Short Trip And Some Nice Discoveries

[kauffy]

most recent fossil hunt:

Went on a three day camping trip about 3hours south of sydney in Kangaroo Valley, about 1 hour from the coast. Not knowing anything about the geology of the area i didnt expect to find any fossils. We did some bush walks and on the first day we set out on a 4km return trip up a creek bed to a waterfall. It was 35'C at camp so the bush and water was very refreshing. We swam at one rock pool along the way which was freezing cold clear water, and than continued climbing through the bush. The rocks seemed to be large very dence sandstone with pockets of shale and no fossils that i could see. We reached the waterfall and had a swim.

I came across a chunk of heavy smooth rock that looked a lot like wood, there were growth lines and an exterior that looked like bark. I bagged it but without any other fossils around it i was unsure of what it was.

The next day we set out to do a 12km walk to the top of the valley lookout. We got a bit confused and ended up walking back 1.5km than realising we had to continue and ended up adding abut 4km to our walk. I found several nice petrified wood chunks along the way which clarified that what i found the other day was in fact wood. Although there was not a lot of wood the four peices found over the period of 5 hours walking was a nice suprise.

We stopped at a few places on the way home with little to nothing known about the locations. Finding any information about fossil locations around sydney is extreamly hard but with a little persistance i have been quite lucky everywhere ive been. We stopped at one road cut near Berry and found an unusual permian layer i have not encountered further north. All fossils were very small but there were abundant small connularids and we picked up three or four nice ones aswell as some squished brachiapods in about 20 mins.

We then continued on to another location on the coast. We walked and didnt see any fossils until i spotted a large Eurysedma mould on the rock platform. We continued and found a small layer that consisted of very well preserved shells and other marine fossils. The layer was in very hard sandstone and was nearly impossible to get anything out. We continued walking along the layer and found a small part where the layer had cracked. we spent a while banging on the rock and it produced some really nice specimins. We also encoutered some coral/bryazoan that i have not encountered in any other permian rocks.

Over all it was an extreamly good trip with many new discoveries.

1)WOOD FROM KANGAROO VALLEY (silica replaced)

2)BERRY OUTCROP AND FOSSILS

CONNULARIDS

[kauffy]

3)GERRINGONG FOSSILS

my most complete clam

UNKOWN Coral/bryazoan

WORLDS LARGEST BRACHIAPOD????????

BRACHIAPODS

[kauffy]

More clams/brachiapods? not too sure they are big and were ubundant but there is little literature about these fossils which makes it hard to ID them.

I have some nice pictures of the actuall bedding in situ i will post later

thanks for reading!

[Gatorman]

cool stuff :Thumbs-up:

[jkfoam]

Kauffy,

That is one big honking brachiopod. Nice find. Too bad about the lack of local resources for identifying fossils. Have you tried contacting the major Australian Universities and their Geology Departments. They may publish their research papers and have copies for sale at reasonable prices. Are you close to a major University that has a good geology library section. The publication "Alcheringa"(An Australasian Journal of Paleontology) may have what you are looking for.

JKFoam

[kauffy]

Thanks Anson

JKFoam, i have not tried contacting any universities but that is my next step. I have recently purchased a book from the Government natural resorces library which has information and plates about the permian marine fauna of NSW which should be really helpfull. It hasnt arrived yet but im sure it will help to identify some of these fossils.

There is a University close to me and I will give them a call and see what I can find out!

Thanks for the info... will let you know how it goes!

Regards Kauffy

[Rick_Jo]

Did you end up finding out any information of the fossils you found in the Kiama - Gerringong area? I have also tried to find information and have not had much luck.

From what I can put together most of the clams are Eurysedma and are from the Devonian period.. Would you agree?

[paganboy]

Good going

I used to love camping at Kangaroo Valley

Geringon was good for a swim once in a wwhile

I think i have some info that may help, will have a look and see

Cheers

Darn i need to get out if it stops raining up here

[glacialerratic]

That wood is really pretty, and I like all your other finds, too!

I think you have corals there. I may be mistaken, but the bryozoan zooids are much shorter.

[Lloyd]

This thread is kind of a blast from from the past... but the pet wood is cool so I enjoyed taking a look.