Back To The Puerco

[PFOOLEY]

Awesome finds, Mike - your usual MO.

Nice to see someone getting out there.

And the new possibilties are exciting!

Thanks for posting. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Regards,

"Out there" is my favorite place!...I'm glad I have a place to share it. I am anxious to get back and spend some time...from what little literature I could find, there are some very cool ammonites.

Thanks and stay tuned.

[PFOOLEY]

Very nice, Mike. The nature of the shale must be 'sweet and sour' to you. Finding all the pieces or something complete has to be satisfying.

You get it...we'll see how complete they come. I have seen a few really nice examples in the museum and would love to find some of my own. I find myself wandering the geologic map in search of other exposures...you know, in case these, that I have only looked at one time, don't.

[Wrangellian]

It is ...

baculites codyensis.jpg

...I picked up the smaller piece as well. I looked and looked for something to connect the two...nada...I will look again.

(I was wondering what you were talking about, then took another look and saw the small piece!)

That has happened to me, Not too long ago I found a bac and a smaller piece that obviously goes with it but spent a lot of time sifting thru the pieces and could not find the connecting piece. It's frustrating because I know it had to be in there somewhere (the bac was exposed in the first place by me breaking rock) but it just could not be found, and bacs are not too common at this site. Just falls between the gaps in the broken rock I guess.

Come to think of it one of my other most frustrating incidences of this involved a bac as well, except in that case I actually handled the piece and put it aside, whereupon it disappeared! &^%$

[Ludwigia]

(I was wondering what you were talking about, then took another look and saw the small piece!)

That has happened to me, Not too long ago I found a bac and a smaller piece that obviously goes with it but spent a lot of time sifting thru the pieces and could not find the connecting piece. It's frustrating because I know it had to be in there somewhere (the bac was exposed in the first place by me breaking rock) but it just could not be found, and bacs are not too common at this site. Just falls between the gaps in the broken rock I guess.

Come to think of it one of my other most frustrating incidences of this involved a bac as well, except in that case I actually handled the piece and put it aside, whereupon it disappeared! &^%$

Talk about it! And if I don't clean out my box thoroughly (which I generally don't do) after every single procedure with the air pen, then when a little bit of a fossil breaks off, the chances are 100 to 1 that I'll ever find it again. I had luck yesterday though. I was in the Wutach again. I'd managed to loosen up a square meter section of rock in the outcrop, but since the bits were all balanced on and wedged into each other, I had to start at the top and carefully remove the bits piece by piece, otherwise the whole pile would have slipped out and tumbled down the slope, which was at least 200 meters to the bottom. As (bad) luck would have it, the only one that got away had half of the best ammonite I found that day in it. I decided to hang onto the better half, keep on working and then search the viscinity at the end of the day, although the chances of finding the other half in all that rubble in the woods and underbrush at the bottom of the hill were pretty minimal. I'd been hunting for about an hour, calculating trajectory, taking tree trunk collisions into account and all that and was just on the brink of giving up when suddenly it just appeared in the most unlikely spot. Sometimes persistence pays off!

[Wrangellian]

Talk about it! And if I don't clean out my box thoroughly (which I generally don't do) after every single procedure with the air pen, then when a little bit of a fossil breaks off, the chances are 100 to 1 that I'll ever find it again. I had luck yesterday though. I was in the Wutach again. I'd managed to loosen up a square meter section of rock in the outcrop, but since the bits were all balanced on and wedged into each other, I had to start at the top and carefully remove the bits piece by piece, otherwise the whole pile would have slipped out and tumbled down the slope, which was at least 200 meters to the bottom. As (bad) luck would have it, the only one that got away had half of the best ammonite I found that day in it. I decided to hang onto the better half, keep on working and then search the viscinity at the end of the day, although the chances of finding the other half in all that rubble in the woods and underbrush at the bottom of the hill were pretty minimal. I'd been hunting for about an hour, calculating trajectory, taking tree trunk collisions into account and all that and was just on the brink of giving up when suddenly it just appeared in the most unlikely spot. Sometimes persistence pays off!

Yes, I usually give it a try just in case I'm lucky, and once in a while I am, and I imagine I could find everything I have lost (or not yet found) if I had enough time, but nobody has that much time! Maybe there is a smart method of going at it like you suggest. If I had the energy/resources I would just scoop up everything in the area where I know the piece must be, and lay it out on a table either on site or at home, but sometimes the fossil isn't worth the effort and you have to give up when you think you're spending too much time/effort - there are so many more fossils out there waiting to be found! I did try once to scoop up a pile of shale bits to relocate a piece of a conifer plate that somehow went missing during excavation, but after most of the day spent strewing that stuff out on flat ground and methodically searching, no luck, and the fossil had to remain with a gap in the middle. It leaves me wondering how something could just disappear like that (it may have disintegrated).

[PFOOLEY]

We have had an unusual amount of rain this spring...a bit concerned with the condition of roads, I loaded up and headed back to the Puerco. I was greeted by a very slippery road. After a little breath holding and four wheel drive, I made it to my new Santonian outcrop. My first find was this little Placenticeras (?placenta)...

...followed by this small, but exciting, piece of the heteromorph Glyptoxoceras (?novimexicanum).

I saw some mounds in the distance and decided to check them out. As I neared, I had to cross a small wash. I hiked in a started finding unbroken nodules. Of the ten or so I fiddled with, this one had signs of treasure inside...

...grinning, I bagged up my find and scooted on over to the hills.

[PFOOLEY]

After a few hours of fruitless scouring, I decided to head back to the truck and head up the road a bit. As I hiked a small outcrop near the road, I got a phone call from Don (fossilDAWG). He was attending a conference in Taos and was on his way to meet up with me before continuing south to Truth or Consequences. Don arrived and we headed out. The slope that looked so promising from a distance, did not have much to offer other than this bivalve...

...we decided to hike back to the vehicles and head on down to the Carlile outcrops. As we neared the road, Don found a piece of Baculites...and then another...and another! The slope was littered with them...we were so darn excited, we dove right in without even thinking of the camera for some in situ shots. Here is a pic of Don sorting out the goods...

...

[PFOOLEY]

...I managed to score a few nice specimens as well. Baculites (?codyensis)...

...and a small Glytoxoceras (?novimexicanum)...

...I quickly realized I had stayed later than expected and needed to get back to town. I took Don down to the Carlile outcrops, gave him the lay of land, said our goodbyes and left him there to roam.

Pretty cool day if ya ask me...hope you all had the same.

Happy hunting,

-P.

[PFOOLEY]

Instead of beating this nodule with a hammer...

...I decided to try the freeze/thaw method. I soaked it overnight...as I pulled it from the water, it split!...

...never even made it to the freezer.

[Ludwigia]

Hey Mike! That freeze thaw idea worked out even better than anticipated! Thanks for the latest update!

Edited May 19, 2015 by Ludwigia

[PFOOLEY]

Hey Mike! That freeze thaw idea worked out even better than anticipated! Thanks for the latest update!

It was a nice surprise. Guess I can't really call it a freeze/thaw...neither happened. This was the first time I have ever soaked a nodule open.

[Auspex]

Given the climate of interment, water must have been a real shock!

[Pilobolus]

That'll learn me not to answer the phone...

Interesting finds Mike!

Was wondering about them roads...

[Wrangellian]

Ah, a Santonian site! Same age as my area. Will be interesting to see what more you find there. We don't have Placenticeras here but we have Glyptoxoceras. The bivalve looks to be some kind of Inoceramid (Ino- or Sphenoceramus).

Nice baculites - those look much like certain ones I find at one of my sites even more so than just any bac.

[PFOOLEY]

[Auspex]

Nice little fixer-upper there..

What solitude!

[JohnBrian]

IMG_7900 Panorama (1280x456).jpg

Metal detecting time! (Even though there has likely been 1000 people metal detecting there already!)

[PFOOLEY]

Nice little fixer-upper there..

What solitude!

Lumber, mortar and double pane windows.

[PFOOLEY]

Metal detecting time! (Even though there has likely been 1000 people metal detecting there already!)

Maybe a few...1000 is highly unlikely.

Excellent idea nonetheless.

[Auspex]

Lumber, mortar and double pane windows.

"The thrumming roar of solitude is so loud, you cannot hear it"

My kind of place.

[Wrangellian]

IMG_7900 Panorama (1280x456).jpg

That's a great shot. I love old buildings made out of scavenged rocks.... even the small ones impress me: Here we're having trouble building a rock wall to shore up a bank above our house, with cement... And these people built their homes, without cement/mortar (I think), in the hot desert.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Wrangellian

[PFOOLEY]

That's a great shot. I love old buildings made out of scavenged rocks.... even the small ones impress me: Here we're having trouble building a rock wall to shore up a bank above our house, with cement... And these people built their homes, without cement/mortar (I think), in the hot desert.

They are pretty swell...

...would be a good year for sheep.

[fossilized6s]

Great little Rattlesnake hotel, Mike. It's a nice picture.

[Wrangellian]

They are pretty swell...

the shack (1280x989).jpg

...would be a good year for sheep.

Do the sheep take shelter in there? Good year because of the greenery?

Of course it helps to build things like these when the rocks are platy like that, our are more round from the glaciers and not sedimentary...

Edited July 30, 2015 by Wrangellian

[PFOOLEY]

Do the sheep take shelter in there? Good year because of the greenery?

No sheep there now, but "back in the day" I think there were. There is a short but dilapidated fence line with decaying bits of a corral and an old trough carved out of a log...with how green it is this year, seems like a great valley for a shepherd.