Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'wutach'.
-
One of my customers is keeping me quite busy lately. Last week he brought me among other things a relatively large, 22cm. diameter Callovian Choffatia ammonite from the Wutach Valley with another few smaller ones plus a belemnite attached. He asked me to send him play-by-play photos, which I did, so I figured I might just as well show them to you guys as well. Here are pics of both sides in the raw. As you can probably tell, it was extracted in 3 pieces which he glued back together. You can barely see the belemnite on the right in the middle of the first photo and the smaller ammos are at the bottom right in the second one. First step was to remove as much matrix as possible with the stylus, but soon after I started, the bit with the ammonites and the end of the living chamber popped off at a hairline crack, so I set them aside for reglueing at a later point. Here's how both sides looked after a few hours with the stylus and also after glueing the above mentioned pieces back on.
-
Yesterday I posted something here from my recent trip to the Callovian and now I've just finished prepping something else worth showing. It's a somewhat compressed Macrocephalites jacquoti ammonite with a diameter of 12cm. You may have noticed, particularly in the second photo, that there's a crack running through it. And this is what happens when you open it up. It had already broken into these two pieces as I was extracting it at the outcrop. Instead of glueing them back together as I usually do, however, I decided to leave it as is after I'd abraded the shell, since the view of the crystallized chambers is quite pretty. It makes a nice sort of "surprise egg", don't you think?
- 5 replies
-
- 7
-
- callovian
- macrocephalites
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
Containing 4 Choffatia sp. ammonites and a piece of belemnite rostrum. 12x12x6cm. The 4th ammonite is hidden on the back side and can only be seen in profile in the last photo. herveyi zone Early Callovian From the Wutach Valley area. -
We're still allowed to move about freely here in good old Baden-Wuerttemberg, so I figured as long as this is still the case, I'll mosey along to my spot in the Callovian in the Wutach Valley. A friend of mine has been working there recently, so I was hoping for some more fresh exposure and sure enough, he'd opened up some new possibilities for me. Spent the good part of the day prying and hammering and came up with a few nice things. Here's the first and probably the best which I just finished prepping this evening. A multiblock measuring 12x12x6cm with 4 x Choffatia sp. and a bit of belemnite. The 4th small ammonite can't be seen in the photos since it's tucked away tightly on the back.
- 14 replies
-
- 10
-
I'm almost done with prepping this huge Procerites on commission and I figured I'd just show this as an example of how long it sometimes takes to get one of these whoppers finished. It has a diameter of 35cm. (14 inches). I've already been working almost 17 hours on it and still have some filling and modelling to do. This came to me in 2 pieces which had been removed from 2 neighboring blocks with a thin layer of calcite which had seeped into the tectonic spalt between the two. There was also a small piece of the puzzle missing which couldn't be extracted, which is why I still have some modelling ahead of me. I had worked almost 4 hours removing matrix from the larger piece with the rough stylus before I took the first photo. Then I started abrading. The matrix was pretty tough, so I was blowing up to 80psi. And to make things more complicated, it was covered with tightly sitting epizoans, particularly oysters, which loved to colonize these things after they had hit the dust, so I had to spend some extra time blasting the parts away which I couldn't remove with the stylus, otherwise the ammonite shell would have been damaged. Next photo after another 2 hours or so. Another hour and a half with the abrader: And yet another hour and a half. I had to do some more stylus work around the back here as well. And finally another 2 hours to get it more or less done. So now we're already up to 11 hours.
- 14 replies
-
- 6
-
- bathonian
- procerites
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
19cm. diameter. Index fossil for the orbis zone. Phragmocone. Late Bathonian. Found in the Wutach Valley-
- bathonian
- oxycerites
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
21cm. Practically complete with shell. bradfordensis zone Late Aalenian Achdorf Formation From the Wutach area -
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
Not quite identical twins measuring 16 & 18cm. bradfordensis zone, staufensis bank Late Aalenian From the Wutach Valley -
From the album: German Gastropods and Bivalves
6cm. long staufensis bank bradfordensis zone Late Aalenian Middle Jurassic Found in the Wutach area-
- aalenian
- plagiostoma
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Ludwigia (Pseudographoceras) umbilicata (Buckman 1905)
Ludwigia posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
11cm. murchisonae zone Late Aalenian Achdorf Formation From the Wutach Valley -
Yesterday I reported on a trip into the Kimmeridgian, and now I'm happy to say that I spent the day today in the Callovian. I was suffering from cold turkey, since I hadn't been out for a proper hunt (not counting the short stints on the bike to the shark tooth site) for at least 3 weeks. This time it only started raining 10 minutes before I left the site, so I managed to skirt the danger of slipping down the slope on the way back up to the car. This time I had 5 hours to play around. There was a lot of work to do, so I was pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, but I stopped in for meatballs and rice on the way home, so that cured it pretty quickly. Now I just need to get under the shower. The preservation at the selected spot at the site wasn't always ideal. Lots of bits and bites amongst the complete ones, but only the prep bench will tell the story in the end. I took along my camera, so I'll let the pictures tell the story for the time being. Continued...
- 28 replies
-
- 13
-
- another dig
- callovian
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
11cm. ovale Zone Early Bajocian Wedelsandstein Formation From the Wutach area. With an Entolium demissum bivalve attached on one side.-
- bajocian
- hyperlioceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
20cm. Phragmocone. Wedelsandstein Formation Early Bajocian ovale Zone From Wutachtal-
- 1
-
- bajocian
- hyperlioceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hyperlioceras sp.(Waagen 1867) + Sonninia sp.(Bayle 1878)
Ludwigia posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
A rare double block. The Hyperlioceras has a diameter of 18cm., the Sonninia one of 11cm. Ovale zone Early Bajocian Wedelsandstein Formation Found in Wutachtal, S.W. Germany- 4 comments
-
- hyperlioceras
- sonninia
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
20cm. Wedelsandstein Formation Early Bajocian ovale zone Found in Wutachtal-
- bajocian
- fissilobiceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
I've been working on another commission assignment this past week which is pretty interesting, so I figured I'd show the progression here. It's been a somewhat time consuming project, having already spent 16 hours at it. The pen work and abrading is done now, but there's still some repair work to do with epoxy putty which I'll probably get down to tomorrow. This is what I got to begin with. As you can see, the customer had already trimmed off a lot of matrix and had also glued a couple of pieces back on which had broken off during extraction with the exception of the one loose piece to be seen sitting atop the block. The first thing to do was to determine the lay of the fossil and decide where best to get started. I decided to start on the side shown which had at least a few parts exposed, since the reverse side was still covered with a good few centimeters of matrix. I had to be careful around the edges with the break for fear of chipping off some of the shell. It worked out alright in the end, so I also trimmed off most of the matrix on the loose piece and glued it back into place. I then decided to do some abrading before I tackled the other side. And took a "wet look" photo of it when complete before going on. There are three large serpula nestling on the shell. I didn't think to take a photo of the original state, but here is one I took after I was about half way through trimming the reverse side. A few bits of shell had broken off the venter at the top, but I managed to get them glued back into place with no loss of substance. Here it is freed from the matrix before abrading. And here's another "wet look" pic after completion. This is a Fissilobiceras ovale from the Early Bajocian with a diameter of 20cm. I'll post a couple more photos once I'm done with the putty work.
- 15 replies
-
- 3
-
- bajician
- fissilobiceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
I mentioned in another post a few days ago that I had discovered a site in the Middle Jurassic Aalenian which I hadn't visited previously. I found it rather unexpectedly while in search of the humphriesi oolite formation. It was obvious that other collectors had worked here in the past, but the rock had also been weathering away for a few years since the last ones were here, so I figured it would be worth spending the good part of a day inspecting it. I set off to this avail this very morning. It's a bit of a way up to get there, but not too strenuous if you take your time. By the way, I remembered to take my camera along this time, so here's a shot of the exposure. I spent about 5 hours working at it but ended up digging out a lot of partials since the stone was extremely hard at the one productive horizon and too soft in the other one. That's the luck of the game sometimes. You can always find the right horizon once you've located an exposure, but the preservation is often quite different than at other exposures not too far away. Here are pics of the 2 spots I was working at. It wasn't all for nothing at least, since I did manage to salvage a good sized Staufenia staufensis ammonite out of the hard horizon. This is how it looked before I maneuvered the 2nd block out of the bank. And here are both pieces ready for transport. Looks like I've got a bit of prep work ahead of me. There were also a few smaller ones to take with me. So that was it for the day. Downhill is always as easy as pie and a stop on the way home for a rump steak with scalloped potatoes and a red bull is the incentive that gets me out in the first place I'll post the finds later on once I get down to prepping them.
- 21 replies
-
- 16
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
12cm. staufensis bank bradfordensis zone Late Aalenian Achdorf Formation Found in the Wutach valley -
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
40cm. Prepared and restored for a friend by yours truly. trigonalis zone Early Bajocian Found in the Wutach Valley- 1 comment
-
- 1
-
- bajocian
- fissilobiceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Belemnites
This rostrum measures 38cm., although it is not quite complete, so it could have been up to 50cm. long originally. The name of the species used to be M.gigantea until it was revised a few years ago, which I find to be more suitable for this behemoth, the largest belemnite ever. It originates from the Bajocium in the Wutach Valley, southwestern Germany.- 2 comments
-
- bajocian
- megateuthis
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
28cm. ovale zone early Bajocian A rare find from Wutachtal. This is just the phragmocone from what once quite a large example.-
- bajocian
- fissilobiceras
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Calcite Steinkern of the phragmocone.
-
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
6cm. herveyi zone Early Callovian Found in the Wutach valley. -
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
9cm. herveyi zone Early Callovian Found in the Wutach valley. -
From the album: Middle Jurassic Ammonites from Southern Germany
8cm. herveyi zone Early Callovian Found in the Wutach valley.