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Cretaceous Foot print hunt turns into a wood hunt


Miocene_Mason

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After attending my first MGS meeting, which was great, I had the chance to go on a quick hunt at a site that I had found on google earth. I thought it would be promising to hunt for Dinosaur footprints there, It should be Cretaceous according to the geologic map. Thankfully, the map was right and I got to hunt an exposure of what appears to be the Arundel Clay formation. Just about the same as dinosaur park in Laurel, MD except it was more of a clay and conglomerate mix than shale and ironstone. I didn’t find any prints that I’m confident about. One psuedoprint I think (looks like one bit is a lie) and my dad found one that might be a worn one nodosaur track. I am confident I found many piece of fossil wood. I’m thinking I may have found the same site that @EMP has been hunting (I’ll likely have a PM convo with you EMP). I’m gonna continue looking for a better print site but a wood site ain’t bad when Cretaceous sites are as hard to find as they are in Maryland. I have been looking through all records I have of Ray Stanford’s site and am narrowing it down to a few sites. Perhaps someday I’ll run into Mr. Stanford himself while hunting:D

Sadly enough I cannot reveal the site to anyone, I am quite afraid of what might happen to it if word got out. I don’t want to take chances. I will say it’s in Maryland. I would consider trading some lignite if someone would like it but I’ll keep that for a trading thread. 

 

Here are some pictures:

Tree limb in a bank, sort for bad pictures but I was sinking in Cretaceous clay (don’t want to become a fossil myself)

75E51FB6-2868-4C59-944F-6A07D29A032A.jpeg

A71B6644-5E82-484D-AE38-56098A59290F.png

“...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

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Didn’t remove that log by the way, wouldn’t have been possible

 

Some more lignite

C3B3878F-A4ED-4A38-89D0-947B755F5971.jpeg

“...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

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Pseudoprint, unless it was a very very small sauropod

C9AE7E64-3660-4109-8E15-89139B0642FF.jpeg

“...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

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More lignite, this guys one rock. I’m guessing most of these are cypress

27691EDD-732B-45E3-91FA-AD26A69D9EFF.jpeg

0C9A4C52-0B12-4081-A4B8-B60F46650B9E.jpeg

“...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

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A little plant matter on the conglomerate ironstone. That stuff is heavy, iron content must be through the roof. One must wonder if there is significant uranium levels as well, but I didn’t bring a Geiger counter:D

84A6623B-9A6F-4C6D-919D-1CDCCD73D12F.png

“...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

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I will take a picture of a suspected print and a piece of Petrified would not unlike the one @EMP found but smaller

“...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

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Thanks for reading this far:D

“...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

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Shh, don't tell! Nice lignite pieces! Have you ever tried to burn it? I heard it is combustible.

"Journey through a universe ablaze with changes" Phil Ochs

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16 minutes ago, Innocentx said:

Shh, don't tell! Nice lignite pieces! Have you ever tried to burn it? I heard it is combustible.

Thanks! It is carbonized wood so I assume it would burn a bit better than charcoal. I would feel wrong about burning such a fossil but that’s a bit of hypocrisy, seeing as coal, natural gas, and oil is burned daily and a lot of that wood is probably eroded away.

“...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

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Image result for you rang

 

:P

 

I know that feeling of wanting to keep the Cretaceous sites hidden. I haven't gone out to the one recently, but last time I went I found some more interesting plant pieces, and with the urban development going on they're only going to get rarer and rarer. And I didn't know the MGS had meetings like that! Ten years collecting and reading their stuff and I never knew!

 

Lignite is pretty common from the Arundel Clay, as you might know from Dinosaur Park. However, to really tell the difference between the Patuxent and Arundel you'd need either some vertebrate remains or a good geologic map. The Patuxent is generally dominated by coarse clastics, including conglomerate and sandstone (as in the one wood specimen I posted on my thread), but there are finer grained clastic layers, especially in the upper parts of the formation. There's a layer of clay and silt near the contact with the Arundel that also has lignite beds in it, and as a matter of fact part of this can be seen at the site I collect at. Lithologically speaking this layer is pretty much indistinguishable from the Arundel. You also have to remember that the Arundel is a discontinuous unit, so it's possible for it to be exposed a bare mile from your site but not exposed where you're collecting at (this ties in to the debate whether or not it's really an independent formation and not just a special oxbow lake deposit of the Patuxent). A good way to tell would be if there's a lot of siderite concretions at the site, if so then it's probably in the Arundel Clay. 

 

That having been said - those finds look pretty cool! I haven't found a good source for what species they are, just "woody plant", "gymnosperm", and "cypress." I'd say cypress is a good guess. As for the footprint, I'm afraid it's probably a pseudo-fossil, but then again I'm not an expert, and by what some of the "footprints" Mr. Stanford found look like, it wouldn't hurt to keep it around. No footprints are reported from the Arundel, however, so bare that in mind. 

 

I can't wait to see the other stuff. Especially that petrified wood. And I'm glad the Potomac Group is catching on! I'm surprised it hasn't gotten any attention on this site. 

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2 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Interesting finds!

Thanks!

“...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

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3 hours ago, EMP said:

en. I haven't gone out to the one recently, but last time I went I found some more interesting plant pieces, and with the urban development going on they're only going to get rarer and rarer. And I didn't know the MGS had meetings like that! Ten years collecting and reading their stuff and I never knew!

Sad that the trend is towards the destruction of sites. I feel almost a responsibility to collect while I can, so they are available for study when the sites are gone. This was my first MGS meeting and it was great! Apparently the smallest group they’ve almost ever had because of vacations, but Dr. Weems was there and a lot of knowledgeable people too. The meetings are free and welcome visitors, I’m still under 18 (15) so I get a membership free. 

 

3 hours ago, EMP said:

 

 

 

Sorry, wrong number!:P

 

3 hours ago, EMP said:

Lignite is pretty common from the Arundel Clay, as you might know from Dinosaur Park. However, to really tell the difference between the Patuxent and Arundel you'd need either some vertebrate remains or a good geologic map. The Patuxent is generally dominated by coarse clastics, including conglomerate and sandstone (as in the one wood specimen I posted on my thread), but there are finer grained clastic layers, especially in the upper parts of the formation. There's a layer of clay and silt near the contact with the Arundel that also has lignite beds in it, and as a matter of fact part of this can be seen at the site I collect at. Lithologically speaking this layer is pretty much indistinguishable from the Arundel. You also have to remember that the Arundel is a discontinuous unit, so it's possible for it to be exposed a bare mile from your site but not exposed where you're collecting at (this ties in to the debate whether or not it's really an independent formation and not just a special oxbow lake deposit of the Patuxent). A good way to tell would be if there's a lot of siderite concretions at the site, if so then it's probably in the Arundel Clay. 

Well (as my PM says) the long and short of it is that I’m finding everything. This could be from washes and such. The actual exposure has few siderite concretions, but abundant lignite and agate. There is an overlying unit of a younger age. The very helpful geologic map says Holocene which I’m sure is wrong:ank:

 

3 hours ago, EMP said:

No footprints are reported from the Arundel, however, so bare that in mind.

Which formation is it again that does? Haven’t had it in my mind for a while, this hunt was kinda spontaneous. Most maps kinda just mix all the Cretaceous together which is not helpful. I also think the psuedoprint is just a bubble or something, I found similar at the Annapolis site. 

 

“...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

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2 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

EMP, do you know the rank of this lignite?

Franz Bernhard

 

Enough that, IIRC, it was mined in the 1800s as a fuel source. Back then the Arundel was a big source for iron ore, and when the slaves dug the pits they often came across not just the limonite ore, but the lignite as well. In fact, it was in those pits that the first dinosaur fossils were found. 

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Hello all! Here’s some possible prints. Before anyone asks, No, the one cannot be a brick. That is a color some rocks come in here, specifically print bearing ones. Prints would have had to wash in

C1453BB7-E143-48BE-9F55-00FF64BB5B39.jpeg

“...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

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B682A955-9A79-4E1B-8D7B-F19BB997D5B7.jpeg

“...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

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2D26738A-1C44-470D-B0D5-ECE5B78043E8.jpeg

“...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

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Thinking possible heel imprint, larger print perhaps nodosaur

D2AA44CB-B0B8-4618-89E7-76E83FA3AEC6.jpeg

“...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

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And wood, I think it is a cast. It is a lot like the one @EMP found

F4B4E9BF-7D04-4BEA-89F8-85253A1531A2.jpeg

“...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

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1 hour ago, WhodamanHD said:

And wood, I think it is a cast. It is a lot like the one @EMP found

F4B4E9BF-7D04-4BEA-89F8-85253A1531A2.jpeg

 

I'm not so sure on the footprints, but I'm no expert. 

 

As for the wood in question, it would help to have some other pictures to be sure. It looks like it could be a water worn piece. 

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18 minutes ago, EMP said:

I'm not so sure on the footprints, but I'm no expert. 

Neither am I

 

18 minutes ago, EMP said:

 

As for the wood in question, it would help to have some other pictures to be sure. It looks like it could be a water worn piece. 

I had the same worry, texture seemed more woodlike and the color was off from the usual silicates though. I’ll get some more pictures.

“...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

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