Catskill Formation 2023

[Paul1719]

I have been meaning to do this for over a year. So this is going to be a bit piecemeal. Me and my son Ian have been collecting in the Catskill formation for 14 years now! In June we made a very quick trip to Red Hill and then to Rt 15. Red Hill as anyone who has recently been there has become a difficult site to find anything new at. Decades of excavation have removed most of the easy material. Our goal has always been to add more fossil evidence to the fragmentary tetrapod remains found so far and in 2021, I thought we had found what I thought could only be a tetrapod shoulder girdle although not well preserved. Unfortunately, when I sent it to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philly, Ted Daeschler was unable to make any call on it and so it sits in some drawer there. 

 

So in 2022 while at Red Hill with Ian on another hot day we decided to take a walk on the railroad tracks. The access is not easy and it's a pretty long hike any way you go. What we found was lag material at the base of the cliff. Probably a flood event that swept a large number of fish (parts) into a very small depression where they were covered. Most of the material is fragmentary Megalichthys mullisoni. There is some placoderm and acanthodian fragments but the next most common fossil is sarcopterygian, probably Hyneria and a mystery sarcopterygian which shows up pretty much throughout the Catskill fm. We went back in June this year and this time brought climbing gear to find and see if we could loosen material from the layer. Turns out the productive layer was just below the lip of the cliff and we were able to drop a bunch of material down to the bottom where amongst a lot of interesting fragments was a posterior jaw fragment. The jaw was fairly low and thick, a large adductor fossa, had no ornament we could make out but a very faint radiating pattern, no cosmine but we could make out a series of fenestra along the Meckelian cartilage. Finally there are four broke teeth (fangs?) of the last (3rd) coranoid and a small empty shelf laterally where presumably the posterior portion of the dentary would sit. All this has led me to believe this is a fragment of Densignathus rowei especially the multiple teeth in the middle of the jaw. I've sent images (multiple times) to Ted and Jason Downs at ANSP but haven't gotten a definite answer. This specimen will eventually be sent down to them but seeing if truly Densignathus, it is not anything new. Still, pretty cool!

Lateral view. Clearly no cosmine and no obvious ornament. There is a very weak radiating pattern on the angular.

Lingual view

Dorsal view. Coronoid " fangs" are the ridge in the middle on the left side. Lateral side is top and you can see the little shelf for the dentary. The adductor fossa takes up most of the right side and the articulation site on the right is broken off. 

 

Daeschler,  J. Paleont., 74(2), 2000, pp. 301–308

 

More to come soon!

 

[Fossildude19]

Wow! Amazing stuff, Paul!
Best wishes to you and Ian.
Thanks for keeping at it!!

[Paul1719]

Hi Tim!

Thanks! I think you may have seen the first one (unprepped) when we met with Jim up there. I had been in touch about these with Ted and Jason back at the end of June but they were getting ready for another Arctic trip so maybe not so focused. I will prompt them again. My hope was the first one here would get some proper preparation. I took it as far as I felt comfortable. You know …do no harm thing. :^) 

Trying to figure out another trip. Ian wants to go and I definitely want to go with him but he can only do weekends so that has been limiting. Only two trips so far this year. Sad

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very interesting post.

Thanks for sharing.

[Paul1719]

Here is an image of the type Densignathus rowei jaw found by Doug Rowe who it's named after.

 

and from the paper

 

[JimB88]

Awesome find Paul! Hopefully you can get a positive id on it. How did you do on rt 15? I found it heavily picked over (after Dave's class and then Ted's class were there.) Though I still found some decent material.

[Paul1719]

Hi Jim! Yes, it's pretty picked over but stuff comes down all the time and I've started looking in Lock Haven. We're suppose to meet Dave in the near future to try and get a Dunkelosteus infragnathal from down the side of the highway. He's been finding some pretty interesting material there. I think Blossburg still has a lot but requires climbing. I am planning on bringing my gear next time I go to chase a couple things I found last trip. Found this amazing lag block last trip. At least 250 lb. Split it in thirds and made 2 trips with my dolly to get it and a bunch of brownstone for my new grill project back to my truck. 

[Paul1719]

Not sure what I just did but these are additional specimens from Red Hill. Two articulated head shields of Megalichthys. First one snout at top and parietals bottom with pineal series between. Bottom two images are the snout of a second shield. 

[Paul1719]

Btw Jim,

Yes, Cogan house has been picked pretty clean at the layer now but there seems to still be material coming down and in the gutter. This is a pretty nice Parasphenoid Ian dug out of the gutter last year. I had hoped the image would show the depression of the denticulated field (ventral view), a diagnostic character for Eusthenodon. 

dorsal view

Ventral view

Another unid'd dermal plate from Cogan House in Jul. No clue what this is. 

 

[Paul1719]

Back to the Red Hill lag material. This little beauty is a mesomere from a lobe fin that compares well with an ulna. Humerus articulation is on the bottom and the articular facets for the ulnare and the Probably a small Hyneria or Megalichthys but we know there were other lobe-fins there so we'll never know. 

 

 

[Paul1719]

Red Hill lag material has produced many Megalichthys dermal plates. Here is a pretty nice Maxilla. Anterior left. 

[JimB88]

Those are great! I did pretty good at Blossburg, though I haven't had the time to prep much since my trip. That long carry....makes my back sore just thinking about it! 

The dolly is a good idea...as is bringing a son. 

[Fossildude19]

Really enjoying seeing this material, Paul!

Thanks for posting it!

[Paul1719]

Thanks Tim and Jim! Like I said, I've been meaning to do a post for a while. I just have so much that is unid'd or unid'able and running a little microfarm here by myself takes quite a bit of time. I did get an id from Ted on this really interesting Megalichthys scale. Apparently midline scales have some interesting morphology. I would guess this is from near the caudal fin?

 

[Paul1719]

Continuing on with Red Hill lag material Megalichthys dermal plates. Here is what I'm pretty sure is the right principal gular. 

 

That is most of the easily id'd Megalichthys elements we've found. I'm attaching the 2020 paper describing M. Mullsoni. Much of the spectacular material in it was collected by Doug Rowe who told me they believe a group of fish were caught and buried beneath a collapsed channel margin. Big shout out to the collapsed channel margin!

Megalichthys mullisoni.pdf

[Fossildude19]

Cool! 

[Paul1719]

While not 100% sure on this one, strongly suspect opercular. Caudal edge to left

[Paul1719]

Some last Megalichthys dermal plates. This would be a clavicle. It has the classic triangular shape with curved edge. Fun fact our own clavicles are of intermembranous as opposed to endochondral origin.

 

Also associated with the pectoral shoulder girdle is this well preserved fragment of a cleithrum. Hard to find not broken. Cleithrum is one of the only places on Megalichthys that has ornament.

[JimB88]

Neat! Do the shoulder elements have cosmine like the skull and scales?

[Paul1719]

Hi Jim, If you can download the paper they describe only the dorsocaudal portion is cosmine covered. It's dorsocaudal most corner is broken off so I don't see it. Hard to tell from the paper how extensive it was. When I first saw this, I was thinking tetrapod but now I'm pretty confident in this diagnosis. Ted had sent me a cast of the Hynerpeton scapulcoracoid. 

[Paul1719]

So besides the putative Densignathus jaw fragment and the multitude of Megalichthyid material there are a number of probable Hyneria element fragments. 

Here is a portion of the orbit. Not quite enough to make a call on which element. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is actually a couple fragments that are probably preoperculars. The groove is where the opercular articulated and is opened and closed.

[Fossildude19]

Sweet!

[NickG]

Great work! These are amazing finds. I did the classic 'field trip' route back in August and had very little luck (one tetrapodomorph? tooth).

[Paul1719]

There are a number of enigmatic fossils that reflect the fact that many species are still either unknown or undescribed. The first is from the block with one of the earlier head shields. This is a plate that looks like it has dermal ornament although in very low relief. I guess it could be erosion but doesn't look like that. Dermal view on left. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next are some scales that also have ornament unlike anything described so far. First one is from the same block as the last, maybe related but so much stuff in there hard to say. Second scale is from the Cogan House site. Many very similar scales.

[hemipristis]

Wow! Amazing material!

I have been to RH twice and I’d be embarrassed to post my finds after looking at these gems!