already been made. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Now for the bryozoa. 

I have found at least a dozen species of bryozoa in the material I've found and that I've been given. 

So, to begin, courtesy of the brilliant @JohnBrewer

I understand that bryozoan identity is difficult in the same way as coral without a decent cross-section or two, but based on morphology alone, here's my guesstimates. 

This one is a fragment of a ramose, or stick-like form from the Wren's Nest. It is quite thin. 

It is 1.2 cm long and has oval zooecia, that angle back into the  surface obliquely. 

I therefore think this is Eridotrypa cava, but any contrary suggestions would be gratefully appreciated as with all the following specimens. 

Cheers,

Adam. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

These are more of a problem. 

Also from Jovial John, @JohnBrewer, thanks! 

The longer one is 1.9 cm and the other, in matrix, 1.3 cm long. 

They are quite smooth, it is very difficult to see the zooecia, due to preservation or later weathering? 

Or are they maybe Stenopora primaeva which sometimes seem to be smooth, other times less so? 

Not certain. 

This ones a mystery too.

1.4 cm long

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some more stony, stick-like trepostomes from the Wenlock limestone :

The biggest of these is 3.2 cm long, 2 cm wide and 1.2 cm 'deep' . The spacing, size and shape of the zooecia suggest to me Monotrypella pulchella, a species quite common along the Wenlock Edge and in the sites in Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean, but rather rare at Dudley where it's place seems to be filled by the rather thinner Hallopora elegantula. 

This one comes from a small, abandoned quarry in the South Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, England on one of my field trips back in 80's.

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here are some more of what I thought were trepostomes. 

But it's really wonderful having the combination of decent glasses, a jeweller's loupe, wifey's camera phone and a computer that can enlarge photos. 

As it turns out that the one bottom right, 1.3 cm tall, 1.2 cm wide max and stem before it branches 0.5 cm across, seems to be another example of the branching tabulate coral Thamnopora cristata. (see top of this page) 

Thanks again to @JohnBrewer, i'm very grateful. (and very confused) 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

And yet more probable trepostomes :

After a bit of scrubbing, the one on the left, 1.3 mm long, 7 mm across at the widest and 3 mm at the narrowest looks rather like the smaller Dudley version of Monotrypella pulchella.Maybe, it's quite a variable species, it seems to me. Once again thanks to @JohnBrewer for this little beauty.

 

[JohnBrewer]

Talking of confusion - really micro this time - and centimetres (box - brown 10 x 10 x2.5cm) you may find a camel wandering up the road in a day or so..... 

[Tidgy's Dad]

22 minutes ago, JohnBrewer said:

Talking of confusion - really micro this time - and centimetres (box - brown 10 x 10 x2.5cm) you may find a camel wandering up the road in a day or so..... 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My central post office ring me now when something arrives and I get to decide if I want to collect, whether it's sent to a local office or if I want it delivered to my door.