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  1. Too lazy to translate it myself, I just put the finished pdf through the google translator : Fossilien_2023_21052023_E.pdf Some, but not all, formating is lost, though. And its just one page of text besides three pages of pics. No worries about the detailed site map, as we already know, nobody cares about rudists . Here is the link to the original, German version, for our German speaking members : Fossilien_2023_21052023 (pdf, 3.4 MB, personal homepage) Here are the original pics: Have fun ! Franz Bernhard
  2. FranzBernhard

    Plant fossil - please help

    Hello, I have found this plant fossil today in the shoulder of a forest road (Hasibach, Geistthal, Styria, Austria). Its freshly split, last pic is photographed under water. Its from the Campanian Afling-Formation, Gosau-Group of Kainach. Any hint to ID is highly welcome! Note: I can not see any venation with a hand lens. I have also the counterpiece, but its worse. Thank you very much for your help! Franz Bernhard
  3. Hello, what do you thing about this fragmentary specimen? Its from the Upper Cretaceous Afling-Formation of the Gosau-Group of Kainach, Eastern Alps. It was found in an about 1 m thick conglomerate bed with Trochactaeon and hippuritid rudists. It consists of about 1 1/4 whorls, the whorls do not touch, hence "scalariform"(?). The upper "end" of the "tube" has an outer diameter of about 9.5 mm, the lower "end" an outer diameter of about 12 mm. The outer surface appears the be smooth, the shell is about 1 mm thick. Sorry, these are the best pics possible. Here is a link to a pic showing a part of the outcrop in October 2021: Outcrop Reinprechtskogel-63 Many thanks! Franz Bernhard
  4. I would like to share a typical "day off & out" during summer. During summer, I don´t do serious prospecting. Too hot, too green, too much distraction, like blueberries and mushrooms. So, last Sunday (07/03/2022), I mainly explored an area for "fruits" and visited two fossil sites discovered in October 2021. It was hiking-only, no driving between the various "stops". I found lots of blueberries (not fully ripe yet at 900 m asl), but it was much too dry for mushrooms. Nevertheless, I found a few places with a few Cantharellus cibarius: Some of them were even growing on extremely dry tractor paths. In the same general area, I have found two big Boletus edulis in May 31st by pure chance on a tractor path, which was very early in the year, hence my detailed prospecting for mushrooms in this area . Anyways, the goal were the sites 63 and 64, two about 10 years old forest road outcrops north of Reinprechtskogel (977 m asl) in the "Mixed Zone" of the lower Afling-formation in the Santonian-Campanian Gosau-group of Kainach of the Eastern Alps, squares are 2x2 km: Some landscape between the mushrooms and the fossils. That hill in the foreground a little bit right off the center in the first pic is Römaskogel hill (1006 m), the highest hill of the Kainach Gosau, with the rudist zones on its southwestern to northern slopes: Despite being quite densely* populated by dairy farmers, I find the area incredibly lovely and appealing**. Highest mountain in the very background to the right is about 2000 m high. Pics taken at about 900 m asl. *About 200 years ago, there was much less forest and much more (dairy) farm land in this area! **Ten years ago, I didn´t know the area yet and found it most boring geologically, judging from the literature... Site 63 exposes an about 1 m thick conglomerate bed with sparsely distributed Trochactaeon, rudists and some other molluscs, about 3 fossils per square meter are visible. The following pictured fossils were uncovered at 05/31/2022 and are somewhat clean now, scale is 1x1 m: Detail A, two weathered Trochactaeon: Detail B, a Vaccinites, a part of it still sticking in the outcrop: Here are some pics from October 2021, site 63 as found: I worked in slightly loosened parts of the exposure with a screwdriver and found some very "ugly" fossils. The following four pics all show the same specimen. The Trochactaeon is slightly flattened parallel to the bedding plane, the red object is about 11 cm high. Nearly in-situ, note the two already pictured snails at the upper right: Nearly in situ: Recovered and still in the field: Cleaned and at home: Other fossil found, upper valve of a Plagioptychus rudist: And a new one for the site, I don´t know what it is. I am fascinated by these ugly fossils in this coarse-grained conglomerate. Very probably a mix-up of various habitats, transported and deposited in a quite coarse-grained sediment. I would like to share also a polished section from this site again, specimens become a little bit better that way : I dug also a little bit at site 64, just a few tens of meters away from 63, and found again some rudists. Here, they are in a layer of sandstone, and no Trochactaeon have been observed yet. There are no outcrops between sites 63 and 64. The fossil beds could be in continuity, but it could also be a small fault in the small creek between the two sites. The fossil layer is at the red item: I took one specimen, its also not really a beauty . Freshly exposed and still in-situ: Cleaned at home: My recently bought pressure washer made cleaning of all these very dirty specimens easy. Not good, now I might take also big, very dirty specimens... Thanks for reading and looking! Franz Bernhard
  5. Hello, several weeks ago, I presented a rudist recovery "operation" from the Afling-formation of the Gosau-group of Kainach (Upper Cretaceous): Well, the same day I have discovered the rudist zone featured above, I have also discovered a rudist zone about 100-200 m stratigraphically deeper. It is confined to an about 1 m thick, very dark limestone bed rich in various rudist and echinoid remains. The limestone belongs to the Geistthal-formation, considering the limestone is still located within the sequence with some red clastic rocks, suggesting strong terrestrial influence in some layers. The limestone can be traced for at least 500 m along strike; at the footwall, it develops gradually from a conglomerate, in the hangingwall it is sharply overlain by fine-grained sandstone to siltstone. Here is a schematic map of the area, including also the Trochactaeon-bearing zone. In this post, I am dealing here with the "Liegende Rudisten-Zone". 59 = Geistthal-formation; 54 = Afling-formation, squares are 2x2 km. The fossils stick firmly to the limestone. But there are some impure zones (sandy-silty) within the limestone, where, with the help of some weathering, some fossils largely free of matrix can be found. Two zones of this kind are known at the moment, a natural outcrop in the forest and an outcrop at a forest road, which will be presented here. Approaching the outcrop (well, that pic was taken after the dig...): The outcrop was completely overgrown at the beginning, and this was the third day of working at this outcrop. You can see the worked area and the area prepared for today. The red x are markers placed above wooden marker sticks and about 1 m apart from each other. The soft zone between the hard limestone beds is visible. Sorry for the rather poor pics, my scrappy camera had a hard time dealing with that kind of lighting (clear sky and full shadow). Detail of the area to be worked today, still with vegetation: Vegetation cleared, first rudist found, a fragmentary Vaccinites, below the left red x. The pen is 13.7 cm long. Work in progress, "two" Vaccinites discovered. Only after some time I recognized, that this is a bouquet: Work practically finished, another Vaccinites discovered (4963). Turned out to be one of the nicest so far: Beside these Vaccinites, a few Plagioptychus aguilloni were also found in that area. But what to do with the rudist bouquet? Leaving in the outcrop or recover? I decided to recover, because it was already a little bit loose and already broken in several parts. And a one of a kind find until now. Here is the recovery, P.a. denotes a Plagioptychus aguilloni, numbers indicate individual Vaccinites specimens: The recovery ended in 8 fragments. I numbered them to help reassembling them together. This bouquet appears to be in live position, but this can also be by pure chance. Maybe closer examination with give some hints. That´s the outcrops after the work of this day, with the position of the specimens featured above indicated and before their recovery: If you are interested in the other days at this outcrop, have a look at this: 05/22/2021 (link to my homepage, in German, pdf, ca. 2.9 MB) 05/30/2021 (link to my homepage, in German, pdf, ca. 5.8 MB) From this few meters of outcrop, I have recovered ca. 10-15 Vaccinites, 5-10 Plagioptychus aguilloni and several radiolitid rudist until now. A great surprise was one large Trochactaeon snail intermixed with all the rudists (see link to 05/30/2021 above). I don´t take all fossils with me, about half of them I am leaving at the outcrop, so only approximate numbers. In the pavement of the forest road below the outcrop, I have also dug out about 15 Vaccinites specimens. Then there is the outcrop within the forest, which yielded also at least a dozen Vaccinites, still with a lot of potential. And all the other outcrops of the rudists limestone that I have not checked out in detail yet for loose rudists. Also still a lot of potential there and still a lot to do.... Hope, you enjoyed ! Franz Bernhard
  6. Could not resist collecting some more Trochactaeon snails at Breitenbach-11 in Kainach, Styria, Austria last Saturday (10/10/2020). Especially the upper T-bed contains rather well preserved (for the formation, of course ) snails. But always the right amount of weathering is needed (not too much, leads to disintegration of snails; not to less, they will adhere firmly to the rock). Still some potential there. Worked only with a screwdriver, needed only a few very gentle hammer taps. No prepping, just a short brush with a soft tooth brush. For more info about the area, have a look at my previous post: Trochactaeon - Gosau of Kainach, Styria, Austria - Summary Franz Bernhard
  7. From time to time, I would like to post specimens from the Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation in Styria, Austria, in this thread. For the first specimen, I was motivated by this thread: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/91459-is-this-a-rudist-fossil/ So the first specimen is a fragment of a large Vaccinites alpinus, with only two pillars - and not much else. Franz Bernhard
  8. Hello, some local Campanian news again... . First: The rudists from St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria, made into a local journal (pdf, in German): DieRudistenvonStBartholomae_Mineralog_2019.pdf Second: After this nice find at point 25-North from 09/24/2019: Point 25-North - 09/24/2019 I could not resist collecting this site systematically. 18 hours of work in October and November 2019 resulted in more than 100 fossils, which is a very good yield. For details see: Point 25-North - Four weeks (External site, in German, only a few pics). This particular site is far from being exploited... Third: My last trip to this formation two days ago (12/18/2019) was very short and "designed" to bring back lesser specimens, duds, and some cutting rejects to three different sites. However, the trip resulted also in 4 fossils, two of them again from point 25-North: This is the 7th chaetetid-stromatoporoid sponge I have found in this formation, 6 of them came from this spot. I like these fossils more and more! And a rather nice (for this formation ) rudist matrix specimen: The two other fossils found this day were a small Hippurites colliciatus and a colonial coral from point 32; both specimens need to be cut and polished. Thanks for your interest and happy winter/christmas/new year fossil hunting! Franz Bernhard
  9. Waiting for Christkind and(!)/or(??) Santa Claus gives me some time putting together this question: The coral in question comes from the Styrian basin (Weißenegg-formation) and is Langhian/Miocene in age (ca. 15 Ma old). It comes from a very small road outcrop, mainly limestones, north of Heimschuh in the Sausal mountains, southern Styria, Austria. Beside massive, sturdy coral colonies like Montastrea, possibly Favites, etc., another colonial coral occurs in this outcrop, that disintegrates easily into individual sticks or pencils, aka corallites: Outcrop situation, field of view ca. 80 cm. It looks really something strange and unusual. These are individual corallites or they are in the stage of branching; the middle one is about 8 cm high. Sometimes you can retrieve parts of colonies. Remarkable is the large diameter of the corallites, up to 2 cm. With the help of some superglue, it was possible to make some polished slabs of these corals (the matrix is a rather soft marl). Note the highly varying diameter of the corallites and the budding. Especially interesting is the specimen to the lower left. Here, some big (about 2 cm diameter!) polygonal corallites are tightly growing together. But I think, its the same as the other ones. A possible genus that comes to my mind is Acanthastrea. This idea is based on the shear size of the corallites. This genus is know from an outcrop a few km away and also from a similar formation of similar age about 100 km away (Mühlendorf, Burgenland, Austria), the species mentioned/described there is A. horrida. But my idea, that these could be also Acanthastrea could be totally wrong, of course... Thanks for your help and Merry Christmas! Franz Bernhard
  10. FranzBernhard

    400 Million years in 4 hours

    400 Million years in 4 hours The small-scale geology of Austria makes it possible to observe and collect invertebrate marine fossils from a time span of nearly 400 Million years (Ma) within a few hours and at a distance of only about 10 km: - 395 Ma old Devonian (Eifelian) corals - Ölberg - 80 Ma old Cretaceous (Campanian) rudists – St. Bartholomä - 12 Ma old Miocene (Serravallian/Sarmatian) gastropods - Waldhof I did this special hunting trip west of Graz at October 22, 2019 as a "feasibility study". The youngest and oldest fossils can simply be picked from the ground (or photographed); the “middle-agers” require some searching; I succeeded to find a few good specimens within one hour. Weather was perfect with nearly 25°C (!). Simplified geological map of Styria with the visited area west of Graz (red rectangle). Geological map of the visited area (1:50.000), composed of two adjoining map sheets. Red numbers denote visited fossil sites (and their age in Million years). Note the fossil sign in the blue formation in the upper middle of the map. This is the upper Devonian Steinberg-formation with goniatites. These fossils are not abundant, though, so I have never explored this hill… Topo map of the area. Red numbers denote fossil sites, A and B are sites of landscape pics. Just to show off some landscape: View from point “A” in Steinberg towards west. K = Kreuzegg mountain (570 m, Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation) at a distance of ca. 5 km. A = Plateau-like Amering mountain (2187 m, high-grade metamorphic rocks) at a distance of ca. 40 km. View from point “B” at Kreuzegg mountain towards north to southeast. Pano composed of 4 individual pics, spanning about 140°. Labeled mountains and hills in the background are: S = Schöckl (1445 m, Devonian epimetamorphic limestone) at a distance of ca. 20 km. P = Plabutsch mountain (754 m, namesake of the fossil-rich Eifelian Plabutsch-formation) and B = Buchkogel mountain (656 m), both at distance of ca. 10 km and located immediately to the west of Graz. Ölberg and Waldhof sites are between P and B, but not visible. Note the about 1000 m high, largely deforested mountains at the left side of the pano (Mühlberg, Pleschkogel etc., lower Devonian, dolomitic Flösserkogel-formation). The severe deforestation of these hills is due to a strong storm in 2008 (“Paula”). Continued...
  11. Hello, today I had another opportunity to fossil hunt in St. Bartholomä. I tidied mostly up my main dig and collecting site in the quarry at Point 25 east of Kalchberg. As expected, I did not find much, only some small so-so specimens (19 specimens in 3 hours, but the majority would be rejects). However, in the same small quarry, a few meters to the north of the main dig site, "Knödelbrekzie" is also exposed (upper part of lower right pic), with some steep scree below. I have found two good rudists in this scree two years ago. Today, I dug again with bare hands in the scree. First without any success. Sure, every piece was fossiliferous limestone, but even not a rudist fragment among them. But then, only a few minutes before I had to leave, it was there! Just pulled out of the dark hole to the left of the specimen: A slender, slightly bend Vaccinites vesiculosus. The apex is broken off (pillars are visible there) and it is also broken at the top end, but it is quite aesthetic and elegant, that´s at least my thinking . I like it very much! Ok, back to work : This is the main dig site at point 25 as of today, 09/24/2019. There are no longer many clasts of fossiliferous limestone in the scree, mostly sandstone and marl. The orange bucket in the upper left pic contains clasts of fossiliferous limestone, the black bucket waste material (marl and sandstone). Today I have removed 23 buckets (10 Liter) of waste and 3 buckets of fossiliferous limestone from the dig site. Scale bar is 1 m. In the lower left pic, piles of fossiliferous limestone are visible, the waste material is dumped to the left (not visible). In the lower left corner, cutting rejects are deposited. At the right edge of the lower right pic, fragments and partials of rudist are deposited. This was probably my last hunting trip to St. Bartholomä for some time. I would like to do more prospecting and light surface collecting during my next trips. I am not really the born digger, I like prospecting more, but sometimes, I just have to dig . Thanks for looking! Franz Bernhard
  12. Hello, this time, I will start with the end result : I am quite satisfied with the result ! The pillars are nicely preserved and the rudist is filled with sparry, white to orange calcite and contains some voids coated with tiny calcite crystals. The greenish batches consist also of calcite and are also well polished, but are finer grained and contain additionally some small quartz grains. These fillings may be related to the second filling event during redeposition of the rudists in this formation. For more info about that, see here: Some Rudists from St. Bartholomä The right section contains also a blob of fossiliferous limestone. More about the locally heavily bored shell - see below . Before I got this nice result, there was a decision - to cut or not to cut : It is a conical specimen with some ribs preserved and a large, interesting, vertical groove. A large blob of limestone is sitting at the top end of the rudist, but one pillar was also already visible there. Mostly due to the ugly limestone blob, I decided to cut the specimen near the end of the visible shell. The top part (AN4240) does not contain much shell, the section about 6 mm lower (AN4239) does. The vertical groove is a simple inflection of the shell. No clue, what caused it, no remains of any other shell are visible. But it may have been some kind of an obstacle there. The specimen was found in a steep, wooded area east of Kalchberg, at the lower end of an old vertical ditch, possibly a prospect for water. Some pieces of fossiliferous limestone were lying around, somewhat exposed by heavy rains. I dug with bare hands in the soil, and nearly immediately recovered the specimen above from the "rat hole" to the right of the pocket knife (first row): (At the upper left corner of the upper left pic, a rudist is sticking between tree roots. This rudist was already featured here: Rudist hunting (3) in St. Bartholomä) Yesterday, I visited this spot again and pulled out several more pieces of limestone and sandstone from this "rat hole" (about 200 pieces), again only with bare hands (second row). No large Vaccinites was found this time, put a few smaller specimens (third row): upper left: small Vaccinites specimen; upper right: small pseudocolony of Hippurites colliciatus; lower left: Hippurites nabresinensis; lower right: fragment of Vaccinites vesiculosus. Ok, not much to see on this sucking pics, so I will stop now . Thanks for looking, maybe you have at least enjoyed the polished specimen . Happy hunting! Franz Bernhard
  13. First of all: The book about the Coniacian-Santonian corals of Rußbach-Gosau, Austria, by Löser et al. (2019) is printed. It can be ordered at: http://www.korallen-kreide.de/index.html Its a must-have for all people interested in fossil corals! And: The abridged English version is also ready for download there! And now to my first application of this important milestone work: During my searching and digging at point 36 west of Kalchberg, St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria, at 07/04/2019, I found also a piece of limestone with small, regular voids/holes/tubes. After cleaning at home, some axial ripping was visible in a few of the tubes. Good sign!! Could be another phaceloid coral colony! After cutting it was clear: It is!! And it is in some parts rather well preserved, the best specimen of this type so far. According to the work above, it seems to belong to the genus Procladocora. Four species of this genus are described for Rußbach-Gosau: P. gracilis, P. aff. exiguis, P. formosa, P. sp. In some corallites, septal insertion of 6 / 6 / 12 can be observed. The maximum outer diameter of the corallites is about 3 mm. This would place this specimen within the species P. gracilis. But the age is different and the occurrences are geographically about 200 km apart. So it is better to stick to Procladocora sp. Thanks for looking! Franz Bernhard
  14. My hunting at point 25 east of Kalchberg at 05/16/2019 did not yield any good rudist. However, two coral colonies were found. Now I have a total of about 20 from this formation. This one is very small, poorly preserved and has a very, very low contrast (already strongly enhanced). It has some similarities to that one, but only remotely: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/87677-coral-3-from-the-campanian-st-bartholomä-formation-styria-austria-gosau-group-eastern-alps/ Corallites seems to have a diameter of about 1.2 mm. I do not expect any definitive answer , just showing it off . Thanks for your interest! Franz Bernhard
  15. The next two corals from St. Bartholomä... I collected this specimen nearly a year ago. Thought, it has some kind of borings. But I was a little bit confused, because most of the "borings" or tubes have a regular and tight, axial ornamentation. Polished cross sections revealed not much, but a few corallites (A, B, C). One of the tubes at the margin of the specimen shows some "shell" material with ornamentation on both sides (D). The left side is in contact with younger sediment, the right side with fossiliferous limestone. On the surface of the specimen, no shell material was observed within the tubes. Just a few days ago, I recognized a corallite cross section on the surface of the specimen with some fuzzy septa (X). In conclusion, I think, this could be the outer cast of a phaceloid-dendroid coral colony with nearly no "shell" material preserved - just a cast. In the Gosau-group, genera like Procladocora, Cladocora, Calamophylliopsis look somewhat similar. Thanks for your interest and opinion! Franz Bernhard
  16. This time a really odd ball from St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria (West of Kalchberg, point 36). Collected 04/09/2019. Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation, Gosau group, Eastern Alps. The specimen was very dirty, thought it is just a round and smooth limestone piece, but haven´t found such a smooth piece there before, so I took it with me. After cleaning (but without any prep) and inspecting with a hand lens, I discovered, that the subglobular specimen of about 7 cm in size is covered over and over with tiny polygons, about 0.1-0.2 mm in size. So it is a fossil! But what? It seems to have two natural openings, a larger on (pic A) and a smaller one (pic B), with polygons all over the rims and also inside the rim of the opening (pic F). At the lower right corner of pic F you can see, that the polygons are in reality prismatic structures. Polygons are also covering large parts of the inside of the two openings. The prismatic structures can also be seen in some dimples caused by pressure solution. Any hints and suggestions are welcome! Many thanks! Franz Bernhard
  17. Hello! Another colonial coral from St. Bartholomä. Contrast is poor and that´s the best I can to with my scrappy scrap. I think, I have not found such a coral before in this formation. And its the second largest colony I have found so far there. My guess is, that it could be Astraeofungia (g, h) or Dimorphastrea (a, b), all pics from Löser et al. (2015). But I am very probably wrong... Thank you very much for your help! Franz Bernhard
  18. Fossil hunting in the Santonian - lower Campanian Geistthal-formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach, Eastern Alps (Styria, Austria) As a whole, the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä is not very fossiliferous. In contrast to the St. Bartholomä-formation with its rudists etc., the other, much more extensive formations, especially the very extensive, somewhat tubititic Afling-formation, are generally very poor in fossils. Some are known, eg. ammonites, but their occurrences are rather elusive. One exception - or at least in part - are Trochactaeon snails. They are known since the beginning of geological documentation of the area (around 1850), but only as loose pieces. It took until about the 1960ies for the first finds of this snails in outcrops. However, only a few sentences were (repeatedly) published since then, only a list of the species is given (without any description), and also no detailed description of the occurrences and their exact locations. That´s the sad side. The good side is: There is at least one (permanent) occurrence of this snails in an outcrop at a major road! This occurrence is at the red X... Part of Geofast-map (left, squares are 2x2 km) and geological overview from Ebner (2000) (right). There seems to be not much correspondence between these maps. For orientation, see village Geistthal in upper part of both maps. ...and it is featured in an excursion guide from 2015 (from Hubmann & Gross, 2015): The snails are located in the upper part of the Geistthal-formation, a succession of gray conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones with very occasional thin coal layers and thin beds of calcareous onkoids. The lower part of the Geistthal-formation is a coarse-grained, red conglomerate; its the basal formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach. I have visited this outcrop in December 2015, and yes, the snails are still there.
  19. Chonetid impressions in slate (“Chonetenschiefer”) from the Plabutsch-formation, Palaeozoic of Graz, Styria, Austria (Devonian – Eifelian) The classic occurrence at Gaisbergsattel, west of Graz The Eifelian Plabutsch-formation – mostly fossiliferous limestones – of the Palaeozoic of Graz, Styria, Austria, contains locally beds of slates of various colors. Some of these beds contain abundant limonitic imprints of brachiopods and bivalves (“Chonetenschiefer”). The locality first mentioned in the literature (1871) is that at Gaisbergsattel west of Graz: Austrian map with "classic" occurrence of “Chonetenschiefer” at Gaisbergsattel (red x). Part of geological map of Kuntschnig (1937) with “Chonetenschiefer” between the two red x east of Gaisbergsattel. Here, the slate layer is up to 2 m thick, grey like mice and splits easily in flat pieces (Hanselmayer, 1957). The fauna was first listed in Heritsch (1935): Chonetes subquadrata Chonetes sarcinulata Chonetes oblonga Chonetes nova species (most abundant!) Spirifer aculeatus Pterinea fasciculata Pterinea cf. bifida Pterinea cf. costata More than 10 years ago, my first attempt looking for these rocks was not successful. A few days ago (03/29/2019), however, I stumbled over this rock by pure serendipity. A small piece of it was lying on a rather busy hiking trail (“Mariazeller Weg 06”) east of Gaisbergsattel. Relief map with my first find of “Chonetenschiefer” at the hiking trail (red x) and supposed outcrop area of this rock after the geologic map of Kuntschnig (1937). Hiking trail “Mariazeller Weg 06”, where I found my first specimen. Pic from 04/01/2019. I was able to split the rock with my fingernail – and there they were, the limonitic brachiopod imprints! A faint radial ripping is visible. No other specimen was found on the trail. Now I looked closely at the geologic map, the text of Hanselmayer (1957), and the relief map and decided to explore the area around the red line (see above), where the outcrop of this rock is supposed to be. It’s a forested area with dense undergrowth, among the undergrowth many spiky blackberry bushes… No outcrop was found, but fallen trees have exposed some rock fragments: Abundant limestones, light brownish slates and, yes, some grey slate, mostly small pieces. I split only the largest of them – and again some brachiopod imprints were found...
  20. Supplementing the post in “Fossil Hunting Trips” about the Devonian Plabutsch-formation in Styria, Austria (with some background info): http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/90431-some-fossil-hunting-in-the-plabutsch-formation-of-the-palaeozoic-of-graz-styria-austria-devonian-–-eifelian/ I would like to post some more fossil specimens in this thread. More specimens will follow from time to time (hopefully). The first two specimens contain abundant branches of the tabulate coral Striatopora? suessi. Field pics of these specimens are already posted in the hunting trip, but here you can see also their side views, showing the alingment of the individual coral branches. (I don´t know why pics don´t look good here, but if you are zooming in, they are ok).
  21. Hello, here is the next coral colony from the Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation in Styria, Austria (Gosau-group), collected 02/10/2019, west of Kalchberg, point 36. This coral colony is intergrown with limestone. There is a naturally weathered cross section and naturally weathered vertical section (but not much to see there). I have cut and polished one end and preservation seems to be not too bad. However, as usual, am rather clueless. I think, it has external pali, so it could belong to Hydnophoropsis? Many thanks for your help! Franz Bernhard
  22. Very small outcrops northwest of Graz are perhaps the richest site of Silurian fossils in Styria. There may be other sites with somewhat older macrofossils in Styria, but not as rich. The outcrops are part of the Palaeozoic of Graz, a thrust sheet within the Eastern Alps, composed or Silurian to Pennsylvanian sediments. It consists of three separate nappes, the outcrop and fossils presented here belong to the Eggenfeld-member of the Kötschberg-formation within the Rannach nappe. Geological map of Styria with the Palaeozoic of Graz situated north of Graz. The red X is the location of the fossil site. Geological and structural map of the Palaeozoic of Graz. Note that the colors of the Rannach facies and Hochlantsch facies have been accidentally interchanged, the red X is the location of the fossil site. From Gasser et al. (2009). Stratigraphy and facies distribution of the Palaeozoic of Graz. Kötschberg-formation is Nr. 10 (red X), thicknesses of formations are not to scale. From Gasser et al. (2009). The age of the Eggenfeld-member is, based on conodont data, upper Silurian (Ludlow, Pridoli) to lowermost Devonian (Lochkovian). What´s special about this site is the abundance of orthocerids in some only a few dm thick layers of grey to brown dolomite and dolomitic limestone that are intercalated with tuffitic rocks. And also somewhat special is the number of papers dealing with these very small and poor outcrops. The occurrence of orthocerids is known since the 1950ies, a good up-to-date (2010) summary is this paper, it mentions 16(!) nautiloid taxa, most of them orthocerids. Its in English and includes pics of fossils and a stratigraphic section: GPZ_Eggenfeld_Histon_2010.pdf These are the seven nautiloid genera figured in this paper, no species assignment was made.
  23. FranzBernhard

    Vitta picta (Férussac, 1823)

    Second photo: About 50 individuals of the snail Vitta picta in different states of weathering, but most of them are still glossy and show their color patterns. The gloss is natural, no coating or something else applied, only washed. The color pattern is strongly variable between individuals. Note that also the outline is quite variable, which is typical for this species. Field of view is 40 mm, largest gastropod is about 6 mm high, so this snails are really small. This is a "multi-genus-species" and was/is assigned also to the following genera: Theodoxus, Agapilia, Clithon, Nerita, Neritina. According to Fossilworks, this species was an epifaunal omnivore-grazer and went extinct 12.7 million years ago. First photo is perhaps the largest and one of the best preserved gastropods of this lot in two views. Height is about 6 mm. It is not perfectly preserved; some parts of the outer shell layer, and hence the color pattern, is missing in the right view. Some parts of the shell along the aperture on the right side are also missing. Outline is quite typical, somewhere in the middle between nearly globular and somewhat cylindrical with a constriction in the middle. Exact locality is Höllerkogel-21 in my own documentation. This relatively large outcrop contains predominately the mud snail, Granulolabium bicinctum, and V. picta. Unfortunatelly, most of the shells are strongly weathered or even completely dissolved. Höllerkogel-21 is about 5 m stratigraphically higher then Höllerkogel-18 and located just upslope of Höllerkogel-18. The sediments in the area belong to the "Florianer Schichten", which are part of the western Styrian basin at the eastern margin of the Alps. The "Florianer Schichten" are about 15 Ma old (Langhian, or "Badenian" in Paratethys stratigraphic terms). x
  24. FranzBernhard

    Xenophora deshayesi (Michelotti, 1847)

    Carrier shell Xenophora deshayesi. This gastropod was a shell collector, having one of his collected items still attached (an olive snail, Olivella clavula (Lamarck, 1810)). The locations of the other shells or shell fragments are still visible. The specimen was found in two pieces and then glued back together Shell collector? A friend found another one in this outcrop that collected only small quartz pebbles - obviously a mineral collector! Exact locality is Höllerkogel-18 in my own documentation. It is a tiny outcrop (about 1-2 square meters) in a densely wooded, very steep area southwest of St. Josef, Styria, Austria. This small outcrop, composed of a medium grained, quartz-rich, somewhat limonitic sand yielded, from November 2016 to May 2018, at least 80 species of gastropods and bivalves; it is far from exhausted. Most of the fossils are characterized by a partial limonitic staining and usually very good preservation. The species X. deshayesi is not common there, but fragments are not very rare either. The sediments in the area belong to the "Florianer Schichten", which are part of the western Styrian basin at the eastern margin of the Alps. The "Florianer Schichten" are about 15 Ma old (Langhian, or "Badenian" in Paratethys stratigraphic terms).
  25. FranzBernhard

    Hippurites nabresinensis Futterer 1893

    Apical view of a polished cross section of the right (lower) valve of Hippurites nabresinensis from the St. Bartholomä-Formation of the Gosau basin of Kainach - St. Bartholomä in western Styria, Austria. This species has no L-pillar, the P1-pillar is at ca. 3:00, the P2-pillar at ca. 5:00. The hump at ca. 8:00 is a growth anomaly. At ca. 11:00 and 1:00, the position of both teeth sockets is visible (a hypothetical L-pillar would be between them, see the specimen of H. colliciatus), at ca. 2:00 the position of the posterior muscle. At the upper left, it is intergrown with the fragment of another individual of the same (?) species. For specimens like this, the name H. heritschi was also in use. The specimen is from a large mound of stones, which were removed from the fields during many, many decades. This mound located in the southwerstern part of Kalchberg, southwest of St. Bartholomä (Point 36 in my own documentation).
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