jkfoam Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 A while back a TFF buddy brought me about 25 lbs of matrix from a Texas Eocene, Cook Mountain Formation, Houston location. I recently finished preping and recovering the fossil material from about 10 lbs of the matrix. It yielded about a pint or less of fossils and fossil debris material. I take about a 1/4 teaspoon of material at a time and examine it under a binocular microscope and pick out the fossils to segregate and keep. After 12-14 hours of scope time I finished this batch. Several days ago I was getting pretty bored when in a 10 minute period I came across 3 fossil snails I consider outstanding because of their rarity, preservation, and beauty. The first of these snails is Murex vanuxemi silvaticus Palmer. It is about 4-5 mm in height This next snail is Trigonostoma panones juniperum (Harris). It is about 11mm in height. This last snail is as yet unidentified by me. It may be undescribed or more probably it is just unrecognized by me in the literature. If anyone does recognize it I would appreciate the ID help. It is about 9 mm in height. In the next few days I hope to post a photo record of my micro fossil prep procedure that uses Varsol or mineral spirits. I also intend to prep a batch of matrix using hydrogen peroxide and compare the two procedures JKFoam The Eocene is my favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Lovely little shells Your comparison of the processes gives me something more to look forward to. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 That Murex is very nice. The microfossils I have seen from there (and found myself) are amazing. I have to wonder if I have any of those in the matrix that I still have to go through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Very nice fossils and photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 It must so rewarding to find these prized gems hidden in the matrix.... nice finds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfsxdth Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 (edited) Beautiful stuff... I am preparing to do a post on similarly sized fossils... late Cretaceous microverts. I am a big fan of little small fossils. They have a certain beauty not found in big things. Edited May 4, 2011 by jpc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 wow! Those are very ornamented for such tiny guys! I find some here too (Mississippian age)that are only 1mm, there not ornamented though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 You've certainly found a specialized niche, JKF...hurts my neck just thinking about all that hunched over squintin' and pickin'..... Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazeXploder Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 If you like tiny little shell fossils, go to the jurassic coast. There are areas (In Stonebarrow Beach in Charmouth, is good for them) where they are plentiful. I can never take them home due to their small size and ease to be lost. Fossily99: what even is earth? xonenine: Its a good place to collect fossils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Hi Jim I would really like to hear your comparison results. Is there any affect with mineral spirits on larger shells? Mike "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkfoam Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 Hi Jim I would really like to hear your comparison results. Is there any affect with mineral spirits on larger shells? Mike Mike, I have never seen any adverse effect of the mineral spirits on the larger shells. Remember that after the soak in mineral spirits the oil is drained away and then hot, near boiling water is poured on the fossil matrix mass. This hot water and subsequent water wash while sieving the mass pretty well removes the mineral spirits. JKFoam The Eocene is my favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkfoam Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 That Murex is very nice. The microfossils I have seen from there (and found myself) are amazing. I have to wonder if I have any of those in the matrix that I still have to go through. Mike D. If you have matrix material from the Cook Mountain or Stone City Formations you can bet there are some little beauties in there somewhere. They may not be the same ones I showed here but there will be some nice ones. Some of the best microfossils I have found were recovered from the debris taken from the inside of the larger fossil snails I was cleaning. I guess they were protected from the wear of the wave action. JKFoam The Eocene is my favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acryzona Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 JKFoam, Very nice finds. Any forams or ostracods in the sample? Looking forward to your photos of the processing step. I'm always looking to learn different ways to breakdown a sample. Acryzona Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 The preservation is great on those babies, Jim. I can't wait to see what you find in the next batch. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest N.AL.hunter Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Very nice fossils and pictures. As a collector who really likes the shells, I am glad you posted these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Jim, Those are lovely fossils. There's something exquisite about finding magnificent detail in small things. I've also spent the last few days doing a similar task: I've been rinsing, screening, and sorting through a bucket of matrix that I brought back from Whiskey Bridge last Sunday. This is the first time I've tried this; naively (I suppose), I simply used water for rinsing, which seems only moderately effective in dissolving the matrix. Like others, I'll be interested in hearing your evaluation of your various preparation procedures. I hope to post pictures of some of my little finds in the next day or two. (There's some problems I need to conquer first; photography at that scale is a challenge!) Thanks for sharing your microfossils! Earl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkfoam Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 The last one appears to be from the Epitoniidae family. Link: http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/Family_EPITONIIDAE.shtml Metopocetus, Yes, I definitely think the family is Epitoniidae. Right now I think it may be Cirostrema (Coroniscala) newtonensis (Meyer and Aldrich) or Acirsa (Hemiacirsa) whitneyi Palmer or Acirsa (Hemiacirsa) gracilior (Meyer). My problem is that the illustrations and descriptions in the literature references are not that clear. Plus the fact that I'm not a Biologist and I'm 50+ years out of a college Zoology class. I may just have to label it only to family but I'd rather get it ID'd all the way. JKFoam The Eocene is my favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Marvelous shells ! I have a shell like your 2nd one, but I don't remember drom which deposit it comes. I note the name of yours to compare. I often heard that the small fossils found in the bigger ones are good quality, because they are protected from the wear of the sea. Coco ---------------------- OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici Un Greg... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkfoam Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 JKFoam, Very nice finds. Any forams or ostracods in the sample? Looking forward to your photos of the processing step. I'm always looking to learn different ways to breakdown a sample. Acryzona Acryzona, For some odd reason this batch of glauconitic marl yielded almost no ostracods or forams. Generally the marine units of the Cook Mountain Formation has quite afew forams and ostracods. I was sieving through a 25 mesh sieve so I should have retained at leat some of the forams. JKFoam The Eocene is my favorite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Acryzona, For some odd reason this batch of glauconitic marl yielded almost no ostracods or forams. Generally the marine units of the Cook Mountain Formation has quite afew forams and ostracods. I was sieving through a 25 mesh sieve so I should have retained at leat some of the forams. JKFoam 25 mesh is approx 559 microns.... ostracods may be in the next fraction below..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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