Search the Community

While on a trip in NYC, I thought it would be fun to visit Old Granton Quarry as it was close to where I was staying. In the first day, I found some nice material so I returned for another ~2 hrs on the last day of the trip. Day one was in the afternoon, cloudy but without rain. Nice conditions, and I stayed exactly 2 hours. I was fortunate to visit near Christmas, and there was little vegetation to cover the cliff-face and obscure it from view. Also there was, thankfully, no poison ivy growing. On day two, I started out early, before dawn at ~06:45. It rained slightly, and throughout the dig the cliff reminded me it was there by little bits of rock falling past my head. I found a cute little Plethodon cinereus in the cliff, before dawn, that was a bit shy. Here are the finds! Dorsal fin and some scales Partial Diplurus newarki body - caudal and anal fins - and a few ribs. Skull, and dorsal fin imprint of Diplurus newarki. Concretion/nodule - possibly coprolitic in nature Diplurus newarki - disarticulated ribs, caudal, and possible skull. Diplurus fins and scales Diplurus caudal fin imprints. Disarticulated bones/fins/scales. Diplurus caudal fin Estheria ovata Diplurus ribs Estheria ovata imprints and disarticulated bones/scales. Partial skull and ribs of Diplurus. (Possible ray finned fish scales.) Diplurus 1st dorsal fin Possible skull, or coprolitic material. Concretion nodule imprint: Probably coprolite/concretion/nodule. Could be some bone in there, as well. Diplurus caudals, scales. Possible Diplurus scales Possible Diplurus skull, and scales/disarticulated bones.

Fossildude19, JefferyP, fossilsofnj and I went to Granton Quarry in North Bergen NJ to collect in the Lockatong Fm for Triassic fish. We had a great time and we all found some interesting specimens to add to our collections While the others were hard at work I came across a rather interesting flatten oval shaped sediment between two layers of the black shale in a small area I was working and at first I really didn't pay to much attention to it until one of them broke apart and I noticed that they seemed to be filled with tiny fish bones. I took the sections of slabs home and two days later took them to the NJSM to have someone look at them and one gentlemen told me that they maybe coprolites....interesting. As I was cleaning them up one of the other oval's flaked off exposing a fish tail and I was also able to expose another one without breaking apart. As you can see the two right section of slabs go on top of each other and the one to the far left slides into the middle slab. No 1 you can see a fish tale and No 1a was laying right next to it but don't seem to be a extension to the tail section when I slit this section apart in the field No 1a became exposed while No 1 remained intact until I got it home... No 1b are the pieces that cover No 1 and No 2 I also exposed without it breaking apart I'm going to leave these as is and when it dries out I will cover it with some type of stabilizer. In the second picture I have another fish that don't have the head attached. When I exposed it ,,it did appear to have the same matrix covering the specimen. Now the funny part about all this is that I never had come across this before while search for fish in this layer. Any Insight would be greatly appreciated.

Recently hunting in one of my Lockatong formation locations I came upon this little piece. I thought some may be interested to see something, I believe, quite uncommon. I'm reasonably sure it is "the growth tip" of an Equisetites rogersi. I find quite a bit of Equisetite material in this location including transverse nodal sections but the "tip" is new to me. I've not seen an image of one in all my documention. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Specimen is roughly 1.75 inches in diameter. Enjoy. Again, upper Lockatong formation, late Triassic, Montgomery county PA. John Yank