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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 23, 2011 7:55:02 GMT -5
A very knowlegable friend (museum curator) has commented on the true Id....
"This is an echinoderm - a cornute-grade stylophoran that to my knowledge has yet to be named/decribed. Stylophorans constitute one of several groups of enigmatic forms informally known as "carpoids"."
end of quote.
The fossil is from Fezouata Formation, 2cm in length. Imaged with Sigma SD10 and Sigma EX 50mm F2.8 Macro Lens .
Images have been removed due to pending publication.
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Post by gritstone on Mar 23, 2011 17:14:03 GMT -5
Thats a very strange looking creature pleecan. But very nice!
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 23, 2011 20:29:41 GMT -5
Thanks Gritstone.
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Post by Joe Botting on Mar 24, 2011 3:15:07 GMT -5
That is a nice specimen! I agree with the diagnosis entirely, and I think this is close to Chauveicystis and Phyllocystis. It almost certainly is new, and in my opinion is different from the specimen descibed by Ware & Lefebvre in 2007 (J. Paleontology 81, 779-787) - this has an unusually high number of plates in the proximal part of the stylocone, and although the apex of the theca may be covered over, I think it's a different shape... Looks more like a Phyllocystis than anything else.
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 24, 2011 4:46:55 GMT -5
Thanks for your insights Joe! I am have lots of fun with the Morocco material.
PL
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Post by Joe Botting on Mar 24, 2011 6:15:57 GMT -5
So I see! Are you intending to prepare this one? It looks worthwhile to me, although the Fezouata is often difficult and doesn't separate easily around the fossil.
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 24, 2011 7:52:15 GMT -5
Not at the moment Joe. I just enjoy looking at the fossil and when I donate the fossil to the local museum... they can prep it. It is probably a valuable specimen ... I will let the experts prep it if they choose....
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Post by Joe Botting on Mar 26, 2011 3:12:13 GMT -5
Fair enough, but I imagine you must be decent at it yourself by now? Or do you not do preparing? (I confess I have occasionally regretted overconfidence, myself...)
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 26, 2011 11:39:43 GMT -5
Hi Joe: I do my own prepping.... doing less now... Since I work for one of the largest abrasive makers in North America... I have unlimited sand blasting media. ... the way I look at it common fossil I do not have a problem with prepping... it is the really rarer stuff that I will not prep and by not prepping... preserves the integrity of the fossil intact... I own 2 micro abrasion units by CrystalMark, a third abrasion unit is still sitting in a box unopen for the last 2-3 yrs... I just have not found the time... I will prep more fossil when I retire in 16 yrs... each fossil is like a time capsule... the matrix and the other fossil fragments that surround the main fossil tell a story an often is just as important as the fossil one is trying to expose.
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Post by Joe Botting on Mar 27, 2011 6:01:21 GMT -5
Can't argue with that. Of course, you don't want to be even thinking about doing this one with air abrasives! (Just in case any readers get the wrong idea... ;-) A scalpel-type tool would probably be your best bet. As you say, the matrix contains a lot of information if you can tease it out... but if you're looking beyond the sedimentology and associated fossils, in most cases that takes chemical analysis, dissolution for microfossils, etc. Always worth a reminder about what not to ignore, though!  |
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Mar 27, 2011 9:15:35 GMT -5
Thanks Joe for the helpful tip... scalpel... actually I have never used a scalpel except for disscecting frogs many yrs ago bio 101..... thanks
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Dec 22, 2011 11:34:16 GMT -5
Latest email: "Thank you very much for your e-mail and the photographs of a cornute stylophoran from the Lower Ordovician of Morocco.
This fossil belongs to a new species that Fleur Noailles (currently doing a PhD thesis in Bristol University, UK) and myself (researcher at Lyon 1 University, France) are working on. Hopefully, its description should be published within the next two years. This species is one of the most common stylophorans in the late Tremadocian - early Floian time interval, in Central Anti-Atlas (Zagora area, Morocco). Did you collect this specimen by yourself, or did you buy it? Please do not hesitate to contact me, if you are interested in having more details about these fossils.
All the best, and merry Christmas,
Dr. Bertrand Lefebvre"
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Dec 27, 2011 17:51:41 GMT -5
Note pictures have been removed from the post due to pending publication.
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Post by Joe Botting on Jan 6, 2012 19:35:16 GMT -5
Excellent news - does that mean they're using your specimen as well? :-)
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Jan 7, 2012 10:22:40 GMT -5
Hi Joe: This is out of respect for Dr. Bertrand Lefebvre etal on their publication.
Peter
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