Post by neuropteris on May 21, 2006 5:20:32 GMT -5
Hello All
Thought I'd share some pics of 3 species of Carboniferous xiphosurans. Firstly Euproops. Theres a story behind this one. Was spending a pleasant warm summers evening in the pit, whacking nodules but with little result. A moments inattention resulted in thumb replacing nodule and receiving the the full force of my lump hammer. Spent a some moments saying a few choice words before deciding that my rapidly swelling thumb would be of no further use that night and headed back to the car. En route spotted a nodule lying in the roadway that looked too good to ignore. Managed to hold it without use of thumb, gave it gentle tap et voila! A beautiful Euproops - no further prepping required. Euproops were the most common element of the fauna at this site (if you don't count spirorbis worm tubes) found both as complete examples such as this and as moulted fragments of exoskeletons
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/Euproops.jpg
Second most common beastie was Belinurus. No blood was shed or expletives issued with the finding of this one but its one of the nicer examples. Usually found only as pyritic films this one is better preserved than most.
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/belinurus.jpg
Lastly Liomesaspis (if its not a Liomesaspis please let me know). Exceedingly rare from this site. This is the only example I've found and I'm only aware of one other turning up. Not the best of examples - this one was found in a small nodule which popped badly so that some of the top surface of the head and body were still attached to the other half of the nodule. A little super glue and careful digging with an air pen revealed this
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/Liomesaspis1.jpg
Hope you like them!
Andy
Thought I'd share some pics of 3 species of Carboniferous xiphosurans. Firstly Euproops. Theres a story behind this one. Was spending a pleasant warm summers evening in the pit, whacking nodules but with little result. A moments inattention resulted in thumb replacing nodule and receiving the the full force of my lump hammer. Spent a some moments saying a few choice words before deciding that my rapidly swelling thumb would be of no further use that night and headed back to the car. En route spotted a nodule lying in the roadway that looked too good to ignore. Managed to hold it without use of thumb, gave it gentle tap et voila! A beautiful Euproops - no further prepping required. Euproops were the most common element of the fauna at this site (if you don't count spirorbis worm tubes) found both as complete examples such as this and as moulted fragments of exoskeletons
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/Euproops.jpg
Second most common beastie was Belinurus. No blood was shed or expletives issued with the finding of this one but its one of the nicer examples. Usually found only as pyritic films this one is better preserved than most.
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/belinurus.jpg
Lastly Liomesaspis (if its not a Liomesaspis please let me know). Exceedingly rare from this site. This is the only example I've found and I'm only aware of one other turning up. Not the best of examples - this one was found in a small nodule which popped badly so that some of the top surface of the head and body were still attached to the other half of the nodule. A little super glue and careful digging with an air pen revealed this
i80.photobucket.com/albums/j178/neuropteris/Liomesaspis1.jpg
Hope you like them!
Andy