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Saved for Science, for 22 years!
Auspex posted a topic in Partners in Paleontology - Member Contributions to Science
A great example of the value of private collectors! A rare 200 million-year-old ichthyosaur specimen has been discovered in a private collection 22 years after it was originally found.- 6 replies
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Cheek tooth from the theridomyid rodent Isoptychus sp. Collected through screen washing of matrix from the 'White Band' a shallow freshwater lacustrine horizon.
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I bought these online, and the only info they had was that they were found in the south of the UK. I'll post the ones i'm unsure about on his thread and hopefully some people can point me in the right direction. Firstly, whale Bone?
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Found this cheeky Ammonite last week, well worn but potential on one side, gave it a tap or two and here we have it, first I thought was the centre of a Phylloceras but I'm not convinced looking at it, Yorkshire coast find, cheers.
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Hi all, I’m completely stumped by this. I found this on the foreshore of Holland on Sea, Essex near Clacton on Sea. The area is associated with London Clay deposits which usually throw out striatolamia and Otodus teeth. There is also Red Crag which throws out bivalves. Then again there are glacial deposits that have thrown out mammoth remains. Later still there is the Clacton spear and Clactonian assemblage of tools claimed to be evidence of the first hominid in the UK. So what is this? It has the “feel” of stone / pebble. It doesn’t “feel” or “look” recent but of course that means nothing. I’ve seen nothing like this from this area before although it resembles a herbivore tooth I have seen before so please.....help!
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From the album: Lias Ammonites
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Hi, I've recently fully processed some matrix from the Lower Hamstead Mbr. that I collected back in November, and I thought I'd share some of my finds in a similar way to my Bembridge Marls Mbr. material. The matrix originates from a 'shelly' horizon in the Lower Hamstead Mbr. and was collected from fallen blocks at the base of a low cliff exposure at Bouldnor Cliff. The Lower Hamstead Mbr. overlays the late Eocene Bembridge Marls and dates from the very earliest Oligocene epoch, approximately 33.75 - 33.5 million years ago. To put the finds into an environmental context the Lower Hamstead Mbr. was deposited during a period of rapid global cooling and drop in sea levels associated with the onset of antarctic glaciation (Oi-1). The cooling and eustatic change had begun in the late Eocene, with the palaeo-environments of the Bembridge Marls becoming increasingly terrestrial towards the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. By the Lower Hamstead Member the southern Hampshire Basin was a low lying coastal plain with extensive wetlands, lakes, ponds and sluggish rivers flowing south east towards the early channel (at this time the channel was more a large embayment with only occasional connection to the North Sea). The dense sub-tropical forests of the late Eocene had disappeared and the landscape was dominated by open woodlands of pine, sequoia, and oak. The environment was much cooler and annual rainfall had significantly dropped since the Eocene, although temperatures would begin to rise again further into the rupelian and Hamstead Mbrs. The basin was surrounded by areas of chalk upland (still existing today) with forests of sequoia and broadleaf species. This dramatic climate change is likely what triggered the Grande Coupure, in which endemic Eocene mammals like the palaeotheres disappeared and were replaced with Asian groups such as carnivorans, rhinocerotids, anthracotheres, and a variety of other artiodactyls. The mammals of the dense tropical Eocene forests simply couldn't adapt fast enough to the new open environments of the Oligocene and ultimately failed to compete against the better adapted migrants. By the Upper Hamstead Member the mammals on the Hampshire Basin coastal plain are almost entirely of Asian origin. Therefore the micro-vertebrates lived in an environment of large scale climatic and ecological change, which I think adds another level of interest to collecting from this member of the Bouldnor Fm. The material I've collected so far is a lot more varied than the Bembridge Marls, but overall is less abundant. So far it's produced at least 3 fish taxa, 2 mammals, and an indeterminate piece of jaw which may be reptilian or mammal. 1. A skull element from a Bowfin (Amia sp.), these fish are very common in most horizons of the Bouldnor Fm. 2. A vertebra from a Bowfin (Amia sp.) 3. A damaged lateral scute from a Sturgeon (Acipenser sp.) showing the transition to a freshwater environment 4. An indeterminate piece of a tiny jaw, may be crocodilian although I'm not sure. 5. The nicest find of the lot, a lower incisor from the theridomyid rodent Isoptychus (ID'd by Jerry hooker from the NHM). These rodents looked similar to modern kangaroo rats, hopping along the ground on large rear legs. Bite marks on Isoptychus bones collected from Thorness Bay suggest that they were common prey for the bear-dog Cynodictis. 6. Finally 2 images of an unidentified mammal tooth. I'm unsure as to whether this is part of the tooth or the entire crown, but it doesn't appear to be from a rodent. Hope you all enjoyed the finds, Theo
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Hi, I headed out for a full day of collecting at Hamstead on Saturday, and thought I'd share how it went. I reached the beach at Hamstead Duver around 9am and began searching the foreshore. The finds on this part of the coast are washed round by longshore drift, but it can be a productive section. This was definitely the case on Saturday, within the first 20 odd metres I picked up various pieces of trionychid carapace, Emys fragments, and the worn trochlea of an anthracothere humerus. I continued west along the coast before reaching the slipway (a disused boat launching ramp, apparently used by the US military in preparation for the Normandy Landings) the point where Hamstead Cliffs begin. Having not been able to visit in nearly a month, and after weeks of pretty violent storms over Christmas and the New Year, the coast at Hamstead Ledge has now completely changed. Most of the sand and gravel has been taken off the beach leaving large exposed areas of Bembridge Marls strata on the foreshore. The junction bed between the underlying Bembridge Limestone and Bembridge Marls is also now visible (usually obscured by sand and gravel). The Bembridge Limestone Fm. lays beneath the Bouldnor Fm. and was laid down in a series of large carbonate lakes on a heavily forested sub-tropical coastal plain stretching across what is now the northern Island. At 34.0 million years ago rising sea levels flooded the plain and the estuary/lagoons of the lower Bembridge Marls were deposited, which can be observed in the low cliff face. (A small normal fault can be seen in the Bembridge Marls highlighted in yellow, additionally the 'thin white horizon' is the western limits of the famous Insect Limestone. However it is un-lithified and does not produce insects at this locality) The largest change however was an enormous landslide just west of the ledge in the high cliff face. As well as several smaller falls and slips, this slip has littered the beach with clay debris and small trees. It's on the site of a large mudflow from last winter, I reckon the heavy rain saturated the already weakened area and triggered a large scale failure of the cliff face. I checked through the debris (and the exposed strata) and found some very nice pieces, including a huge piece of trionychid hypoplastron (the largest turtle piece I've ever found), a fragment of alligator jaw, a large fish vertebra, and two large baso-occipital bones from Bowfins (Amia sp.). As the beach was covered with clay blocks the foreshore wasn't very productive for ex-situ finds. As the tide dropped I moved further west towards Cranmore and beach conditions returned to normal with shingle, sand, and gravel, and a nice variety of finds. The best finds were a couple of anthracothere teeth, including a very nice canine. Coprolites were also very common as usual, most, if not all, are likely crocodilian. Further west there are exposures of the Upper Hamstead Member on the foreshore which if you're lucky turn up in-situ finds. The Upper Hamstead Member dates from approximately 33.2 - 32.4 million years ago. This time I was in luck, I spotted a large bone fragment and a piece of Emys weathering out of the clay. I checked the areas adjacent in case there was anymore associated material but unfortunately not. The bone fragment appears to be a rib. I reached Cranmore and collected some matrix for micro-sieving from the cliff face, and after collecting a few more bone fragments and coprolites, and with the tide now rising I called it a day and headed up to the main road. Overall it was a good collecting trip, with some good finds. Hopefully as the winter goes on the landslide debris is eroded away and some nice vertebrate remains are produced. Hope this was interesting, Theo 1. Huge piece of trionychid hypoplastron 2. 'Interior' view of the hypoplastron
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Hello all Around April, May I'm going to the UK for a couple of days with my parents. They will visit some villages, while I'll be fossil hunting on the beach. I've done some research on the internet and thefossilforum, but sometimes the messages I get are contradictory. So I have some questions. -Is it allowed to search fossils in Lyme Regis and Charmouth with a hamer? I know you can't hack in the cliffs. -Is April and May a good period to search for fossils? -I have some serious problems with my eyes and it's very difficult for me to find loose fossils lying on the beach. Are there nice finds in the rocks? I can see those a whole lot better. -If you find an ichthyosaur or a big ammonite (I don't expect to find any) are you allowed to take them with you home? -Does anyone of you know if a good place to stay in Lyme Regis or Charmouth? I found a lot of places and now I don't know which one I have to choose. Our dog is going with us. -Any more tips? Thanks already Greetings Thijs
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I think one is a rib, but i'm not sure about the other bits, cheers.
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Hi, I thought I'd share some of my finds from what was a pretty good trip up to Bouldnor Cliff on Tuesday morning. This was my first collecting trip in over a month due to tides, being ill over Christmas and being generally busy, so I missed out on most of December. But hopefully I can start getting back into going twice a week again as usual. Low tide was at 09:48 so I decided to head for Bouldnor instead of Hamstead, as it's a lot easier to quickly access. My hope was that the prolonged stormy weather we've had for a couple of weeks now would have brought up some nice finds, and I wasn't disappointed. Walking along the shingle I quickly spotted a worn mammal vertebra sticking out of the sand, then a couple of metres away in an area of mud was the distal end of an anthracothere humerus. Pieces like these can be pretty rare finds so I was really pleased with them. They both seem likely to be from Bothriodon based off their larger size. Moving further along the coast the productivity dropped and the finds were the usual fish vertebrae, alligator scutes, and Emys fragments punctuated by the occasional piece of rolled bone. I checked the surface of the log bed and any shelly horizon for bones or teeth that may be weathering out, but unfortunately no luck there. An interesting sight though was the log bed's huge tree trunks. Usually obscured by sand the log bed marks the boundary between the Upper and Lower Hamstead Members. It correlates with a eustatic lowstand attributed to the onset of antarctic glaciation and rapid global cooling. Around this bed is where the mammal fauna at Bouldnor passes through the famous Grande Coupure, marking the extinction of earlier endemic Eocene mammals like palaeotheres and anoplotheres, who are replaced with rhinocerotids, carnivorans, and a wide range of artiodactyls and rodents, including entelodonts and anthracotheres. The log bed represents a large log jam in fluvial swampy conditions, intermixed with the trees were the carcasses of mammals (a nearly intact Anoplotherium skeleton eroded out of the bed between the 1960's and 2002). Large tree trunks of pines and redwoods can be seen weathering out on the foreshore, and look pretty impressive. There's a long hiatus after the log bed, before the deposition of the Upper Hamstead Member above. Having passed the log bed, productivity picked up again and within the space of around 20 metres I made some pretty nice finds, including teeth from Bothriodont anthacotheres, an alligator tooth, a large section of trionychid costal plate, alligator jaw fragments, and a large cervical vertebra from an alligator (Diplocynodon sp.). Despite missing the neural arch and cervical ribs on one side the vertebra is quite well preserved and unworn, and is definitely one of the best bones I've collected from the Bouldnor Fm. I walked on a bit further towards Cranmore but decided to turn back as the tide has begun to turn. Overall, it was a great trip with some really nice finds. I'm planning on heading up to Hamstead for a full day of collecting on Saturday so I'll post on how that trip goes. Thank you, Theo 1. Worn Bothriodon vertebra 2. Distal anthracothere humerus, most likely Bothriodon 3. Diplocynodon cervical vertebra 4. Front view of the Diplocynodon vertebra
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This small crocodilian fossil was collected on the beach at Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It comes from the Bouldnor Formation and is about 33 million years old. I'm certain it is crocodilian (from the small aligatorid Diplocynodon) based on the distinctive pitted texture. Scutes and vertebrae from this small croc are fairly common finds on this coastline. However this particular piece has stumped me, it is 3D and hollow on the inside, not like any scute i've picked up. I was thinking it must be some sort of skull element but i'd appreciate any help to rectify this! It measures 4 cm long.
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Hello all! I'm wondering, if there are any fossil sites in the UK with fossil shark teeth. I know in UK there are tons of places with ammonites, but what about shark teeth? As long as it's shark teeth, I want to find it. But if there's megalodon teeth in UK, I'd spend days looking for one. Any ideas where to find shark teeth in UK? Thanks for all replies!
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New years day... fossil hunting as you do... found some really nice Ammonites and the other half found this bone concretion, thought it was the usual fish bone concretion but once open realised it wasn't and I should have treated it a bit more gently the bone seems to be horizontal at one end and vertical the other like it twists, any ideas ? Thanks.
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Hi, I found this at Runswick Bay earlier today. I found a few other bona-fide fossils, but I wasn't entirely sure what this is. Bone... or just rock/pyrite? I was intrigued enough to not leave it! Thanks, Mark
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Found this pyrite concretion, looked like a crushed section at first, tapped it and exposed a nice Ammonite, got it home and wanted to expose more, must have had a hairline crack as ended up in half straight away (not intended) but... revealed a larger Ammonite inside which was now in half glued back together and will prep at a later date, wanted to show and check if Harpoceras, thanks.
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Hi all, I recently found this massive bowling ball sized rock at Saltwick Bay near Whitby on the Yorkshire coast (Northern England). It is lower to middle Jurassic, i think about 180-170 million years old (possibly the Whitby Mudstone Formation). As you can see it it's full of various bones, which occur on almost all sides of the rock so they are probably running right through it. Prep for this one is going to be a nightmare i can tell and i don't have the right tools, but for now i really just want to try and figure out what i've got. I think it's fair to assume the bones are associated. The options for this bit of coast are fish (Gyrosteus), ichthyosaur, marine crocodile, plesiosaur or dinosaur. I was hoping based on the cross sectional shapes of some of the bones, and the texture of the bone itself, someone would be able to narrow down what it might be. Fish or reptile would be the first thing to determine. My obvious first assumption was marine reptile, but some of the fish on the Yorkshire coast like Gyrosteus are also huge (5m long) and i'm not very familiar with their bone structure. In this picture, i thought the rectangular bone towards the bottom might be a vertebra in cross-section. If so, from what? Could it be the edge of an ichthyosaur vertebra before it dips down in the centre? This bone is the biggest in the block, about 8 cm long and 3 cm thick. Continued in the next post!
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Out hunting today on Yorkshire coast, found this big chunk, tapped side off and noticed was bone, used to finding imprints of bones but not 3d chunks like this, possible large Plesiosaur ? Thanks.
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Hi, sat having my coffee and browsing my fossil candle tray and noticed some little oddities on a belemnite, any ideas ? Not seen these before, possible feeders ? Cheers.
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Port Mulgrave find, looks unusual, any ideas ? Thanks.
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Collected recently from Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight. It is about 33 million years old (earliest Oligocene). Fossils of turtles, a small alligatorid (Diplocynodon) and land mammals (most commonly anthracotheres) are the usual finds. This is the first ungual i have ever found from this location, and i am having trouble finding images of other examples to compare with. It measures 18mm long. I first thought crocodile when i collected it, but i would like other opinions. I'm now tossing up between mammalian and crocodilian. I understand going further than that will probably not be possible. Cheers!
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Hi, I thought I'd show some of my first micro-vertebrate fossils from the Bembridge Marls Mbr. of the Bouldnor Fm. I collected around 2kg of matrix from one of the 'shelly' estuarine horizons in the lower part of the member at Hamstead Ledge, and am really pleased the results so far! The Bembridge Marls form the basal member of the Bouldnor Fm. and were deposited between 34.0 and 33.75 million years representing the final 250,000 years of the Eocene epoch. The depositional environment varies throughout the member and many beds are laterally discontinuous (like the Insect Bed, which produces finely preserved insects, feathers, leaves, and lizard skin impressions). Generally however, the Bembridge Marls were laid down in a sluggish lagoonal/estuarine environment with areas of wetland and adjacent sub-tropical/tropical forests, in the southern regions of the Hampshire Basin. To the south were forested chalk uplands that are now the downs of the Isle Of Wight. There was also some fluvial influence from rivers flowing from the west, draining the uplands around Dartmoor in Devon. Fauna-wise vertebrates like fish and freshwater turtles are common, and mammal remains are rarely found (in comparison to the overlying Hamstead members which are rich in post and pre-grande coupure mammals), these include palaeotheres, creodonts, rodents, anoplotheres, choeropotamids, xiphodonts, and primates. So far I've only searched through a small amount of the matrix but it has produced indeterminate teleost vertebra, Bowfin teeth, fin spines, indeterminate fish premaxillae, and a very nice crocodilian tooth. (The quality of the images isn't always fantastic but I'm trying to find a way to work around it in the microscope's program) Isolated fish vertebra from teleosts are by far the most common micro-fossil, and I've collected more than 10 so far. Here's a nice example: Bowfin teeth are also quite common and vary in size from 2-7.5mm in length. Bowfins would have been ambush predators feeding on smaller fish and other vertebrates in the lagoons and estuaries. Based on vertebra I've found ex-situ on the beach it seems some of these fish were very large. (Close up of one the teeth) These pre-maxillae also seem to turn up from time to time and appear to be from some form of teleost. The closest match I can find is with some kind of Gadiform? And finally the best find so far, a crocodilian tooth crown. I spotted this on the surface of one of the matrix blocks. It's most likely from the alligatoroid Diplocynodon which was very common in the wetlands and rivers of Europe from the Palaeocene to the Miocene. Diplocynodon has also been found in the early Eocene marine deposits of the London Clay suggesting that they frequented both freshwater and brackish/coastal habitats. The matrix is nowhere near fully sieved and sorted through yet so hopefully there's a lot more micro-vertebrates in there! Hope this was of interest, Theo
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Hi Is this turtle or fish scale? Size: near 1,7 cm x near 1,1 cm
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Hi, found this at the weekend, looked battered but knew possible potential on the opposite side but high chance would be broken as Pyratised, it did break in half but glued together and now looks pretty beautiful, got ideas on ID but wanted to show you guys/gals anyways, thanks.
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I found this little tooth a few months ago in the Coal Measures (Westphalian A) of Scotland in a fresh/brackish water deposit and thought it might be a Janassa sp. of some sort but now I'm not so sure, the only other Petalodont genus's I'm aware of in the British Coal Measures are Ageleodus and Ctenoptychius but they both have multicuspid crowns, the tooth is in labial view and is 11mm across. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
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