|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 5, 2014 6:25:10 GMT -5
Hi Folks, Just thought I'd show you a few sponges from a new site we're working on (or were, before the weather turned grim). It's exposed on the top of a hill, so your hands freeze up very quickly when you're out hammering. Still, it's producing the goods: an entirely new (well, almost) sponge fauna from the Middle Ordovician Didymograptus murchisoni Biozone. Some of the preservation is really nice, and a few of the species are pretty spectacular, like this new piraniid: [/url]
Then there are others with tiny, obscure spicules, but which turn up in groups:
And some nice reticulosans as well:
They're in a small farm quarry with siltstone interbedded with volcanic ash, and I'm sure there's a lot more to come. The amazing thing about these sponge faunas is that they're all so different, despite being close by in a small area. We have two genera in this one shared with other sites; one of them is a completely different species, and one of them is more difficult to tell, but seems to be different based on the two specimens I've got. The same story applies to the other sites in this area as well (four diverse sponge faunas in the Llanfawr Mudstones Formation alone, each with probably at least 20 species). The total diversity must have been amazing.
|
|
|
Post by reighan on Jan 5, 2014 18:06:55 GMT -5
That's pretty exciting. :-) Hope the weather improves soon.
|
|
|
Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 6, 2014 1:41:38 GMT -5
Joe.... The preservation is really good.... I bet you cant wait to get back up there and get digging.... It sounds quite an exciting prospect with new species a very good possibility.... I'll be watching this space....
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 6, 2014 6:00:54 GMT -5
Thanks both. New species are not just a possibility, Steve, they're absolutely inevitable. Even the sites we've been working for ten years are producing new species (mostly sponges) almost every time we visit, so a new site like this will take a long time to exhaust. I've only got one specimen of that piraniid so far, and likewise of several other species, which is a certain indicator that we haven't yet found the full diversity. It's a useful general pointer: if you have a high proportion of species represented by only one or two specimens, then you're probably nowhere near the full diversity. One of the species is in a family with one other representative - from one site in the Devonian of Australia. I guess that says quite a bit about the completeness of the sponge fossil record...
|
|
|
Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Jan 6, 2014 13:30:43 GMT -5
Wow ! Very nice Joe!!! Happy New Year to everyone!
PL
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 7, 2014 4:48:17 GMT -5
Cheers, Peter - and a happy new year as well. Hope you're not suffering from the ridiculous cold too much at the moment?
|
|
|
Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Jan 7, 2014 7:09:10 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 7, 2014 12:05:23 GMT -5
Yikes... I don't think I've experience less than about -l7C, but in my defense that was on fieldwork in North Wales. ;D Thanks for the link. It's a major sign of the times that they're advertising a position studying macroevolution, and therefore it goes almost without saying that you need to be a specialist is phylogenetic analysis... the old style of palaeontology is now almost dead, but unfortunately it's still as critical as it ever was. In my opinion.
|
|
|
Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 8, 2014 15:26:30 GMT -5
.. the old style of palaeontology is now almost dead, but unfortunately it's still as critical as it ever was. In my opinion. Joe.... I agree.... sometimes I think as fossil collectors we get lost in the ' collector mentality ' of finding fossils but its great and a real buzz when we find something we consider is 'rare' or a 'gooden'.... but to find something completely new like a new species must be fantastic.... look forward to seeing more of your finds....
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 8, 2014 17:24:41 GMT -5
We all still get that buzz with a beautiful specimen, Steve, whether it's new or not. A lot of palaeontologists are a little blase about new finds (those that still do old-fashioned stuff like fieldwork, that is), but I think every now and then is really does hit them.
I've been saying for years that palaeontology is soon going to go back to needing the amateurs, as it once did. A lot of the new generation just don't have the fieldwork experience, whatever their qualifications, to be able to find and interpret fossils in the wild. There's a feeling that everything now can just be analysed, and there is no need for the detailed observations and keen eye. Taxonomy is getting harder to publish, and basic site descriptions are now virtually impossible. If we can encourage amateurs to take a more active role in doing some non-lab-based research rather than just collecting, then wonderful...
To that end, we're about to launch a fossil club in Llandrindod, and I'm also writing a popular science book about the Builth Inlier - from first principles. A long way to go with that, but if it gets published then hopefully it will start something...
|
|
|
Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Jan 10, 2014 14:46:56 GMT -5
Best wishes on your fossil club in Llandrindod!!! PL
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 10, 2014 14:50:18 GMT -5
Thanks, Peter. We know there's one person interested, but it will be interesting to see what the uptake is like. We normally get a reasonable response to events around here, so fingers crossed...
|
|
|
Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Jan 10, 2014 14:55:03 GMT -5
I also advertised it on David Smith FB site on Fossil Plants on FB that I help create.... he is also a member of this forum too...
|
|
|
Post by ammocarbsteve on Jan 11, 2014 8:48:26 GMT -5
Hey Joe..... Thats great news about the fossil club.... No doubt if the interest is there you can start getting about a bit too having the odd trip....Your spot on with the observations.... Passion and interest sometimes has greater value than qualifications alone...
|
|
|
Post by Joe Botting on Jan 11, 2014 14:14:16 GMT -5
Thanks Steve, and glad you agree. There are still some extremely good amateur palaeontologists out there publishing, but many of them are now long retired. They tend to be specialists in one constrained field, and usually do superb taxonomic work rather than the more speculative 'big picture' stuff - in other words, exactly the areas that are now unfashionable and difficult to fund. There are some exceptional younger ones as well, I'm glad to say - Patrick McDermott, for example, who's just published his second paper (on coronate echinoderms from South Wales - a superb piece of work).
We'll have to wait and see how the club does - as long as we get a few keen people, it should work out pretty well, but you never can tell.
|
|