April 2023 - Finds of the Month Entries

[A.C.]

I found this tiny (roughly 6.5 mm) trilobite perfectly exposed under some weathering rocks at an exposure of the Reedsville Formation in central Pennsylvania. Goes to show how looking down can be profitable! The Reedsville is most notable as the formation exposed along the classic closed Swatara Gap site where Cryptolithus were abundant, often referred to as the Martinsburg Formation, though is exposed in various other localities in Pennsylvania and the surrounding states.

 

 

• Date of Discovery  (month, day, year): 04/22/2023

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Flexicalymene sp.

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Upper Ordovician, Reedsville Formation

• State, Province, or Region Found: Pennsylvania, USA

• Photos of Find:

Edited April 24, 2023 by A.C.

[piranha]

2 hours ago, A.C. said:

I have this trilobite labeled as Gravicalymene sp. as the most recent publication I could find from 1989 (JSTOR Link) lists Gravicalymene sp. instead of the more commonly named Flexicalymene sp. or Flexicalymene granulosa. - Happy to hear if someone has a definitive better ID.

 

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Gravicalymene sp. (Lehman & Pope)

 

 

"Gravicalymene sp. (Lehman & Pope)" is formatted improperly. Lehman & Pope did not establish Gravicalymene. The parentheses on the author citation should be used only to indicate a change in the taxonomic placement. In this case Gravicalymene Shirley 1936 is the correct citation. The paper by Lehman & Pope is an outlier listing Gravicalymene on their faunal list. Until an updated systematic description is published for the Swatara trilobites, I would follow the consensus and label it provisionally: Flexicalymene sp.

 

 

Lehman, D.F., Pope, J.K. 1989
Upper Ordovician Tempestites from Swatara Gap, Pennsylvania: Depositional

Processes Affecting the Sediments and Paleoecology of the Fossil Faunas.

Palaios, 4(6):553-564

 

Shirley, J. 1936
Some British Trilobites of the Family Calymenidae.
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 92(14):384-422

[A.C.]

12 minutes ago, piranha said:

 

 

"Gravicalymene sp. (Lehman & Pope)" is formatted improperly. Lehman & Pope did not establish Gravicalymene. The parentheses on the author citation should be used only to indicate a change in the taxonomic placement. In this case Gravicalymene Shirley 1936 is the correct citation. The paper by Lehman & Pope is an outlier listing Gravicalymene on their faunal list. Until an updated systematic description is published for the Swatara trilobites, I would follow the consensus and label it provisionally: Flexicalymene sp.

 

 

Lehman, D.F., Pope, J.K. 1989
Upper Ordovician Tempestites from Swatara Gap, Pennsylvania: Depositional

Processes Affecting the Sediments and Paleoecology of the Fossil Faunas.

Palaios, 4(6):553-564

 

Shirley, J. 1936
Some British Trilobites of the Family Calymenidae.
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 92(14):384-422

Thanks! 

[FossilDAWG]

This month we are seeing a lot of spectacular entries!  There can only be one official "winner" in the invertebrate/plant and in the vertebrate categories at the end of the month, but every entry so far is a winner in my opinion.  What will the rest of the month bring?

 

Don

[digit]

4 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

What will the rest of the month bring?

Some more drool-worthy entries, I hope.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[GPayton]

I'm very proud that I finally have something that I feel is worthy of putting in the running for Fossil of the Month (of course, it figures that I picked the month with the steepest competition! ) Last Friday I returned to the very first Cretaceous spot I discovered on my own three years ago. Exposed in it is a huge outcrop of the Cenomanian-aged Grayson Formation. Although the majority of fossils are ramhorn oysters and scallops, I've occasionally found nice shark teeth, echinoids, and even a fragment of a pterosaur ulna in the past. But what I found last Friday completely blows everything else out of the water - both in terms of finds from this particular spot and almost every find I’ve ever made period. 

Embedded in the thick shale layers at the base of the outcrop was a huge vertebra, one that I initially thought was from a plesiosaur but after cleaning it up and examining the bases of the processes realized was actually from an ichthyosaur! Not only that, but it is both completely pyritized and encrusted with two different species of oyster. Unfortunately I didn't find any more bones, so my guess is the animal decomposed on the ocean floor for a while, giving the oysters time to grow before it was eventually buried. 

Ichthyosaurs are incredibly rare in Texas as they were almost extinct by the time rocks were deposited that could preserve their remains, with a paper in 2018 that covered all the known Texas occurrences listing only 11 total. I'm not entirely sure just how rare the pyritization and oyster encrustation are, but I plan on contacting Mike Polcyn at SMU to get his opinions and once I hear back I plan to donate the specimen to science. 

All Texas ichthyosaur finds are attributed to the species Platypterygius americanus. Although there is a general consensus that it has become a wastebasket taxon, almost all ichthyosaur remains found in Texas (including mine) are nothing but isolated vertebrae and teeth and so determining whether any represent different species is difficult. Because of this, I'll be listing mine as Platypterygius americanus in my submission for FOTM. 

 

Date of Discovery: April 21, 2023

Scientific and/or Common Name: Platypterygius americanus (Ichthyosaur) with encrusting oysters Ostrea sp. and Ilymatogyra arietina

Geologic Age: Cretaceous, Cenomanian 

Geologic Formation: Grayson (Del Rio)

State, Province, or Region Found: Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JohnJ]

Congratulations, Graham!

[Jared C]

1 hour ago, GPayton said:

I'm very proud that I finally have something that I feel is worthy of putting in the running for Fossil of the Month (of course, it figures that I picked the month with the steepest competition! ) Last Friday I returned to the very first Cretaceous spot I discovered on my own three years ago. Exposed in it is a huge outcrop of the Cenomanian-aged Grayson Formation. Although the majority of fossils are ramhorn oysters and scallops, I've occasionally found nice shark teeth, echinoids, and even a fragment of a pterosaur ulna in the past. But what I found last Friday completely blows everything else out of the water - both in terms of finds from this particular spot and almost every find I’ve ever made period. 

Embedded in the thick shale layers at the base of the outcrop was a huge vertebra, one that I initially thought was from a plesiosaur but after cleaning it up and examining the bases of the processes realized was actually from an ichthyosaur! Not only that, but it is both completely pyritized and encrusted with two different species of oyster. Unfortunately I didn't find any more bones, so my guess is the animal decomposed on the ocean floor for a while, giving the oysters time to grow before it was eventually buried. 

Ichthyosaurs are incredibly rare in Texas as they were almost extinct by the time rocks were deposited that could preserve their remains, with a paper in 2018 that covered all the known Texas occurrences listing only 11 total. I'm not entirely sure just how rare the pyritization and oyster encrustation are, but I plan on contacting Mike Polcyn at SMU to get his opinions and once I hear back I plan to donate the specimen to science. 

All Texas ichthyosaur finds are attributed to the species Platypterygius americanus. Although there is a general consensus that it has become a wastebasket taxon, almost all ichthyosaur remains found in Texas (including mine) are nothing but isolated vertebrae and teeth and so determining whether any represent different species is difficult. Because of this, I'll be listing mine as Platypterygius americanus in my submission for FOTM. 

 

Date of Discovery: April 21, 2023

Scientific and/or Common Name: Platypterygius americanus (Ichthyosaur) with encrusting oysters Ostrea sp. and Ilymatogyra arietina

Geologic Age: Cretaceous, Cenomanian 

Geologic Formation: Grayson (Del Rio)

State, Province, or Region Found: Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LETS GOOOO!! I'm glad you decided to add it, no mystery where my vote will be going 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

10 hours ago, GPayton said:

I'm very proud that I finally have something that I feel is worthy of putting in the running for Fossil of the Month (of course, it figures that I picked the month with the steepest competition! ) Last Friday I returned to the very first Cretaceous spot I discovered on my own three years ago. Exposed in it is a huge outcrop of the Cenomanian-aged Grayson Formation. Although the majority of fossils are ramhorn oysters and scallops, I've occasionally found nice shark teeth, echinoids, and even a fragment of a pterosaur ulna in the past. But what I found last Friday completely blows everything else out of the water - both in terms of finds from this particular spot and almost every find I’ve ever made period. 

Embedded in the thick shale layers at the base of the outcrop was a huge vertebra, one that I initially thought was from a plesiosaur but after cleaning it up and examining the bases of the processes realized was actually from an ichthyosaur! Not only that, but it is both completely pyritized and encrusted with two different species of oyster. Unfortunately I didn't find any more bones, so my guess is the animal decomposed on the ocean floor for a while, giving the oysters time to grow before it was eventually buried. 

Ichthyosaurs are incredibly rare in Texas as they were almost extinct by the time rocks were deposited that could preserve their remains, with a paper in 2018 that covered all the known Texas occurrences listing only 11 total. I'm not entirely sure just how rare the pyritization and oyster encrustation are, but I plan on contacting Mike Polcyn at SMU to get his opinions and once I hear back I plan to donate the specimen to science. 

All Texas ichthyosaur finds are attributed to the species Platypterygius americanus. Although there is a general consensus that it has become a wastebasket taxon, almost all ichthyosaur remains found in Texas (including mine) are nothing but isolated vertebrae and teeth and so determining whether any represent different species is difficult. Because of this, I'll be listing mine as Platypterygius americanus in my submission for FOTM. 

 

Date of Discovery: April 21, 2023

Scientific and/or Common Name: Platypterygius americanus (Ichthyosaur) with encrusting oysters Ostrea sp. and Ilymatogyra arietina

Geologic Age: Cretaceous, Cenomanian 

Geologic Formation: Grayson (Del Rio)

State, Province, or Region Found: Texas

 

 

Dude! US ichthyosaur remains, and especially those from Texas, are just rare as hen's teeth! And it's, moreover, a sizeable one too! Wow! I'm blow away!

 

Between the rare mosasaur vertebra, pliosaur teeth and this specimen this month, I'll have a hard time making up my mind on what to vote for... So many excellent finds have been made!

[FranzBernhard]

I did not find any plant fossil in this topic?
Here we go!

Date of Discovery: 04/23/2023 

Scientific and/or Common Name: Fern Cladophlebis sp.

Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Campanian / Afling-Formation, Gosau-Group of Kainach

State, Province, or Region Found: Hasibach, Geistthal, Styria, Austria

Last pic is photographed under water.

 

Found it in the shoulder of a forest road, a few plant bits on the bedding plane caught my eyes. Usually, splits yield nothing more, but this time, my reaction after splitting simply was: "Sweet!!". Plant debris are quite common in that marine Afling-Formation, somewhat articulated plant material is very rare. Only few genera are know, this is a new one for that formation.

The specimen may come from this slope, where some trees have fallen not very long ago:

Checking out three of all the overturned root balls yielded lots of sand- and siltstone debris, but not more fossils. However, have informed my fossil friend, he will check that area out in detail before it will completely grow over with stinging nettles and spiky blackberries .

Franz Bernhard

[digit]

Nice to see some plant material make an appearance this month. Something unusual from you Franz.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FranzBernhard]

Out of place, but just short update:

My fossil friend explored the Hasibach just one day after I told him of my finds (including small bivalve impressions). He found a few more articulated leafs (not ferns), a seed(?) and also small bivalve impressions in siltstone along the slopes of the creek .

Best of all, he did not made it to the deforested slope pointed out by me, so he still has a lot to do !

He is a small-scale prospector, I am more a large-scale prospector, sometimes also a digger. We are quite good in complementing each other !
Franz Bernhard

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by FranzBernhard

[cngodles]

I'm considering submitting two additional Paleozoic shark teeth I found a week back, but with this month's lineup they don't stand a chance...

Edited April 30, 2023 by cngodles

[Jared C]

46 minutes ago, cngodles said:

I'm considering submitting two additional Paleozoic shark teeth I found a week back, but with this month's lineup they don't stand a chance...

Hardly anyone will complain about getting a chance to admire them nonetheless  

[cngodles]

I thought this was is an Orodus, I have one example from back home, and now this new one. I was advised to use cf. Agassizodus sp. I don't think the bottom portion is a root, just part of the matrix that has been sort of oolithic in places.

 

Scale bar = 5 mm.

 

• Date of Discovery:  April 22, 2023 

• Scientific and/or Common Name: cf. Agassizodus sp.

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Pennsylvanian, Kasimovian, Conemaugh Group, Glenshaw Formation, Cambridge Limestone

• State, Province, or Region Found: Brooke County, West Virginia

• Photos of Find:

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by cngodles
Changing genus

[cngodles]

This eroded but interesting tooth is a Jannasid, possibly Cholodus inaequalis. According to Itano 2023, the Janassidae comprises of Janassa, Cholodus, Cypripediodens, and Cavusodus.

 

Scale bar = 5 mm. The left figure is a labial side; the right figure is the lingual side.

 

References:

Itano 2023—https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2023.2194902

St. John O., Worthen A. H., 1875, Descriptions of fossil fishes. Geological Survey of Illinois. 6:245–488.

 

• Date of Discovery:  April 22, 2023 

• Scientific and/or Common Name: Cholodus?

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Late Pennsylvanian, Kasimovian, Conemaugh Group, Glenshaw Formation, Cambridge Limestone

• State, Province, or Region Found: Brooke County, West Virginia

• Photos of Find:

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by cngodles

[Huntlyfossils]

• Date of Discovery  (April 18, 2023) 

• Scientific and/or Common Name:  Eromangateuthis soniae (previously referred to Boreopeltis) , Giant Squid

• Geologic Age or Geologic Formation: Early Cretaceous, Toolebuc Formation 

• State, Province, or Region Found: NW Queensland , Australia.

 

 

I have finished prepping my large squid from NW Queensland in Cretaceous marine material (Toolebuc formation) the fossil is about 0.93m long,  It was found on the 18/4/23.

 

I located a Kronosaurus tooth only about 0.1m above the squid this is interesting because the holotype for Eromangateuthis soniae had possible predation marks from a Kronosaurus not saying that these two had any relation to each other but an interesting coincidence. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Huntlyfossils