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Dr Mud & The Crab Concretion Crusade


Doctor Mud

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5 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

Sorry to hear @fifbrindacier Glad being in the outdoors is also helping you. Everyone on TFF is so supportive.

Thank mate. My next hunts will be on Saturday and Monday in Bidart : Cenomanian and Lutetian. I still hope to find crabs in the Lutetian and an heteromorph ammonite in the Cenomanian.:fingerscrossed::fingerscrossed:

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"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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Despite the tough things, I’m leaving New Zealand with some nice memories too. It was great to meet @mamlambo and we had a blast. The sand was covering up most of the precious concretions on the beach so we had to think outside the box/beach.

 

We clambered up canyons and chiseled footholds in to rock to get us a few meters higher to look at in situ concretions. We also kept an eye out for the elusive shark teeth that might have washed out if the silt.

 

We had some nice finds. The big concretions haven’t paid off yet, but @mamlambo hauled a big one up to split.

Keep an eye out for a famous @mamlambo video of our day, but for now enjoy this picture of @mamlambo checking out an impressive outcrop. Zoom in to find some concretions. What’s inside? Crabs? Dolphin skull? Penguin? Or.... lots of rock.

 

B9E5956F-7807-4840-BDA2-928CDC31EC7D.thumb.jpeg.ce15ca5b460b420f4dd68f7167acf428.jpeg

 

 

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@Doctor Mud Was a great day! Even though the sand level was high, it was such good fun being out and about and also meeting you. Hopefully the ocean helps us out next time and removes some of the sand!

I'll let you know as soon as the video is ready :D

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3 hours ago, mamlambo said:

I'll let you know as soon as the video is ready :D

Have fun making it!

I was just remembering your Indiana Jones moment where I had a brain feeeze and started rolling a concretion down the chute without warning you.

Starting shouting pretty quick though!

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After the hunt with @mamlambo I decided to camp on the beach for the night. I haven’t had a fire on a beach in years! Living in Australia there are always fire bans. @Mamlambo couldn’t make it this time for camping.

 

Someone had built an awesome shelter (bivvy) our of driftwood so I just put down a ground sheet and slept on that in my sleeping bag.

 

8DA9B384-C2BB-413A-9587-02B994F96E33.thumb.jpeg.a825614261d6d48b90631eb14e55bece.jpeg

 

 

I built a fire and roasted cheese Kranksys on a stick and drank some delicious apple crumble cider kept cool in the creek.

 

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Your sausage is almost done!

 

0F38EDAF-217B-4DA6-BC86-9F9BE99E46BD.thumb.jpeg.56ff6836c5be16fb9b6b9cdbf39a5751.jpeg

 

Here, wash that down with some cool cider!

 

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Boy that was a relaxing night and a perfect way to wrap up a visit. I’m usually go go go on the beach racing the tides so it was nice to settle into the quiet rhythm of the coast. Watch the sunset and sleep to the sound of crashing surf.

I thought about another hunt, but the tides were wrong, and I had the rare feeling of completeness. The crabs will be waiting till next time!

 

I walked up the hill one last time and looked down on the beach, like saying farewell to an old friend. See you next time!

 

E7CCE1E1-3840-4323-84AA-0A6D9E833334.thumb.jpeg.14f85fa4948aa6fd5533b249585bb97b.jpeg

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On 14/11/2019 at 10:40 PM, Doctor Mud said:

After the hunt with @mamlambo I decided to camp on the beach for the night. I haven’t had a fire on a beach in years! Living in Australia there are always fire bans. @Mamlambo couldn’t make it this time for camping.

 

Someone had built an awesome shelter (bivvy) our of driftwood so I just put down a ground sheet and slept on that in my sleeping bag.

 

8DA9B384-C2BB-413A-9587-02B994F96E33.thumb.jpeg.a825614261d6d48b90631eb14e55bece.jpeg

 

 

I built a fire and roasted cheese Kranksys on a stick and drank some delicious apple crumble cider kept cool in the creek.

 

 

On 14/11/2019 at 10:46 PM, Doctor Mud said:

Your sausage is almost done!

 

0F38EDAF-217B-4DA6-BC86-9F9BE99E46BD.thumb.jpeg.56ff6836c5be16fb9b6b9cdbf39a5751.jpeg

 

Here, wash that down with some cool cider!

 

FA1B1F5D-A617-4909-B030-5C4D1A18D9D1.thumb.jpeg.4080a2d7cc4a41184a2fea2602cb8a86.jpeg

 

Boy that was a relaxing night and a perfect way to wrap up a visit. I’m usually go go go on the beach racing the tides so it was nice to settle into the quiet rhythm of the coast. Watch the sunset and sleep to the sound of crashing surf.

I thought about another hunt, but the tides were wrong, and I had the rare feeling of completeness. The crabs will be waiting till next time!

 

I walked up the hill one last time and looked down on the beach, like saying farewell to an old friend. See you next time!

 

E7CCE1E1-3840-4323-84AA-0A6D9E833334.thumb.jpeg.14f85fa4948aa6fd5533b249585bb97b.jpeg

Those are wonderful landscapes, and wonderful relaxing moments, thanks to share them with us.:SlapHands:

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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On 15/11/2019 at 3:39 AM, fifbrindacier said:

Thank mate. My next hunts will be on Saturday and Monday in Bidart : Cenomanian and Lutetian. I still hope to find crabs in the Lutetian and an heteromorph ammonite in the Cenomanian.:fingerscrossed::fingerscrossed:

Looking forward to hearing about your trip!    Hope the time in the outdoors helps you to process everything. The hunting trips can be a strange mix of emotions right now, especially if you are out hunting alone. 

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I couldn't go today because of strong wind, strong rain and storm. I'll go on Monday as planned and one day on the following weeks instead when the low tide hour will permit it.

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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9 hours ago, Monica said:

What beautiful scenery! :wub: I'm glad you feel as though your trip was "complete" :)

Thanks Monica, the time on the beach has really helped for this trip. Its been a weird mix of emotions. The sense of completion comes from finding some of my dream fossils from this site, but I think also because the body is saying, ok I think I actually need a break from collecting! :rolleyes:

Im thankful for the memories in the outdoors and that I’ve found some dream fossils. There are still many things yet to discover there and every visit brings up new questions about the site.

guess that’s part of what keeps us all coming back for more!

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7 minutes ago, fifbrindacier said:

I couldn't go today because of strong wind, strong rain and storm. I'll go on Monday as planned and one day on the following weeks instead when the low tide hour will permit it.

Sorry to hear that nature didn’t play ball. Hope you could enjoy the wild weather from the comfort of home. Sounds like a nice day to be indoors.

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Before I left NZ I took all the straps and clamp off the big concretion after 3 days for the glue to cure. I’m quite happy with how it has fit together with a snug fit and a little glue oozing out from the edges. 

Prepping will be the ultimate test though! 

 

Think I might start a new thread just for this crab to show the process from start to finish. There’s going to be a LOT of rock to remove, but hey, I’m not complaining!

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How do you recognize the presence of a crab in a concretion or in another situation ?

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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2 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

How do you recognize the presence of a crab in a concretion or in another situation ?

Tried embedding the video from my twitter account but that doesn’t seem to work. Click on the link and there is a short video of me finding my first concretion if the trip. It broke the drought of the last few days! I might need to start an instagram or YouTube account.

 

The shape of a concretion and the leg circles are what usually gives it away.

 

This is usually after the concretion has eroded a bit. Once the edges wear off the legs are the first thing to be exposed. The concretion also has a distinctive shape, usually once it has been worn a bit, oval, slightly flattened, and tapered at one end like in the video.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/drcraigwoodward/status/1185394473829748737

 

The holy grail of crab fossils is to get a pristine crab with no erosion though,with  the tippy tips of the legs as @RJB would call them. This requires fresher concretions with no leg circles and usually you need to split the concretion to find out if something is inside, like @mamlambo recent video on his basketball size/shaped concretion.

 

I don’t have experience of crabs outside of concretions, but I imagine getting your eye in for the shape, and texture of crab shell will help. You then get to recognize when a small portion of fossil crab is exposed in the rock.

 

Hope this helps!

 

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@Doctor Mud I knocked that concretion open this evening and made a short video of it here:
 

 

I also went past the museum today to show them my maybe-penguin (it's maybe a penguin!) and saw your one lying there all nicely prepped. Looks amazing! So many bones in it.

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19 minutes ago, mamlambo said:

@Doctor Mud I knocked that concretion open this evening and made a short video of it here:
 

 

I also went past the museum today to show them my maybe-penguin (it's maybe a penguin!) and saw your one lying there all nicely prepped. Looks amazing! So many bones in it.

It had such a nice shape to it, shame it was empty :( Oh well that’s the way to find the complete crabs. Lucky that it split so easy.

 

Great to hear about your bone cluster.

Did you donate it for Al Mannering to prep? I think that would be the second penguin off Glenafric beach. Several from Motanau, but I think maybe mine was the first from there?

 

Just adds something great to a fun day.

 

Fingers crosses you have another low sand day again soon. :fingerscrossed:

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@Doctor Mud They were showing me the dolphin skull they have prepped there and it reminded me so much of a 35cm concretion I had in the garden which I thought was a crab, so I took some close-up photos and it is bone sticking out. They want to do a rough prep on it to see if it is a penguin or dolphin skull :fingerscrossed:

 

The small bone cluster I found out with you is probably a penguin, but very incomplete. I will try and expose some more of it. I had another one that is either dolphin or turtle. All-in-all a great day! Saw so many amazing examples!

 

 

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@mamlambo that’s great!

 

So glad you are in touch with Paul Scofield at the museum. They have some really nice stuff from the Canterbury coast. Always very inspiring to visit there.

 

That concretion with bone sticking out looks so promising! 

 

Looking forward to seeing what’s inside.

 

 

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2 hours ago, mamlambo said:

The small bone cluster I found out with you is probably a penguin, but very incomplete. I will try and expose some more of it

Great! Look forward to seeing your progress.

 

If you feel that your scribe is a bit too powerful for some of those delicate bones, I’m bringing over a couple of scribes at Christmas time.

 

You should be ok until you get up close to some of the more delicate bones.

Great piece to start on practicing prep on bone. 

 

You did tell me what you were using scribe wise but I forgot.

Ive got a paleotools ME-9100 & microjack #4 if you want to have a play with these.

 

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3 hours ago, mamlambo said:

saw your one lying there all nicely prepped. Looks amazing! So many bones in it.

I should post an update on that thread with the penguin concretion. Al sent me some progress photos but I still have to see it in person.

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@Doctor Mud I have a CP9361 type scribe with a 2" tungsten tip, would love to use some of your scribes. I've been wondering what the Paleotool ones are like as they get such good reviews online. Paul at the museum is such a nice guy, he really took quite a bit of time to chat to me and show me around. From what I understood, they have finished the prepping of your penguin bones and must now figure out what it is from. :D

 

It's 4am and I'm on my way down to go look at the sand levels now :fingerscrossed: Hopefully there is something showing!

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