Post by Joe Botting on May 9, 2007 13:16:58 GMT -5
Hi All,
Thanks to the Sylvester-Bradley Fund of the Palaeontological Association, Lucy and I have been able to go and do some serious work at the Lagerstaette site. Up until now we've really not been doing much for fear of damaging what's there, but this time we spent four days there, with several volunteers (Ormrod among them). We took back about 30 kilos of rock for X-raying, and now have a much better understanding of the sequence and the ecology, but we've still barely made a dent in the outcrop. At this stage, all I'll say is that there are dense faunas and sparse ones, and sponges form a patchy community on a variety of scales: in some cases, there are sponge beds running for metres, and in others they run only for 20 cm or so.
There seems to be a big bias against anything with a calcareous shell. We're finding bits of trilobite now, but they're uncommon and exceptionally poorly preserved - just faint remnants of moulds. We have got one possibly enrolled trinucleid that is preserved better... does it have soft tissue? You'll have to wait for the X-ray! ;D
We've also been taking more note of preservation of possible algae as silvery films on the rock surface in the same beds, suggesting that there are at least two pathways leading to exceptional preservation at this site. Whether we'll be able to do anything with them beyond saying roughly how many different types there were is another matter.
As for what we've found, there are lots of the usual suspects: hydroids, sponges (including a gorgeous one), small blobby things. But also, we got another crinoid fragment (just column, alas), a gastropod and a few nautiloids - all rare components of the fauna. We've also got a great big thing that doesn't seem to have any useful features as yet... we're working on that one. In this pre-X-ray stage we can say there's nothing obvioulsy startling, but lots of good specimens and at least a bit of clear soft tissue. One slab should be fabulous when it's been zapped. The real value of the work at this site was, however, the better understanding of the faunas that we're getting, which is vital for future work.
To satisfy a craving for good specimens, though, we also went carpoid-hunting, and came back with a hatful. Ormrod in particular found a stonking slab with six articulated cornutes (two species: Galliaecystis and another hanusiid) and one mitrate. We got complete beasties from two sites, with some lovely preservation that bodes well for future finds. Always keep an eye out for the plates of these things in these rocks - they're everywhere in the Llanfawr Mudstones Formation once you get your eye in.
When we take into account a couple of nautiloids and a dendroid, we make it an estimated 6 or 7 new species from this trip, but we need to confirm them. Not a bad haul. As always, I can't wait to get back.... The number of new species may well go up, once Lucy has been in the x-ray lab for a couple of weeks. Thanks again to all the volunteers, and hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we appreciated having you!
Thanks to the Sylvester-Bradley Fund of the Palaeontological Association, Lucy and I have been able to go and do some serious work at the Lagerstaette site. Up until now we've really not been doing much for fear of damaging what's there, but this time we spent four days there, with several volunteers (Ormrod among them). We took back about 30 kilos of rock for X-raying, and now have a much better understanding of the sequence and the ecology, but we've still barely made a dent in the outcrop. At this stage, all I'll say is that there are dense faunas and sparse ones, and sponges form a patchy community on a variety of scales: in some cases, there are sponge beds running for metres, and in others they run only for 20 cm or so.
There seems to be a big bias against anything with a calcareous shell. We're finding bits of trilobite now, but they're uncommon and exceptionally poorly preserved - just faint remnants of moulds. We have got one possibly enrolled trinucleid that is preserved better... does it have soft tissue? You'll have to wait for the X-ray! ;D
We've also been taking more note of preservation of possible algae as silvery films on the rock surface in the same beds, suggesting that there are at least two pathways leading to exceptional preservation at this site. Whether we'll be able to do anything with them beyond saying roughly how many different types there were is another matter.
As for what we've found, there are lots of the usual suspects: hydroids, sponges (including a gorgeous one), small blobby things. But also, we got another crinoid fragment (just column, alas), a gastropod and a few nautiloids - all rare components of the fauna. We've also got a great big thing that doesn't seem to have any useful features as yet... we're working on that one. In this pre-X-ray stage we can say there's nothing obvioulsy startling, but lots of good specimens and at least a bit of clear soft tissue. One slab should be fabulous when it's been zapped. The real value of the work at this site was, however, the better understanding of the faunas that we're getting, which is vital for future work.
To satisfy a craving for good specimens, though, we also went carpoid-hunting, and came back with a hatful. Ormrod in particular found a stonking slab with six articulated cornutes (two species: Galliaecystis and another hanusiid) and one mitrate. We got complete beasties from two sites, with some lovely preservation that bodes well for future finds. Always keep an eye out for the plates of these things in these rocks - they're everywhere in the Llanfawr Mudstones Formation once you get your eye in.
When we take into account a couple of nautiloids and a dendroid, we make it an estimated 6 or 7 new species from this trip, but we need to confirm them. Not a bad haul. As always, I can't wait to get back.... The number of new species may well go up, once Lucy has been in the x-ray lab for a couple of weeks. Thanks again to all the volunteers, and hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we appreciated having you!
