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A new site (for me) in the Wutach


Ludwigia

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I mentioned in another post a few days ago that I had discovered a site in the Middle Jurassic Aalenian which I hadn't visited previously. I found it rather unexpectedly while in search of the humphriesi oolite formation. It was obvious that other collectors had worked here in the past, but the rock had also been weathering away for a few years since the last ones were here, so I figured it would be worth spending the good part of a day inspecting it. I set off to this avail this very morning. It's a bit of a way up to get there, but not too strenuous if you take your time. By the way, I remembered to take my camera along this time, so here's a shot of the exposure.

 

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I spent about 5 hours working at it but ended up digging out a lot of partials since the stone was extremely hard at the one productive horizon and too soft in the other one. That's the luck of the game sometimes. You can always find the right horizon once you've located an exposure, but the preservation is often quite different than at other exposures not too far away. Here are pics of the 2 spots I was working at.

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It wasn't all for nothing at least, since I did manage to salvage a good sized Staufenia staufensis ammonite out of the hard horizon. This is how it looked before I maneuvered the 2nd block out of the bank.

S.staufensis.a.thumb.jpg.16e924cef9bb82337de4cbb2cffd2928.jpg

 

And here are both pieces ready for transport. Looks like I've got a bit of prep work ahead of me.

S.staufensis.b.thumb.jpg.ab76ea51af271c50d00d8839176c40b1.jpg

 

 

There were also a few smaller ones to take with me.

Funde.1.jpg.1281524a47b67e309fd973fa1442fce4.jpg

 

So that was it for the day. Downhill is always as easy as pie and a stop on the way home for a rump steak with scalloped potatoes and a red bull is the incentive that gets me out in the first place :)

I'll post the finds later on once I get down to prepping them.

 

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Nice trip! Maybe with repeat visits you'll be able to soften up some of the rock in parts of the productive horizon to extract more goodies. Or maybe you'll encounter the Goldilocks zone. :D 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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1 minute ago, Kane said:

Nice trip! Maybe with repeat visits you'll be able to soften up some of the rock in parts of the productive horizon to extract more goodies. Or maybe you'll encounter the Goldilocks zone. :D 

:) Goldilocks would be nice, but I'm afraid the ratio of intact finds to the hard work involved in taking this stone apart looks like a small fraction with the former on top. The only thing that would soften up these rocks would be a good dose of sulfuric acid or intrusive magma :P

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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My motivator is imagining all the things I'd find. That's enough for me! :D

 

Some pretty neat things from there.

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Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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5 minutes ago, Kane said:

I’ve seen you work... I figured Red Bull was your magic potion! :D

 

2 minutes ago, MeargleSchmeargl said:

My motivator is imagining all the things I'd find. That's enough for me! :D

 

Some pretty neat things from there.

Naja, as we say in Germany. I'll probably saunter back there again sometime and give it another try. But next time I'll bring along a sixpack of RB.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Cute little ammonites, Roger! :wub::ammonite01:

 

Looking forward to seeing the larger Staufenia staufensis after it's been prepped :popcorn:

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11 minutes ago, Monica said:

Cute little ammonites, Roger! :wub::ammonite01:

 

Looking forward to seeing the larger Staufenia staufensis after it's been prepped :popcorn:

Could take a while  :coffee:

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Nice report and finds, Roger!

Thanks for showing us. :) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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4 hours ago, Al Tahan said:

Love seeing new spots and new fossils :) 

 

3 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Nice report and finds, Roger!

Thanks for showing us. :) 

Thanks guys :)

 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the preparation didn't take nearly as long as I'd been expecting. The main reason being that the Staufenia inside of those 2 matrix blocks was too soft and brittle and the matrix itself was extremely hard. The result was that the fossil broke into smithereens within just a few minutes. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. At least most of the small stuff turned out alright.

 

B203a.jpg.8368db8c9ae42775791d3bbdf1bd46b0.jpg

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Terebratulid brachiopod Lobothyris cf. punctata

 

10b.jpg.ab4b709ad0338f51e1fb09e84f40ca7c.jpg

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Ludwigia haugi

 

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11b.jpg.e3369ac3a400543bf3c9258aa387a9e5.jpg

Ancolioceras opalinoides

 

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Late to the party, but hope the next visit has better results for the effort.

At least You got a few nice pieces to remember the site.

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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4 hours ago, ynot said:

Late to the party, but hope the next visit has better results for the effort.

At least You got a few nice pieces to remember the site.

I went back there one more time and just ended up confirming what I had already figured. The staufensis bank was way too hard and the sinon banks way too soft, so getting decently preserved fossils out of these horizons is really a hit and miss situation. Mostly miss actually, so that was my last visit there.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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9 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Mostly miss actually, so that was my last visit there.

I know that type of site all to well.:(

I hope Your next new location find produces much better results.:thumbsu:

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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