Ludwigia Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Jackson g said: Sara has made it safe and sound to Missouri now! The next 4 days I have off work, and she plans to accompany me each day (besides tomorrow, car will be in the shop) on a fossil to some interesting places. She'll just have to make company with some brachiopods tomorrow! More to come soon. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 No car today, so Sara decided to hang out and watch me clean up a crinoid. She was a bit puzzled by what she was looking at before prep, so I scrapped some rock away from it so she could familiarize herself with the ancient critter. After a while, she was excited to see it exposed and freed out of it's rock tomb. Hopefully this will help her spot some crinoids when we're out tomorrow! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randyw Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 Nice looking crinoid! It’s great to see Sara out adventuring again! And being health safety conscious! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 Did she come with mask already or did you create it for her? Cool crinoid by the way. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 Love the mask and the crinoid. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Ludwigia said: Did she come with mask already or did you create it for her? Cool crinoid by the way. She came with it, very fitting for these current times if I may say so! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 How come I missed it in @Runner64s photos? Blind as a bat. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 7 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said: Blind as a bat. You seem to have developed an affinity to these creatures lately 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 6 hours ago, Ludwigia said: You seem to have developed an affinity to these creatures lately I've always been batty. 4 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snolly50 Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 A rare video of @Tidgy's Dad disposing of one of the bananas he attempted to foist off as currency in a recent Forum auction... 1 Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 1 hour ago, snolly50 said: A rare video of @Tidgy's Dad disposing of one of the bananas he attempted to foist off as currency in a recent Forum auction.. She does look a little like me. And certainly I eat bananas in a similar fashion. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Today me and Sara decided to go out fossil hunting. We first tried my favorite creek, that has exposed Burlington Formation chert. It's about a half mile walk through some overgrown, thick brush from where I could park my car. Unfortunately the creek water was very high right now, and all the chert was submerged by water. We decided to head back to the car, and next try my favorite area of Truman Lake, the Tebo Arm. Heres an idea of how high the brush was I had to walk through to get to the creek. Not a fun walk there or back for no fossils! And to the lake we went. There was another mile and a half walk from where I parked, until we got to the exposed Burlington limestone. On the way there, Sara was intrested in this colorful little Dasymutilla occidentalis, also known as red velvet ants around here. They are parasitic wasps, not true ants. She ended up getting close, but I was sure to keep my distance! Once we got to the exposure, it took her a while to get accustomed to the lay of the land. Sure enough, after 30 minutes of looking, Sara found her first crinoid. Another 15 minutes passed, and another crinoid was spotted. Sara wanted to see this one up close and cleaned up. Like me she is impatient, so I spent some time rinsing it in the lake and scraping the little bit of matrix off attatched with my knife. Crinoid species: Eutrochocrinus christyi We spent the last half hour out just enjoying nature and the view. Afterwards, we decided to head back home. Even towards the end of the day when one is tired, it pays off to keep your eyes peeled. By the beginning of the crinoidal limestone exposure, this perfect little blastoid steinkern was just chilling there. It must have weathered out of the above chert layer, rolled down, and then buried by the lower weathering limestone. That wraps up our day of fossil hunting at Truman Lake, in Henry County, Missouri. Sara wanted to scope out the other finds cleaned up, so here they are. Crinoid species- Uperocrinus pyriformis, Blastoid species- likely Globoblastus norwoodi. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Brilliant finds, Sara. And super photos, Jackson. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Another day off work, means another fossil hunt! Off we headed to hit another section of Truman Lake, this time in Benton County, Missouri. The name of the game was Burlington Formation chert today, which requires splitting a lot of chert in the safest way possible of course. Chert splits or shatters with a conchoidal fracture, so it's easy to get cut even when you're careful. Unfortunately my phone died about a hour in today before I got to take very many photos. Heres a pretty cool split plate of Mississippian critters. I did end up getting a nice shot of the area when I got back to my car, and was able to get my phone plugged in. It was a beautiful day today! And here are the beautiful finds. Some of the steinkerns have chert replacement and are solid as a rock, while the others are a very thin and fragile crystalized mold. Sara stood on what she liked best, can't say I disagree with her. A close up of the crinoids and blastoids. Unlike the crinoidal limestones, these fossils from the chert layers can vary in color. Once we got home, Sara had a salad for dinner while I had some pasta. We both needed the food after the long day out! Tomorrow will be the last day we can go out fossil hunting, and then Sara will kick it with me for the weekend when I'm not at work. Afterwards, she will then be departing! (Assuming who's next in line is ready!) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasia Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 9 hours ago, Jackson g said: Another day off work, means another fossil hunt! Off we headed to hit another section of Truman Lake, this time in Benton County, Missouri. The name of the game was Burlington Formation chert today, which requires splitting a lot of chert in the safest way possible of course. Chert splits or shatters with a conchoidal fracture, so it's easy to get cut even when you're careful. Unfortunately my phone died about a hour in today before I got to take very many photos. Heres a pretty cool split plate of Mississippian critters. I did end up getting a nice shot of the area when I got back to my car, and was able to get my phone plugged in. It was a beautiful day today! And here are the beautiful finds. Some of the steinkerns have chert replacement and are solid as a rock, while the others are a very thin and fragile crystalized mold. Sara stood on what she liked best, can't say I disagree with her. A close up of the crinoids and blastoids. Unlike the crinoidal limestones, these fossils from the chert layers can vary in color. Once we got home, Sara had a salad for dinner while I had some pasta. We both needed the food after the long day out! Tomorrow will be the last day we can go out fossil hunting, and then Sara will kick it with me for the weekend when I'm not at work. Afterwards, she will then be departing! (Assuming who's next in line is ready!) Hi, I have just checked - and I'm next in line, yahoo! I'm ready and Sara is most welcome to come visit Poland yet before the weather makes it impossible to go for any fossil hunt 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 @Jackson g - I LOVE those white blastoids - they are beautiful! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 8 hours ago, Kasia said: Hi, I have just checked - and I'm next in line, yahoo! I'm ready and Sara is most welcome to come visit Poland yet before the weather makes it impossible to go for any fossil hunt Awesome! I'll shoot you a pm here this weekend and make sure we get the details ironed out! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 6 hours ago, Monica said: @Jackson g - I LOVE those white blastoids - they are beautiful! I love them too! They are soooooo fragile that when I first started collecting, I thought it to be impossible to get these out in tact from their hard chert tombs. To give you a better idea, heres a quick photo I took that shows how thin they are, with two of the steinkerns that lost a tiny bit. It amazes me I still continue to rescue these little echinoderms. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson g Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Alas, the final day for us to go out fossil hunting has arrived. The weather was great, and the sun was high in the sky with low humidity compared to usual for here. We chose to go to another location in Henry County, Missouri to split some more Burlington Formation chert. These cherts can contain my favorite finds, brachiopods(and more). Sometimes they can contain very special brachiopods with the internals preserved as well. Days like this remind me why I do this, and rekindle my joy for the hobby. Everyday truly is a new treasure hunt, and I found my favorite treasure of all today!!! Anyways, we left around noon today, with a good half hour drive ahead of us before we got there. Today's specific location will remain secret, but heres a hint: it's around Truman Lake. While walking to the chert spot, some nice crinoidal limestone was exposed and littered the land. We decided to skip this hunting ground though. When we got to our hunting grounds, Sara immediately spotted this laying in the scraps. This is always a good sign, though it's not the nicest example it still shows exactly what we're looking for today. This trip today ended up getting cut short, but for all the right reasons! After working for 30 minutes or so on a huge 100lbs or so slab of chert, I pried this section off. Sara was a bit confused when she looked at it, but I immediately dropped my jaw in awe. I knew what we had pulled was a very special find. We then started think of our game plan for extraction. Another 30 minutes had passed, with 30 or so very careful wacks, and another few hundred gentle taps, we had made progress. I wouldn't advise someone to do this, but I've worked this type of chert for a while, and experience paid off. Sara was still confused what she was looking at though upon completion. After getting home and cleaning up our find, I showed Sara my collection of brachiopods with preserved internals, and explained that she was looking at the spiralia brachidium (athyrid type) of this brachiopod. To eat, this brachiopod filtered particles and detritus (dead organic matter) out of the water with a feeding organ called a lophophore. This brachidium is a calcified support structure for the lophophore of this brachiopod. I refer to these as golden spirals, and they are the highlight of my collecting career. I found one other brachiopod while out fossil hunting. We tested our luck when we got back home to see if we could show another type of internal preservation with brachs. After a little dissection, it was clear this one was a dud unfortunately. That completes the fossil hunting and travels around the area for Sara! I go back to work tonight, which means Sara will be headed out Monday. Sure hope Sara and everyone enjoyed our little adventures here! Thanks for reading, Jackson 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-fossils Posted September 8, 2020 Share Posted September 8, 2020 @Jackson g that is super cool! Both of you made some impressive finds, and reading a bit more about your special brachidium was very interesting. Thanks for sharing and well done!!! 1 Max Derème "I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day." - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier Instagram: @world_of_fossils Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasia Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Dear TFF Members, I'm happy to announce that Sara has just arrived to Poland There was a welcome committee waiting for her impatiently: The local cousins were very interested in all her adventures, so they started from going through her journal: and of course they immediately decided to make an entry 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasia Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Then Sara was introduced to the most important inhabitants of the household - the Hairy Pack and (which is not common, as the fluffy creatures usually are quite reserved towards strangers), she was accepted as a visitor (I guess it's because she's not interested in either meat or sweets, and thus there is no hazard that usual portions of food they get could be reduced because of the visit. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasia Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 This is the proof - a friendly high-five with one of the teddies: As Sara is feeling a little jet-lagged, she went to sleep in a soft and warm embrace of the youngest representative of the pack: Stay tuned for more Sara news directly from Poland :)) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randyw Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 She looks so warm and snuggly in the last picture! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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