A Cretaceous and Devonian Weekend

[Darktooth]

Yesterday I was in New Jersery for my son, Dylan's marching band competition.  We had half the day free until they were playing at Rutgers stadium so we met up with @frankh8147 to hunt one of the Cretaceous streams. We met up around 9am and it was raining. Not a torrential downpour, but enough to soak into your clothes even with a raincoat. I wasn't deterred and neither was Frank. Heck it didn't seem to bother him at all. I would like to say Thanks to Frank for being a great host and guide to me and my family. He has such a great wealth of knowledge of the fossils from that area. Plus this was the second time since July that he was willing to meet up with us. It didn't take long to start finding fossils. Right off the bat frank found a cephalic clasper from a shark! It was a decent size and condition. I found mostly shark and fish teeth. Frank seemed to find more of an assortment including reptile. He gifted Devin a Goblin sharktooth, and myself a partial mosasaur. Sot of a highlight for me is what maybe my first point. I say maybe because frank wasn't 100% sure because it is quite worn but said he has seen similar pieces which after being looked into were in fact points. The key is to find out if the object is made of argonite. An old tribe used argonite for their points and does not occur naturally in N.J. Anyways we stayed about 4hrs before we had to part ways but it was a great time with a great guy. Thanks again Frank for everything, including the pieces you gave me before the hunt. Hope you like the New York trilos. ( Don't forget to get me the info of those pieces) Here are pics of the gifts and finds.

[Darktooth]

Here are some more pics!

[Darktooth]

Next up Devonian- This morning I had the great fortune of meeting up with fellow forum members at Deep Springs Road. @Jeffrey P @Fossildude19 @digitand his wife, @Mediospirifer and her husband and @Pagurusand his wife. This isn't really a report, just wanted to let everyone know that I enjoyed being able to meet them out there on such a beautiful day. Everyone I have met before except Ken and his wife. I was glad to get a chance to talk and hunt even if for such a short time. I hope everyone found some good stuff after I left. Thanks to Jeffrey for gifting Tim the permian micro matrix and georgia trilos. And thank-you Tim for then gifting some to me! You guys are the best. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some lovely finds and a great report. 

Sounds like a whole cartload of fun even if only for a shortish time. 

Sure it's such a great experience to meet other forum folk too. 

I'm very happy you posted the brilliant brachiopods first. 

[Darktooth]

14 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Some lovely finds and a great report. 

Sounds like a whole cartload of fun even if only for a shortish time. 

Sure it's such a great experience to meet other forum folk too. 

I'm very happy you posted the brilliant brachiopods first. 

Yes Adam I feel very blessed  to have met up and hunted with TFF members 2 days in a row.It is always a great time. Today I didn't even care about finding anything. Which I did, but either gave away, or left it for others. For me it was more about the camaraderie. Glad that you enjoyed the Brachs! 

[Darktooth]

By the way I haven't seen you on the forum as much, is everything ok with you?

[Malcolmt]

Wish I could have been there, almost was as I was at at Penn on Friday with a number of people including Ken and Tammy, Mediospirifer and Carl and of course Kane and Debbie along with Greg, Monica and Viola... Quite the group great day but I never took any pictures . I am sure Monica and Digit will post some as they were clicking away. PS.... Monica makes great brownies (not what you are thinking!!!!)

[Tidgy's Dad]

37 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

By the way I haven't seen you on the forum as much, is everything ok with you?

Life's Good! 

Thanks for noticing, just popping back to post a few things.

[Herb]

nice finds

[Darktooth]

1 hour ago, Malcolmt said:

Wish I could have been there, almost was as I was at at Penn on Friday with a number of people including Ken and Tammy, Mediospirifer and Carl and of course Kane and Debbie along with Greg, Monica and Viola... Quite the group great day but I never took any pictures . I am sure Monica and Digit will post some as they were clicking away. PS.... Monica makes great brownies (not what you are thinking!!!!)

One of these days you should try to make it out this way. We have some nice sites out here too!  Then again some day I need to get out to Penn- Dixie as well.

[Darktooth]

50 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Life's Good! 

Thanks for noticing, just popping back to post a few things.

Glad to hear that! I always notice the ones I enjoy hearing from when they haven't been around. Also wondering about @JohnBrewer Hope all is well.

[Darktooth]

27 minutes ago, Herb said:

nice finds

Thank-you Herb!

[The Jersey Devil]

Great haul! The point seems to be an oddly shaped rock because it doesn't seem to be made out of the same material most of the arrowheads are made of from here.

 

Can you please make some more pics of the piece of fossil wood? It appears to have clam burrowings which is pretty neat.

On 10/14/2018 at 5:42 PM, Darktooth said:

  

 

Joseph

[Darktooth]

That's why I said possible point. But Frank said there were to different tribes from the area one being much older then the other and the older tribe is were he said the object may be from. If not I will have to search some more. I am bound and determined to find one someday! Frank said that the wood is lignitized and it does have holes in it which most have been filled with pyrite. Frank also told me that he has not found a way to stabilize any of these pieces so eventually it will wind up a pile of dust. I will take more pics tomorrow but I just packed it away before I saw your request for pics. I am exhausted and need to go to bed.

[The Jersey Devil]

41 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

That's why I said possible point. But Frank said there were to different tribes from the area one being much older then the other and the older tribe is were he said the object may be from. If not I will have to search some more. I am bound and determined to find one someday! Frank said that the wood is lignitized and it does have holes in it which most have been filled with pyrite. Frank also told me that he has not found a way to stabilize any of these pieces so eventually it will wind up a pile of dust. I will take more pics tomorrow but I just packed it away before I saw your request for pics. I am exhausted and need to go to bed.

 

Interesting. I don't know that much about the points or tribes, but if this is a point then it must be less common than the usual type.

 

I don't see any pyrite on the wood. The stuff that may resemble pyrite are the mica specs in the matrix (the matrix can be cleaned out of the specimen) sticking to the fossil. I don't think this one will crumble.

[Darktooth]

I couldn't sleep so here are some pics @The Jersey Devil There is either pyrite or marcasite going though this piece.

You can see it mainly in the first 2 pics.

 

 

[Kane]

Great outing, Dave! Sorry we couldn't get out there with the gang. Did you find anything good at DSR? I know your time there was a bit short this go-round. 

[frankh8147]

It was a really fun trip- I'm glad you enjoyed it!! For the shells, the ones at the top of your picture were ID'd as C. vugaris  Morton (they are from the MFL above the New Egypt/Hornerstown) and the ones at the bottom are Oleneothyris from the Paleocene.

 

My knowledge on Native American artifacts is very limited. Pretty much every piece of information I was able to gather is in this post below. It looked pretty good to me but I would definitely seek another ID on it.

 

Thank you for the trilobites!!

 

 

[Darktooth]

4 hours ago, Kane said:

Great outing, Dave! Sorry we couldn't get out there with the gang. Did you find anything good at DSR? I know your time there was a bit short this go-round. 

Nothing spectacular Kane , but I went more for meeting up with folks and not so much for the finds. It was a great day to be out!

[Darktooth]

On 10/15/2018 at 9:05 AM, frankh8147 said:

It was a really fun trip- I'm glad you enjoyed it!! For the shells, the ones at the top of your picture were ID'd as C. vugaris  Morton (they are from the MFL above the New Egypt/Hornerstown) and the ones at the bottom are Oleneothyris from the Paleocene.

 

My knowledge on Native American artifacts is very limited. Pretty much every piece of information I was able to gather is in this post below. It looked pretty good to me but I would definitely seek another ID on it.

 

Thank you for the trilobites!!

 

Thanks Frank! I may be getting in touch again soon. I want to get back there soon. Probably without the family next time.

[The Jersey Devil]

On 10/14/2018 at 9:59 PM, Darktooth said:

I couldn't sleep so here are some pics @The Jersey Devil There is either pyrite or marcasite going though this piece. You can see it mainly in the first 2 pics.

      

 

Is it the thin layer of gold colored stuff right on the surface of the wood?

[Darktooth]

It is the round filling inside the holes.

[The Jersey Devil]

22 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

It is the round filling inside the holes.

 

Interering. So it's the stuff I thought was matrix. I've never seen this type of preservation before, but if there's a chance of crumbling I would stabilize it somehow.

[Darktooth]

1 hour ago, The Jersey Devil said:

 

Interering. So it's the stuff I thought was matrix. I've never seen this type of preservation before, but if there's a chance of crumbling I would stabilize it somehow.

Here in New York we have a Devonian site called Spring Creek. It is known for pyritized fossils, and nodules. Some fossils are pyrite while some are marcasite which are almost the same thing except for a certain molecule. These are almost always unstable which is a shame because the fossils, especially the ammonites, are quite stunning.

[frankh8147]

What's kind of interesting (to me at least) about the pyrite/marcasite in the NJ Cretaceous brooks - the wood crumbles within months but all the shark teeth with pyrite/marcasite bases I've found have actually withstood the test of time really well and have the same luster (roughly) as they did when I found them.