Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#101  Postby The_Piper » Jul 11, 2010 3:40 pm

I just finished reading the first 300 pages of Image
http://www.state.me.us/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/fossils/fossil-record.htm
Possibly the best $50 I've spent in my life. Almost 200 pages of reference left to go.
I can't believe the amount of detail covered for Maine. The author put an enormous amount of work into it. :grin:
Needless to say, I learned a lot, and I'm a new kind of layman now. I might reach the level of novice someday. :lol:
Here are some of my finds, as of April.
Image
Most of the rocks have multiple fossils of multiple genera.
There are brachiopods, crinoids, corals and/or bryozoans, possible burrows and trace fossils, a possible bivalve and gastropods, and a plethora of still mysteries to me.
What I'm pretty sure of, is that there is at least some scientific significance to all of the fossils. :dance:
The book had maps showing formation by age. It's still unclear even on those maps where the rocks lie, but it is almost certainly Silurian bedrock. There is a "new" formation listed in the book aside from the Allsbury that could be here, so I'm even further confused. The author also mentions erratic glacial deposits are mostly Devonian in age.
The Silurian Allsbury formation has only 3 fossils described from it, 2 corals, and a graptolite.
The Silurian Patten formation has yielded undiagnostic fossils and the bathymetry is unknown.
So apparently there is very little information available to me about these fossils.
My fossils are mostly all molds. What I was calling imprints before. The preservation is poor, but some must be still identifiable, to the author of that book at least.
I will try to arrange to bring some better ones to the geological survey. That'll be a fun trip.
I'm always keeping the rocks from different places separate.
Happy hunting!
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#102  Postby theropod » Jul 11, 2010 4:05 pm

Piper,

You poor devil! I suspect a great deal of your earnings will be squandered on even more such books. <grin>

Good work. How are you mapping your work? GPS?

Remember, it's not ALL about what you find. Where you are finding these fossils might be a great paleontological/geologic reference.

RS
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#103  Postby The_Piper » Jul 11, 2010 8:02 pm

theropod wrote:Piper,

You poor devil! I suspect a great deal of your earnings will be squandered on even more such books. <grin>

Good work. How are you mapping your work? GPS?

Remember, it's not ALL about what you find. Where you are finding these fossils might be a great paleontological/geologic reference.

RS

Hey Theropd!
Any good finds for you lately? Do you have a favorite find? :smile:
Yes many more books are in my future.
I haven't made any maps just yet. I only have fossils from 4 places right in the vicinity of my property so far , and I'm numbering and keeping them separate to use for reference when I ID some.
Where I find the fossils is essentially necessary for them to have much scientific worth, and now I understand why.
Especially in Northern Maine, where many formations are hardly represented in scientific literature.
I'm already anal about keeping them separate by the location found.
I've been recovering from an injury and haven't been able to do much collecting. I still picked a few more up anyways, however much it pains me. :lol:
There's still enough to find right at my doorstep to keep me busy.
But I'll be looking at other formations hopefully by next weekend.
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#104  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 3:15 pm

Image

Impressed at how prominent and seemingly unharmed these were. I have some other fossils to put up soon. All taken in Aruba, just off the coast of Venezuela. I went on a longer search but I couldn't go too far as I mistakenly went barefoot and it was a very uncomfortable coral beach :waah:
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#105  Postby theropod » Aug 18, 2011 3:43 pm

Paul G wrote:image snipped...

Impressed at how prominent and seemingly unharmed these were. I have some other fossils to put up soon. All taken in Aruba, just off the coast of Venezuela. I went on a longer search but I couldn't go too far as I mistakenly went barefoot and it was a very uncomfortable coral beach :waah:


Those are Chitons.

Image

SOURCE

Nice find. These creatures apparently arose during the Cambrian and there are extant representative today. Note that the girdle is preserved very well in your photo. These could be from the Cretaceous epoch as Aruba has exposures of that age, but I can't be sure from a single photo.

Did you collect any specimens? I sure would have!

RS
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#106  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 3:56 pm

I was unsure if I was allowed, plus these rocks were as big as me! There were so many things I wanted to collect, huge driftwood pieces especially, but it was a national park so I imagined it would be illegal.

Image

Collection point.

Image

And some more.

Image

Image


There were hundreds.
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#107  Postby theropod » Aug 18, 2011 4:34 pm

Paul,

I think the fan-like fossils are Bryozoans, but I have no idea what species. I'm pushing my marine paleo education as it is. I'm a vert paleo guy!

What a lovely place to see, Aruba. My wife would kill to go somewhere like that.

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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#108  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 5:04 pm

I couldn't fault the place, absolutely perfect.

Where in the US are you? It seemed the entire population of New York has discovered it!
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#109  Postby theropod » Aug 18, 2011 5:07 pm

The armpit of the universe, Arkansas.

I can imagine it is very near paradise. If it's got fossils, beaches and golf courses I'd be set!

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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#110  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 5:13 pm

I can't say I've been to Arkansas, although I've viewed to from Tennessee! At least I think I have.

It's lovely, golf, coral beaches, fossils, wildlife, history.....and clean drinking water!
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#111  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 5:14 pm

Actually lets face it, the coral beaches are really parrot fish poop :smoke:
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#112  Postby theropod » Aug 18, 2011 6:50 pm

Hell Paul, honey is bee puke and I love it.

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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#113  Postby Paul G » Aug 18, 2011 6:59 pm

Indeed!
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#114  Postby The_Piper » Aug 19, 2011 11:24 am

Could the second batch of Aruba photos be coral?
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#115  Postby Paul G » Aug 19, 2011 11:40 am

It wouldn't surprise me, given the abundance of coral on the island.
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#116  Postby ginckgo » Aug 22, 2011 1:41 am

Paul G wrote:And some more.

Image

Image


These look a lot like the the bryozoan genus Stenopora (order Trepostomata).
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#117  Postby Paul G » Nov 25, 2011 12:11 pm

Off to Lulworth, Dorset for a night away and some fossil hunting! I'll be sure to post my finds when I'm back.
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#118  Postby Fenrir » Nov 25, 2011 12:30 pm

Paul G wrote:Image

Impressed at how prominent and seemingly unharmed these were. I have some other fossils to put up soon. All taken in Aruba, just off the coast of Venezuela. I went on a longer search but I couldn't go too far as I mistakenly went barefoot and it was a very uncomfortable coral beach :waah:


Are those fossil chitons or living material? They look like living chitons to me. Just wondering
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#119  Postby Paul G » Nov 25, 2011 1:51 pm

From the living Chitons I've looked at I don't think so, these were rock hard and about 4ft from the water.
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Re: Help identifying a rock/fossil + Post your finds

#120  Postby theropod » Nov 25, 2011 2:18 pm

Paul,

Do you have a hi rez version of the last photo? I'd like to look more carefully myself. I find it hard to accept that fossils with the detail we see here could survive long exposed like that. I could be wrong but isn't the one on the left excreting a pellet? Perhaps that's just a bit of coral, but the preservation of detail now seems off to me as well. Maybe I'm being too skeptical.

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