Arkona in August

[Northern Sharks]

It's been a couple of weeks, but here's a short report on the first CCFMS (Central Canadian Federation of Mineralogical Societies) trip to Hungry Hollow. This was a trip open to any member of an Ontario club, but the turnout was far less than a Niagara/London club trip earlier in the spring. Those of us who were there focused on the South pit, but the finds, at least anything decent, were few and far between. I don't think any blastoids were found but there was a nice enrolled Eldredgeops picked off the floor of the pit. I pocketed any brachs and gastropods that were complete, but none were anything new to me. It wasn't all routine though as I did manage to upgrade a couple of species and add something totally new to my collection. I always check larger horn corals- and there are lots- for hitchhikers and that paid off when I found a much larger colony of the bryozoan Botryllopora socialis than what I'd ever found previously. Another upgrade was a small piece covered in Hederella. Not giant, but still bigger than the one piece I'd found before. As I was wrapping up my time in the pit, I came across a large (for the HH formation) slab with what I first assumed to be an encrusting bryozoan. I looked at it under magnification and it didn't look like any bryo I'd ever seen before. I asked a couple of others and they thought the same as me. They suggested possibly fish plate, but the colour was not the normal dark blue-gray. The piece was identified later by our own Crinus and another friend as a Stromatoporoid. Not everyone would be excited by that, but it made my trip. Usually the largest things one can find in the HH is horn corals and occasionally large Favosites colonies. This Stromatoporoid remaining relatively large and intact is a rarity. I've included 3 pics of it -one with a scale, one with different lighting to highlight the mamelons (bumps) and a close-up so you can see why bryozoan didn't seem right.

[Kane]

The Hederella are always a neat find. A few of us were working in the area, so we heard the trip members throughout the day.  Not a lot has weathered out this year, it seems, so maybe it was a mixed blessing to have a lower turnout. On our way out, we got to talking with a new member from London who had his first taste of Arkona. 

[Monica]

Nice stuff, Kevin!  I love Botryllopora socialis - the star-shaped pattern is really pretty.  But your stromatoporoid is gorgeous - much bigger than the piece I found a while back - congrats! 

[markjw]

I really love those fossils...novel types.