All about my 2nd MKFE :)

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Hey everyone, I'm back from my second Møns Klint Fossil Excavation - it was absolutely fantastic!  

For the majority of 2 weeks, I was down at the chalk cliffs of Møn; and recovered quite a sizable quantity of (mostly echinoderm) good-quality fossil material. All of it is still safely stowed away in ice cream boxes and kitchen paper "field jackets", but I can not wait to getting down to preparing all those fossils.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to rediscover the "Echinoderm Quarry", but I did on the other hand have the chance to work on some new, very fossiliferous sites.

Along with extensive fieldwork, I also got the privilege of analysing the MK Thoracosaurine jaw fossil, and meeting the Director and the Fossil Guide of the GeoCenter Møns Klint.

I'll give detailed and illustrated accounts of all that happened* during this successful field session in the next few days... Stay tuned

 

*Except, of course, for my studies of the MK Thoracosaurine - that'll have to wait until after the paper has been published (IF it does end up being published)

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Rather busy right now, I'll conduct a major unpacking of all my MK fossils during the weekend. I'll post pictures of course

 

In the meantime, here's a few photos from various moments of the MKFE Nº2 - hope you enjoy!

 

A bit of scenery..

 

Nodule of chalk that preserves a cidarid spine assemblage - collected 9th July; still in preparation.

 

My typical workspace

 

In-situ articulated Isselicrinus 'stem' - turned out to consist of a little under 40 columnals (rather rare..). Collected tuesday 17th, still in preparation.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice! 

Look forward to seeing more! 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

@Tidgy's Dad Thanks for the kind words You -and everyone else on TFF- are definitely gonna see more fossils this weekend - but be warned.. many of them are still in their as-found & unprepped condition

 

 

For any of those who want to see, I even wrote a short bit of free-verse poetry that sums up the entire field session. hope it's not too bad..

 

White chalk

Grey-ish glint

  -an echinoderm fragment

Scorched by the sun

Bitten by the wind

Fingers numbed by superglue...

Worth it.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I've unpacked a good part of the fossils from my Møns Klint field trip; and will post pictures of the better specimens tomorrow.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

?Echinodermata indet.

Not sure what this is... first thought it was a crinoid stem, but then I noticed that it was tapering. And it has this little projection at the top... Specimen measures approx. 20-30mm long

So something "echinoderm-like", segmented, tapering, and with a small protuberance.. Any thoughts on what this could be?

 

Selection of microfossils from material that has washed out of the chalk cliffs. Includes fragments of regular echinoids, a partial serpulid, inoceramid shell fragments, a coral...

 

Well preserved rostrum of a juvenile ?Belemnella belemnite. The small patch of white encrusting near the tip is some kind of epifaunal bryozoan.

 

More to follow...

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Nodule of chalk that shows signs of at least 3 spines of an indet. cidarid echinoid.. Some of the rock came loose and revealed the presence of another spine fragment. There's a rather high likelyhood that there's more material inside the block of chalk

 

Well-preserved and almost complete spine of a Stereocidaris pistillum; the piece of chalk also includes a possible fragmentary cirrepede (circled in black).

 

A few days ago I posted a picture (in this same thread) of an in-situ Isselicrinus crinoid stem. Here's the whole (unprepped as of today) thing

 

 

I haven't unpacked all of the fossils yet, so expect more to be posted in the next few days In the meantime, hope y'all enjoyed this!

[David in Japan]

thank you so much for the pictures and your report. Really interesting!

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I know this is really late, but I haven't had much time to work on my MKFRP these past few months.

Anyways, I just unpacked some fossils from the July MKFE, and will soon post a few pictures  

Stay updated these next weeks  I've got a few little research ideas for this project...

-Christian

[David in Japan]

looking forward to reading your next posts.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I still have to go thru 3 large sacks of some washout material from the site - I've started looking through one of them, and it's already yielded quite a few little echinoderm bits (and possibly one fish tooth)  

Also keeping a count of how many microfossils are found (and what kind) in the washout material; I'll try and establish some percentage-based faunal abundances with that data....

Stay tuned  

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Forgot to post this - the site from which the washout material was sampled...

and yes... in case you're wondering, that is a mosasaur skeletal model in the bucket. The name's Mozzy, and he is the official MKFRP project mascot  

 

-Christian

 

P.S. Check this link for a few more details about this whole MK microfossil research  

[Innocentx]

Hi @The Amateur Paleontologist. This is a good post which I missed earlier.

 

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I know I haven't posted here for quite some time, but I've been fairly busy.

On the other hand, I've finished going through a large batch of fossiliferous "washout" material from MK  Some rather neat material turned up, even some little vertebrate bits (which are rare in washout material). I've begun doing some quantitative analyses, and will make a post detailing faunal abundances in a few months (once I've finished the project).

I still have two more batches to go through  

 

 

I admit that within the next few months, I'll have hardly any time to post any updates about my MKFRP (because of high school finals); but once we're in June, I'll be back to extensively working on this project

 

-Christian

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Being busy with schoolwork doesn't mean I can't occasionally go through some fossiliferous chalk blocks during my free time

Saturday I decided to have a go at a block that looked promising - one could see cross sections of what was probably the test ("shell") of a sea urchin. So I started preparing it, and it's starting to look pretty good! There are definitely several fragments of spines, along with several articulated plates of test...

I'll soon post pictures  

-Christian

 

Edited January 28, 2019 by The Amateur Paleontologist

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

6 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

I'll soon post pictures  

 

[Innocentx]

How long is 'soon'?  

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

20 hours ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

 

20 hours ago, Innocentx said:

How long is 'soon'?  

I've got most of the pictures taken; will post them tomorrow  

-Christian

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Here come the pictures of this echinoderm piece; still in prep  

 

The specimen before any prepping had been done - all I could see of the sea urchin were those grey traces in the chalk

 

How the sea urchin currently looks like, after ~2 hours of prepping  One can see fragments of several spines, some plates from the echinoid's "shell", and maybe even an element of the Aristotle's lantern (the mouth of sea urchins)

 

I'm sure there's more of the sea urchin in that piece of chalk!

 

-Christian

[Innocentx]

I'm not sure what you're using, but you're getting it done! Thanks for showing your progress.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

6 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Here come the pictures of this echinoderm piece; still in prep  

 

The specimen before any prepping had been done - all I could see of the sea urchin were those grey traces in the chalk

How the sea urchin currently looks like, after ~2 hours of prepping  One can see fragments of several spines, some plates from the echinoid's "shell", and maybe even an element of the Aristotle's lantern (the mouth of sea urchins)

I'm sure there's more of the sea urchin in that piece of chalk!

 

-Christian

Very nice so far!

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

7 hours ago, Innocentx said:

I'm not sure what you're using, but you're getting it done! 

With all my fossils in chalk (which is almost much everything I prepare), I just use a few small dental picks and a brush - It's not much, but as long as it does the job, I'm fine with it  

-Christian

[Innocentx]

On 1/31/2019 at 2:20 AM, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

With all my fossils in chalk (which is almost much everything I prepare), I just use a few small dental picks and a brush

Lucky for you!  So much of what I have is in limestone and working it is like removing cement. 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I've made some more progress on my little sea urchin  It's really quite a gift that keeps giving - an extra 2 hours of preparation has revealed quite a few new nice things!

The best bit is that enough matrix has been removed to reveal the definite presence of 2 pairs of demipyramids (the triangle-shaped elements which compose the "mouth"). In chalk echinoids, more than two associated demipyramids is quite rare! So I'm rather pleased about that

Extra prepping also revealed a few more fragments of spines.

 

 

I hope there's still more in that piece of chalk!

 

-Christian

[belemniten]

That looks good so far !! Congrats and good luck on the the further prep!