Finally found a complete one

[Doctor Mud]

One of the places I frequent used to have a sheep that lived all by itself it it’s own gully. I presume it had got down into it as a lamb and couldn’t get back up. It had a tail and lots and lots of wool. 
 

don’t worry there is a fossil in this story!

 

I used to go visit him every time I was there until one day I discovered him lying down in his flax bush bed. Never to get up again. Who knew you could get so attached to a sheep.

 

I went to visit the gully today and at the bottom of the gully this was sticking out the ground. It is the first complete one I have found. I just had to lever it out with my pick and rinse it. It had nicely weathered out of the host rock that can be very hard.

 

it’s Crassostrea, which has a time range from Late Pliocene to early Pleistocene.

 

it’s aptly named as “crass” means thick in Latin. It’s a chonk alright!

Theres a little matrix still attached. I might just leave it there. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

Those oysters sure can get mighty large. Congrats!

[Praefectus]

Nice find!!!

[Daze]

Nice, I like to think this was the sheep's gift to you as a thank you for visiting him 

Edited March 24 by Daze

[Kato]

That's is huge! Very nice find. Your persistence paid off.

[jpc]

Nice HUGE oyster.

(the museum where I work has a dinosaur site called 'Dead Sheep 148'.  Her ear tag was No 148.  The rancher hand raised her 2 lambs).

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice, big oyster.

One of the few unique features of hiumans is the ability to have empathy for people we don't know in places we have never been and to have empathy for animals and even fictional characters.

I felt quite sad reading the sheep part of this.

[Doctor Mud]

7 hours ago, Daze said:

I like to think this was the sheep's gift to you as a thank you for visiting him

I like to think that too. I stood at the bottom of the gully and decided to walk up to say hi. I stood at the bottom deciding whether to go up and this was at my feet. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

One of the few unique features of hiumans is the ability to have empathy for people we don't know in places we have never been and to have empathy for animals and even fictional characters.

I felt quite sad reading the sheep part of this.

 

I felt sad when he passed.
I suppose he encapsulated the idea of being a free spirit, a pioneer - doing his own thing.  

We deliberated over what to do and let nature take its course. I felt a bit guilty as we could have arranged a “rescue”, but we weren’t sure what his fate would be if “rescue” wasn’t an option. Also thought lack of food might be a problem as his valley was steep and treacherous. 
 

We decided that it was Better for him to live wild and free in his rugged coastal domain. 

 

Below. First meeting. I looked up and there he was. Maybe he hadn’t seen a human in a long time. Having grown up in solitude he behaved very differently to your average sheep. 

 

Below: rock climbing was part of his daily routine to patrol the scattered pastures in his gully. 
 

 

Below: Christmas 2022

Thought I’d pay him a visit and say merry Christmas. 

 

[Doctor Mud]

3 hours ago, jpc said:

Nice HUGE oyster.

(the museum where I work has a dinosaur site called 'Dead Sheep 148'.  Her ear tag was No 148.  The rancher hand raised her 2 lambs).

Nice to hear the stories and history behind  our fossil localities. 
 

This guy didn’t get an ear tag. We called him barnacle bill 

The site gets called barnacle bill bay. 
 

Your mentioning ear tags reminded me. I did stay in a cabin near farmland once. It had a visitors book that had a lot of talk about “number 42”. First morning a cow is looking in the window with a loud “mooooo” friendly cow with ear tag number 42.