Dr Mud & The Crab Concretion Crusade

[Doctor Mud]

On 09/11/2019 at 5:17 PM, Pagurus said:

I'm sad to hear of your painful loss. I'm glad you found some solace on the beach. I have wonderful memories of walking on the seashore with my dad, looking for holes in the sand and digging out the clams hiding below. My dad passed away nearly forty years ago and I still feel he's close by when I dig on those same muddy beaches with my grandson. I'm sure you will have similar happy memories of your father.

I'm looking forward to following your progress with that special crab. 

 

Thanks Pagarus,

 

Your post is very touching and it is nice that we can still feel the presence of our loved ones after they have passed.

 

We used to go on lots of fossil hunting trips as a family and I have many happy memories of our adventures.

[Doctor Mud]

17 hours ago, Scylla said:

Condolences on your loss, congratulations on your find

 

Thanks Scylla. Every message from the TFF community helps

[Doctor Mud]

17 hours ago, Monica said:

So sorry to hear about the loss of your father, Dr. Mud.  Losing a parent must be very difficult.

 

I'm glad that you found some peaceful, quiet moments while beach hunting for crab concretions - best of luck on the prep job to come.

Thanks Monica,

 

Losing a parent is tough and even though we knew this day was coming soon, it takes a lot to get used to the idea that he is not here anymore.

 

The beach has been a good place to be. I’ve been supporting my mother and stayed on in NZ to help out. The beach is a  nice place to retreat to with the added bonus of fossils!

[Doctor Mud]

12 hours ago, Al Tahan said:

I’m very sorry for your loss dr mud. condolences to you and your family ....

 

however those are some spectacular crab concretions. Fossil hunting can be very therapeutic 

Thanks,

 

It has been hard, but the beach has now been kind to me. 

[Doctor Mud]

10 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Also my condolences on the loss of your father. Mine died under similar circumstances last year, so I can feel with you. It looks like the crabs will pep you up a bit, though

Thanks Ludwigia,

 

Sorry to hear of your dads passing. It has been a long journey especially for my mum as he progressively got more ill and needed more care.

 

I certainly feel lucky to find such amazing crabs and it does help a bit. I need to organize an area to prep so I can focus some energy on prepping.

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

10 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Very sorry to hear about your father, my condolences. 

Very interesting field report and I look forward to the results of the prep. 

Thanks for your kind words.

 

Glad you enjoyed the photos and report!

[Doctor Mud]

I spent a few more days on the beach with mostly empty large concretions and leaverites; weathered crabs to be left for those who would appreciate them, lucky to be able to be fussy now.

 

I met up with Andrew Fear who has been collecting here for years. He has been on the forum and we chatted a lot online, but it was the first time we met in person. We chatted, then went our separate ways as the tide was on its way in.

 

I had a bad fall not long after I saw him. My worst fall while rock hopping. My fault/ I was going too fast and ended up with not quite enough speed to land on a rock and couldn’t get balanced and fell sideways onto my knee. I could hardly walk, but had a long ways to walk out.

 

I carry a first aid kit, which I recommend all  do. Hunting alone is risky, but I am

 usually much more careful. I strapped up my knee and decided to move on to a place where I knew I could get back to the car without too much more boulder hopping.

 

I knew I wouldn’t be up for carrying out 30 plus kg that day, so I was lucky to find a few small but very interesting finds.

 

First up was an odontocete (“dolphin”) periotic earbone. This wasn’t in a concretion, but was in the soft silt.

 

As found:

 

 

 

Its the first time I’ve found bone in the silt.

 

After prep (Scale in mm)

 

Ventral

 

 

Dorsal: 

 

 

Amazing preservation. Much easier to prep in the soft silt with a needle and stiff brush. A little water softened the matrix.

 

Showed this to @Boesse and he said:

 

”Kentriodontidae" sensu lato or Inioidea are strong possibilities. Not a phocoenid, monodontid, or delphinid, but somewhere in early Delphinida/Delphinoidea.

[Doctor Mud]

This is very interesting,

 

Modern Inioidea are river dolphins, Delphinidoidea includes all modern oceanic dolphins, porpoises, and their relatives.

The rocks here I expect are ca 12 million yrs old so date to the early radiation of Delphinoidea.

 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Sorry for your father. This big crab will be marvelous after prep.

 

Coco

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice periotic and interesting to see the dolphin 'family tree'. 

[Doctor Mud]

My next find presented as some bone exposed in a cobble. It is small so I would easily have missed it if the sun wasn’t glinting off it.

( sorry for the blurry photo, bone is about 1 cm long)

 

I couldn’t place the texture of the bone, tooth root? Penguin? Another earbone?

 

I took it to Al Mannering’s place - he is a legend in prepping and a hard rock magician. He has prepped a lot of the famous finds coming out of New Zealand, e.g. the giant penguins. He kindly offered for me to use his microjack to expose the bone.

 

He recognized the texture straight away as either a ray plate, or possibly heterodont (bull head) shark plate.

 

About half an hour gently exposing with the microjack did the trick. It is so fragile! I managed to just touch it once and it threatened to explode. 

 

What do you find at a site famous for fossil crabs? A heterodont shark tooth plate! Heterodont (bullhead or Horn) sharks have crushing plates which are handy for feeding on animals with hard shells; like shellfish, echinoderms and crabs! I do wonder if it would feed on Tumido crabs as modern Xanthid crabs are poisonous, but there are always animals that can tolerate toxins. We also don’t know for sure if T. giganteus was poisonous.

 

Prepped tooth in smoothed matrix. Tooth plate 15 mm long

 

 

An extant heterodont shark: Port Jackson shark or Heterodontus portusjacksoni 

 

 

The jaw of heterodont shark with rows of crushing plates. The fossil resembles an upper posterior plate.

 

 

Nice to add another member of the ecosystem from the Late Miocene of this locality!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice find. 

I too love building up palaeocommunities. 

[Doctor Mud]

I’m a bit nervous! Time to glue the big boy together!

it was tricky to line up the two pieces as was a strange break.

i used several “landmarks” legs, pincers etc and marked a line on each side of the concretion so I could just place the concretion bang on where it needed to be.

 

I’ll take a picture of the glued concretion soon!

I used three ratchet ties and a clamp to get maximum pressure all round!

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

And what type of glue have you chosen to use?

[Doctor Mud]

40 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

And what type of glue have you chosen to use?

 

Good question! I went for a 2 part araldite.

The main reason I picked this is the time to gel and bond. You get a few hours of adjustment time with this one and I knew it would be important.

This one dries translucent and is slightly viscous (thick) plus very strong.

 

I will see how it goes, but I felt it might have been a little too viscous  and I hope the pressure of the ratchets and clamps push those halves together and spread the glue into a nice thin layer.

 

[Ludwigia]

11 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

 

Good question! I went for a 2 part araldite.

The main reason I picked this is the time to gel and bond. You get a few hours of adjustment time with this one and I knew it would be important.

This one dries translucent and is slightly viscous (thick) plus very strong.

 

I will see how it goes, but I felt it might have been a little too viscous  and I hope the pressure of the ratchets and clamps push those halves together and spread the glue into a nice thin layer.

 

 

Never heard of that one, but it sounds like it should do the job.

[Doctor Mud]

I also like the look of the Starbond that @RJB uses. It looks like it will set clear and has a good viscosity - not too runny not too sticky. Also no mixing involved.

I saw the video of @mamlambo using it and it looks great.

How much did that 20 Oz glue cost you to ship to NZ @mamlambo

[ynot]

Condolences on Your loss.

Keep finding those great rocks.

[mamlambo]

7 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

I also like the look of the Starbond that @RJB uses. It looks like it will set clear and has a good viscosity - not too runny not too sticky. Also no mixing involved.

I saw the video of @mamlambo using it and it looks great.

How much did that 20 Oz glue cost you to ship to NZ @mamlambo

@Doctor Mud There is actually a guy on trademe that is the agent for Starbond. It was $100NZD delivered for the 16oz, about $20 for the 2oz. Probably worth doing the 16oz if you have a few crabs to prep.

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/crafts/woodcraft/listing-2390910314.htm?rsqid=ace928516db54054b7e80426bcf5f884-001

If you need me to forward it on to Aus, let me know.

[Doctor Mud]

That’s not a bad price for 16 oz. @mamlambo this equates to about 470 mls. This araldite was 36 NZD for 200 ml. So factoring in delivery the price is similar.

 

Ive used araldite before but was a bit worried that the mix is too sticky and won’t spread well. It did work out well last time, but I am always nervous especially on a very good concretion!

 

Im in NZ a lot (and hope to move back) so getting delivered to NZ works well for me.

[fifbrindacier]

On 09/11/2019 at 1:37 AM, grandpa said:

Dr. Mud, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your father.  I hope interaction with the forum and other distractions such as your fossil hunts help to ease the sense of loss.  We are here to help ease the pain as we can.

 

Tom

 

On 09/11/2019 at 1:52 AM, Doctor Mud said:

Thanks Tom,

 

Its been a month since he passed and getting on the beach has been a good distraction. Nice to have the support of the TFF community. 

 

On 09/11/2019 at 1:45 AM, Fossildude19 said:

Sorry for your loss, Dr. Mud.   

Thanks for sharing the trip and finds with us. 

I look forward to your eventual prep pictures.  

I've lost my father this summer in August. Going in the field for hunting and interacting with the forum has been a good distraction.

[fifbrindacier]

On 09/11/2019 at 2:08 AM, Doctor Mud said:

This was one big concretion! 50 kg. It was quite a hike out so I made the decision to take advantage of a natural weakness to split it into 35 kg and 20 kg halves.

 

 

On 09/11/2019 at 2:20 AM, Doctor Mud said:

A few more photos.

looking up from the bottom of the crab to the top of the concretion.

 

 

The big claw! All up it will be around 20 cm long including the pincers.

 

 

The only tricky thing is that when glued back together it will be 50 kg! Tempted to shave some rock off the bottom of the bottom half, but I think that big claw will go deeper than I think!

 

Thanks for following along everyone 

 

On 10/11/2019 at 6:30 AM, Doctor Mud said:

I spent a few more days on the beach with mostly empty large concretions and leaverites; weathered crabs to be left for those who would appreciate them, lucky to be able to be fussy now.

 

I met up with Andrew Fear who has been collecting here for years. He has been on the forum and we chatted a lot online, but it was the first time we met in person. We chatted, then went our separate ways as the tide was on its way in.

 

I had a bad fall not long after I saw him. My worst fall while rock hopping. My fault/ I was going too fast and ended up with not quite enough speed to land on a rock and couldn’t get balanced and fell sideways onto my knee. I could hardly walk, but had a long ways to walk out.

 

I carry a first aid kit, which I recommend all  do. Hunting alone is risky, but I am

 usually much more careful. I strapped up my knee and decided to move on to a place where I knew I could get back to the car without too much more boulder hopping.

 

I knew I wouldn’t be up for carrying out 30 plus kg that day, so I was lucky to find a few small but very interesting finds.

 

First up was an odontocete (“dolphin”) periotic earbone. This wasn’t in a concretion, but was in the soft silt.

 

As found:

 

 

 

Its the first time I’ve found bone in the silt.

 

After prep (Scale in mm)

 

Ventral

 

 

Dorsal: 

 

 

Amazing preservation. Much easier to prep in the soft silt with a needle and stiff brush. A little water softened the matrix.

 

Showed this to @Boesse and he said:

 

”Kentriodontidae" sensu lato or Inioidea are strong possibilities. Not a phocoenid, monodontid, or delphinid, but somewhere in early Delphinida/Delphinoidea.

 

On 11/11/2019 at 12:47 AM, Doctor Mud said:

My next find presented as some bone exposed in a cobble. It is small so I would easily have missed it if the sun wasn’t glinting off it.

( sorry for the blurry photo, bone is about 1 cm long)

 

I couldn’t place the texture of the bone, tooth root? Penguin? Another earbone?

 

I took it to Al Mannering’s place - he is a legend in prepping and a hard rock magician. He has prepped a lot of the famous finds coming out of New Zealand, e.g. the giant penguins. He kindly offered for me to use his microjack to expose the bone.

 

He recognized the texture straight away as either a ray plate, or possibly heterodont (bull head) shark plate.

 

About half an hour gently exposing with the microjack did the trick. It is so fragile! I managed to just touch it once and it threatened to explode. 

 

What do you find at a site famous for fossil crabs? A heterodont shark tooth plate! Heterodont (bullhead or Horn) sharks have crushing plates which are handy for feeding on animals with hard shells; like shellfish, echinoderms and crabs! I do wonder if it would feed on Tumido crabs as modern Xanthid crabs are poisonous, but there are always animals that can tolerate toxins. We also don’t know for sure if T. giganteus was poisonous.

 

Prepped tooth in smoothed matrix. Tooth plate 15 mm long

 

 

An extant heterodont shark: Port Jackson shark or Heterodontus portusjacksoni 

 

 

The jaw of heterodont shark with rows of crushing plates. The fossil resembles an upper posterior plate.

 

 

Nice to add another member of the ecosystem from the Late Miocene of this locality!

All this is super ! I'm impatient to see your crab prepared !

[RJB]

On 11/11/2019 at 3:42 PM, Doctor Mud said:

also like the look of the Starbond that @RJB uses. It looks like it will set clear and has a good viscosity - not too runny not too sticky. Also no mixing involved.

Comes in different viscosities

 

RB

[Doctor Mud]

On 13/11/2019 at 11:32 AM, fifbrindacier said:

ve lost my father this summer in August. Going in the field for hunting and interacting with the forum has been a good distraction

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

[Doctor Mud]

Well I’m about to board a plane back to hot , dry, scorched Australia. It’s been a tough few months losing my father and to top it off a grant that would have paid my wages for four years was rejected. The passing of my father really does put things in perspective though and highlights to me that we should make the most of our time here and try and do what makes us happy. My father had muscular distrophy, which means he was wheelchair bound for years before he passed. I try and remember this when I complain about a sore back or knees after a tough day hauling rocks.

Whether I find something cool or not, I’m out there on my own enjoying nature or hanging out with top blokes like @6ix or @mamlambo