2018 - best of personnal finds - a year in review.

[elcoincoin]

Hi all,

 

Rather late than never, i managed some time to make a photo galery of my best find of 2018.

 

I mostly hunted trilos, but also manages a few trips for ammonites, echinoids and even graptolithes.

The time span is quite wide also : ordovician, silurian, jurassic and cretaceous.

 

I wont post everything (it's been a productive year again) here but you can see it in the galery :

 

or on my flickr galery here : https://flic.kr/s/aHsm9dKo7r

 

Regards

 

 

 

 

 

 

[elcoincoin]

Part one : the trilos. ill picture only one per specie.

 

Maybe the best find of the year, even if it's a very small fellow :

 

The very elusive Selenopeltis Macrophtalma ? (size owithout spines : 2 cm) (only a few had been find in those spots)

 

 

Nobiliasaphus Nobili, not that rare but a pain to find in good condition :

 

 

A quite frequent one : Ectillaenus Giganteus  but this one is just big :

 

 

The most frequent of them all : the emblematic Neseuretus Tristani

 

 

and another frequent one :

 

 

to be continued.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Tremendous finds.

Look forward to the next batch.

[LiamL]

Looks like theres quite big trillos in France! Good stuff

[FranzBernhard]

Strange trilos and even stranger matrix! They seem to be orientated perpendicular to the foliation - ?? And the rock seems rather metamorphic, more schist then slate or shale - ??

@elcoincoin,  you know the metamorphic grade of the host rock?

Btw: Congrats to this spectacular finds!
Franz Bernhard

[ynot]

Nice finds, You had a good year collecting.

[elcoincoin]

 

i m not a  geology pro but for me shale = schist. And the fossiles in those layer are often disformed, depending on their relative position with the direction the rock has been elongated.

Can be either compressed or elongated or something in between.

[Tidgy's Dad]

3 minutes ago, elcoincoin said:

 

i m not a  geology pro but for me shale = schist. And the fossiles in those layer are often disformed, depending on their relative position with the direction the rock has been elongated.

Can be either compressed or elongated or something in between.

Shales can become schists after metamorphism, often with slate as an intermediary form. 

But schists can be formed in other ways too.

[elcoincoin]

Well, i learnt something...

 

To continue about 2018 s finds.

3 associations

2 Ectillaenus Giganteus  which illustrate what i try to explain about deformation (yes those are the same specie)

 

 

1 ecti and one eodalmanitina :

 

 

1 Neseuretus Tristani lying on a gastropod :

 

 

Then from a different site and epoch : silurian fossils :

 

Graptolites death plate :

 

 

and orthoceras : (biggest is 30 cm long)

 

 

to be continued

[Archie]

These are all fantastic! Love the Selenopeltis 

[ynot]

Looking good so far....

[Wrangellian]

Adam is right...

The way I learned it is:

Shale ------------------------> slate  ------------------------> schist

no metamorphism -------- mild metamorphism ---------- strong metamorphism

fossils preserved ---------- some fossils survive -----------no fossils survive

[Wrangellian]

I wanted to see what those first two might have looked like if there hadn't been any distortion, so I did this:

 

[Manticocerasman]

Great finds, I can't wait to see more of your ammonites from Belmont, that location is on my bucket list.

[FranzBernhard]

@elcoincoin, thanks for your explanation!

 

10 hours ago, elcoincoin said:

shale = schist

I can understand this, I also often have problems with terminology.

With increasing metamorph grade: shale (unmetamorphic) - slate (slightly metamorphic, can be used e.g. for roofing, can be still fossiliferous) - schist (metamorphic, usually no fossils). 

@Tidgy's Dad has already pointed it out . And @Wrangellian, too. Thanks!

 

10 hours ago, elcoincoin said:

the fossiles in those layer are often disformed, depending on their relative position with the direction the rock has been elongated.

Yeah, that´s what makes them especially special! .

 

8 hours ago, elcoincoin said:

2 Ectillaenus Giganteus  which illustrate what i try to explain about deformation (yes those are the same specie)

What a great specimen and how educative! Thanks for sharing! (We need a new contest - Fossil of the year 2018 that was not already FOTM .)

 

Btw, whats the type of preservation of the trilos? Some look like like molds / impressions /cast, others not.

To you have some literature about these fossil sites? Thanks!
Franz Bernhard

[elcoincoin]

@FranzBernhard

 

It depends on layers really, in some layer they are flattened in other not. It also dependsif they are found inside nodules. For instance the seleno wasnt in a nodule so it's flat and the huge ecti was.

 

for the documentation, i mostly refer to : https://www.minerauxetfossiles.com/produit/fossiles-hors-serie-2016-les-trilobites-de-lordovicien-de-bretagne/

but still, due to the quality of preservation and to the fact i hunt in rock piles, it s not always easy to go further than the genus (especially for eodalmanitina)

[FranzBernhard]

@elcoincoin, thank you very much for all your infos and the link! I can not read french, but I still have understood something . Good luck, these are very special fossils.

Franz Bernhard

[Monica]

Wonderful finds!!!  I especially like the graptolites - I'm still looking to find my first in my area - hopefully this summer...

 

Thanks for sharing!

[elcoincoin]

Hi again

 

i also had a few opportunities in more recent playgrounds : cretaceous and jurassic

 

In a quarry with bajocian / aalenian exposure near Niort (france)

 

I scored this big big shell (20 cm +) : Plagiostoma Sp (hopefully i should get more precise ID someday) from the lower layer (aalenian)

 

 

and this nice ammo despite center is missing : stephanoceras sp from the bajocian

 

 

I also had an opportunity to spend a day to the famous lafarge quarry near lyon in Belmont d'azergues. The exposure is toarcain / aalenian

 

here are 3 ammos from the upper toarcian (im not 100 % positive about IDs)

 

Pseudogrammoceras Sp

 

 

and 2 Hammatoceras gr pachu

 

 

 

to be continued

 

[Monica]

I love the red colour on those last three ammonites - simply stunning! 

[elcoincoin]

Hi again, last few pictures for this thread.

 

I went twice this year to the famous "Les Vaches Noires "cliffs in Normandy. I used to go a lot more but at the moment trilos keeping me busy somehow.

I also spent a day not far from there, in another jurassic spot with  a similar name "Les Roches Noires" cliffs.

 

Each hike has been rewarding and here the most noticable finds.

 

From Les Vaches Noires :

 

Quenstedtoceras messiaeni ?

 

 

 Nice pyritized Quenstedtoceras lamberti

 

 

Classic for the spot but still cool : cidaridae spine (6 cm)

 

 

An uncommon bivalve for the location : Plagiostoma sp

 

 

2 finds of Les Roches Noires :

A nice oxfordian echinoid : nucleolites Scutatus : (to add to the confusion, it s also a typical fossil from les Vaches Noires)

 

 

And last for 2018 best finds

Oxfordian Unicorns  fight :

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the trip through  a the diversity of french fossils (Well i didnt go eocen this year).

 

Regard

 

 

 

 

[ynot]

6 hours ago, elcoincoin said:

Hope you enjoyed the trip through  a the diversity of french fossils

Very much so!

Thank You for posting this story (and the fossils that go with it.).

[Monica]

My 8-year-old daughter will love to see the two "unicorns" fighting - thanks for the show and tell!

[OwlEyes]

I love all of the fossils.  Thank you for sharing.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Quote

Pretty good year, I'd say!