ADAM'S SILURIAN

[Notidanodon]

On 19/01/2021 at 12:59 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

One of the prettiest brachiopods found in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation must surely be the orthid Resserella canalis. 

They may be found at the Wren's Nest but I found this specimen at Hobbs Quarry, Longhope, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. 

i went there last year, it is very overgrown and there are very few loose blocks, but i managed to find a trilobite pygidium! i dont know much on the formation and location but i was happy with that

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, will stevenson said:

i went there last year, it is very overgrown and there are very few loose blocks, but i managed to find a trilobite pygidium! i dont know much on the formation and location but i was happy with that

I went there way back in 1982 on a college field trip! It was a bit overgrown but a lot of loose blocks were accessible. You weren't supposed to climb the quarry rock faces as a rare plant grew there. I found a good amount of corals and brachiopods, and a single, but rather nice, Calymene blumenbachi  cephalon. After we went, SSSIs in England, including this quarry, banned amateur collectors who'd been damaging the rock faces, but a few years later, the 'experts' who were allowed to visit found the quarry completely overgrown, so the new rules were scrapped and ordinary collectors returned which helps keep the vegetation down. I'm sorry to hear that it's overgrown again. People must have stopped visiting. 

There are plenty of other sites along the Wenlock Edge, I spent a day in about 1984 searching road cuttings in the Much Wenlock Limestone of the South Malvern Hills. Found quite a bit. I rather like this little stroph; Mesopholidostrophia laevigata.

  

[Notidanodon]

@Tidgy's Dad sounds fun! I have stopped collecting invertebrates to such an extent but it was a beautiful place to visit I might go again some time

[marguy]

I had not been on this post for a long time, and I have just now discovered sublime photos of these brachiopods you added for almost 2 months! . Thank you for sharing, ,it is  very informative. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

23 hours ago, marguy said:

I had not been on this post for a long time, and I have just now discovered sublime photos of these brachiopods you added for almost 2 months! . Thank you for sharing, ,it is  very informative. 

Thank you for the compliments. 

I am very pleased that you like the photography and find the thread useful. 

Here is Trigonirhynchia stricklandi from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation of the South Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, England. Bizarrely, it can be much more rounded than Microsphaeridiorhynchus or Sphaerirhynchia, though the specimens from the Wren's Nest can be much more subtriangular. They have fewer, more widely spaced costae than Sphaerirhynchia wilsoni.

.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is a more uncommon atrypid from the Wren's Nest; Plectatrypa imbricata, unsurprisingly it is imbricate and with highly projecting growth lamellae.

There are two specimens on this piece of Wenclock Limestone, top centre and top right. You can see a bit of a Gypidula galeata to the bottom left. 

Here is a better look at the better of the two specimens. It is 2.2 cm wide at its widest point. Unfortunately there's a lot of gloopy matrix on it that is beyond my ability to remove safely.

The commissure: 

Beak:

Details of the projecting growth lamellae : 

This is a really super rock that also has on the side of it the specimen of  Leptaena rhomboidalis I posted on the previous  page, and this beautiful branching bryozoan, Hallopora elegantula, I think, on the reverse. Each branch is 1.5 to 2 mm wide. 

And you can see this nice bit of fenestellid in the first picture at the top of this post.

 

And is this an ostracod? I'm not certain, I'm very bad at ostracods.

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is the last of my Wenlock Limestone brachiopods. 

These are from the Wren's Nest, Dudley. 

Is it a rhynchonellid? 

No! 

Is it a spiriferid? 

No!

It's actually a pentamerid and a good example of convergent evolution. This is Anastrophia deflexa.

 

 

Another specimen :

And a third, rather squished one: 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Before I move on to the Tentaculita, I must give thanks to my lab assistant, Tidgy. 

Here she is examining some of the Much Wenlock Mimestone micro-matrix sent to me by @JohnBrewer.

And sorting through it :

 

And managing to separate a nice specimen of Microsphaeridiorhynchus nucula........

[Tidgy's Dad]

After several months travelling back through time to the Cambrian and Ordovician, I am finally back in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation. 

I posted these in the Fossil Id thread a few years back and I wasn't sure if they were Cornulites or bits of the unusual tabulate coral Aulopora. 

But with a few more years of study, experience and a digital microscope, I am now fairly certain that these are Cornulites serpularius from Hobbs Quarry, I have three all growing on corals but at Dudley they are usually found on brachiopods, though I haven't got any from there myself. 

This one's on a Tryplasma loveni horn coral and is 4 mm long.

This specimen is on a Favosites coral. It is 5 mm long: 

I have another specimen on a Thecia expatiata, but can't locate it at the moment! Tis very small.

There are three other species of Cornulites in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation besides the type species Cornulites serpularius.

C. gramialis is also small and encrusting but grows in little groups attached to each other by the narrow ends. 

C. sclariformes can be a few centimetres long, is encrusting and has sharp ridges like a large Tentaculites but more sinuous.

C. cellulosus is usually 4 to 8 cm long, free-living, comparatively straight and smooth sided.

This might be one from The Wren's Nest. or it might be a nautiloid, but it doesn't match the nautiloids I know from this location. 

  

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

A  tiny free living Tentaculites ornatus from the Wren's Nest. 

Bit of prepping :

Bit more : 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

Platyceras haliotis from the Wren's Nest.

I have six altogether, here are a few after a little light prepping : 

Biggest specimen, 1.5 cm in diameter. 

Specimen 2 : 

Specimen 3 : 

Specimen 4 : 

Specimen 5 ! 

The sixth specimen is by far the smallest at only 4 mm.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This Platyceras haliotis is also from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation but I collected it from the South Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. 

 

This one is 1.5 cm across , so about the same size as the biggest of the Wren's Nest specimens, but far less crushed, though you can see how thin the shell is as a part of it's broken off. 

Can't see much in the aperture..

[FossilDAWG]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Platyceras haliotis from the Wren's Nest.

Platyceras with bad breath??

 

Don

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, FossilDAWG said:

Platyceras with bad breath??

 

Don

Indeed. 

When I first learned of this species, forty odd years ago, that was the first thing I thought. 

So, to me it's been Platyceras halitosis ever since.  

But as they were detritovores and some species seem to have been coprophagous on crinoids, it's really not much of a surprise. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[piranha]

 

Brown, R.W. 1956

Composition of Scientific Words.

Smithsonian Institution Press, 882 pp.  PDF LINK

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, piranha said:

 

Brown, R.W. 1956

Composition of Scientific Words.

Smithsonian Institution Press, 882 pp.  PDF LINK

I did actually know 'hali' and 'halios', halite is another word from the same root, but thanks a bunch for the link, twill prove most useful. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

From the same location in the Malvern Hills is this Oriostoma globusum. It is about 1.5 cm at its widest point. 

Molluscs are not so well represented as brachiopods in the Much Wenlock limestone, but there are two or three reasonably common bivalves and the nautiloid Dawsonoceras annulatum as well as some rarer species. 

But I don't have any of them, so it's on to my trilobits next. 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[ClearLake]

Adam, those Platyceras haliotis are very nice.  Always nice to see some additions to this collection. 

[Top Trilo]

12 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

so it's on to my trilobits next. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 9/9/2021 at 3:11 AM, ClearLake said:

Adam, those Platyceras haliotis are very nice.  Always nice to see some additions to this collection. 

Thank you very much, yes, I love those little gastropods too. 

On 9/9/2021 at 1:15 PM, Top Trilo said:

Thanks to Scott (who else?) for the id on this one. 

It's Exallaspis coronata (was Acidaspis coronata and then Leonaspis coronata) from the Wenlock Shales, now part of the Buildwas Formation, a little older than the Wenlock Limestone, though the species is found at Dudley as well. This specimen was found near Buildwas in Shropshire, England, part of the Wenlock Edge. 

It seems to be pretty large for this species. It has a tiny pygidium and about two thirds of the thorax preserved. 

I've done a bit more prepping in the last couple of hours and will probably do another one. 

You can see some of the tubercles here : 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Tidgy's Dad]

I didn't do terribly well hunting trilobites in the Much Wenlock Formation, but I did get a couple of little bits. Actually, I still don't have a single complete Silurian trilobite at all. 

This one came from wanderings in the South Malvern Hills, Worcestershire. There were some rather nice Dalmanites myops in a big block of rock, but it was too thick and hard to break and I didn't have a camera in those days. 

However I did find a small piece of rock with a partial pygidium. Better than nothing.

The one on the right is from the Wren's Nest, Dudley and was sent to me by the currently absent @JohnBrewer Miss you around here, John! 

[Bobby Rico]

On 9/10/2021 at 3:52 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

It's Exallaspis coronata (was Acidaspis coronata and then Leonaspis coronata) from the Wenlock Shales, now part of the Buildwas Formation,

That’s a beautiful specimen  prep is looking good too.

[Tidgy's Dad]

6 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

That’s a beautiful specimen  prep is looking good too.

Thanks, Bobby. 

 

I know Bobby is familiar with The Dudley Bug, sometimes called the Dudley Locust, actually the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii. A very famous species that is the most common bug found in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation particularly at the Wren's Nest. It is on the Dudley county borough coat-of-arms.

Here are a couple of bits, the one on the left is from Hobbs Quarry, Longhope, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire and the other is from the Wren's Nest, Dudley. 

Once again I saw several other partial specimens at Hobbs Quarry that couldn't be removed, but I rather like this partial cranidium. 

Here's the Wren's Nest one ; 

It's rather smashed up but does have the free cheek. 

You can see the eye has separated from the free cheek :

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Tidgy's Dad

[Bobby Rico]

7 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

know Bobby is familiar with The Dudley Bug, sometimes called the Dudley Locust, actually the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii. A very famous species that is the most common bug found in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation particularly at the Wren's Nest. It is on the Dudley county borough coat-of-arms.

Been a Brummie I do indeed, I have only found bits and pieces of the Dudley bug for Wren's Nest. I believe they are beaming quite rare from this location. You got some nice specimens they definitely are one of my favourites bugs,

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 9/12/2021 at 7:36 PM, Bobby Rico said:

Been a Brummie I do indeed, I have only found bits and pieces of the Dudley bug for Wren's Nest. I believe they are beaming quite rare from this location. You got some nice specimens they definitely are one of my favourites bugs,

Yes, I have also heard that good specimens of  The Dudley Locust are becoming hard to find at the Wren's Nest. The layers that contained the best specimens seem to have been used up. 

But nice trilobits are still to be found. Can you spot the bugs in this photo?

@JohnBrewercircled one of the bits and drew an arrow with pencil pointing to another. You can clearly see the arrow pointing downwards in the bottom of the rock shown above.

It is pointing to this :

A nice Microsphaeridiohynchus nucula brachiopod. 

Whether John was pointing me toward one of my faves or whether he thought it was a pygidium or there's something I have missed I am uncertain. It's nice anyway.

 

But there are trilobits. A couple of beautiful Acaste downingiae cephalons. John says this species was relatively common during his trips. 

This one's in the centre of the rock and was circled with pencil: 

And this was one on the far right edge of the rock shown above, not much was showing, but I'd already begun prepping before I took this photo : 

Out with the pins! 

It's 8 mm wide. 

Gorgeous schizochroal eye :

The second specimen, also 8 mm wide :

From the same collecting day came this little bit which I put in the Fossil Id section on the Forum to no avail.

Could it be a partial axis and part of a pleura from one of these trilobites?