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Post by Joe Botting on Apr 25, 2014 10:19:18 GMT -5
Hi All, We've just had a couple of days away at a bothy in the Elan Valley, where the rocks are mostly Early Silurian, with a sparse fauna of graptolites and, if you're lucky, the odd brachiopod. We weren't carrying hammers or anything like that, but couldn't resist having a quick look in various obscure quarries hidden in the forestry. At one of them, guess what was lying on the surface of the scree?  crinoid by joe with a camera, on Flickr It looks to be an Imitatocrinus, similar to the only described species, from the Devonian Hunsruck Slate (Germany). We spent another half hour there before we had to walk back, and found not a single other body fossil (although plenty of burrows). However, it's safe to say that we'll be having another look sometime...  |
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ryanc
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Post by ryanc on Apr 25, 2014 13:05:09 GMT -5
Clearly the fossil gods are smiling on you! Perhaps you should buy a lottery ticket?  Regards, Ryan |
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Post by Joe Botting on Apr 25, 2014 14:08:07 GMT -5
Clearly the fossil gods are smiling on you! Perhaps you should buy a lottery ticket? Regards, Ryan Now that's a thought, Ryan... but alas, I think that's all our luck used up for this year.  For a moment we thought we'd found another crinoid fauna on the way home, but they turned up to be dendroid bryozoans instead. What is really weird is how these rocks are virtually barren, and then something like this turns up. There must have been very high sediment accumulation rates, and/or very little living on the sea floor... but rapid burial of anything that was. |
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Apr 28, 2014 6:06:58 GMT -5
Joe.... Thats an absolute beauty... I bet they dont come much clearer and well defined as that... Congratulations... I bet you looked up when you spotted that one... Its good to know theres some out there that walk the walk as well as talk the talk... well done !...
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Post by Joe Botting on Apr 29, 2014 13:47:38 GMT -5
Thanks Steve.  In this case it was such a surprise that I couldn't quite believe it; I had to look at least twice before I really accepted that it was there. There's not meant to be preservation like this in the area, so to have this one turn up out of the blue... well, it's a bit boggling. We're heading back there in June along with a Silurian crinoid specialist. |
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Post by pleecan (Peter Lee) on Apr 30, 2014 10:25:47 GMT -5
Great find Joe!
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moldy
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Post by moldy on May 8, 2014 6:07:01 GMT -5
Joe
How well dated to early Siturian are these rocks - sparse fossil fauna - high sedimentation rates - preservation as pyrite reminiscent of Cwmere Formation - might this be latest Ordovician? Need an extra pair of hands in June just shout!
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Post by Joe Botting on May 8, 2014 14:20:54 GMT -5
Joe How well dated to early Siturian are these rocks - sparse fossil fauna - high sedimentation rates - preservation as pyrite reminiscent of Cwmere Formation - might this be latest Ordovician? Need an extra pair of hands in June just shout! That is indeed an issue, as we didn't get any other body fossils at all from that site. However, other quarries fairly nearby gave a definitive Silurian (probably Telychian) age based on graptolites, and according to the BGS, the whole area is early Silurian Pysgotwr Grits Formation. I would certainly like to confirm that directly, though... Thanks for the offer of extra hands, although there might already be several times as many hands as there are fossils.  I'm working on getting permissions sorted at the moment, so we'll see how it all works out. |
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Post by Joe Botting on Jun 1, 2014 13:29:45 GMT -5
Well, we've been back, with four of us for the whole day... and found not a sausage. One possible sponge fragment (not all that convincing, but certainly plausible) and one indeterminate arthropod sclerite (possibly), and loads of trace fossils, but not a single other body fossil. That is weeeirrrd rock.
Still, it was very useful in that we've had a good look at the sedimentology (partly turbidite, partly thick green/blue mudstone) and worked out some more about the ecology. The fact that we didn't see a single other ossicle of a crinoid is extraordinary... but it looks as though this was a real one-off that is never likely to be found again. Good thing it's such a gorgeous specimen to start with.
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jun 4, 2014 0:40:25 GMT -5
Joe.... You must of been very lucky in the first place to find the crinoid but also it is very strange there are no other examples, not even poor ones...
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Post by Joe Botting on Jun 4, 2014 13:36:25 GMT -5
Joe.... You must of been very lucky in the first place to find the crinoid but also it is very strange there are no other examples, not even poor ones... It is very strange, Steve. Fiona had never come across a situation like that before, either, with no isolated ossicles. Having spent some more time looking at some branching 'infilled burrows' though, we've just noticed that some of them are broken... which means it probably wasn't a burrow. There's no other structure to it, though, so it's not likely to be bryozoan (the other obvious candidate). We're thinking perhaps a chitinous hydroid instead... but anyhow, these were in the sandstone beds rather than the mudstone with the crinoids. |
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jun 7, 2014 3:06:10 GMT -5
Joe.... Is the matrix the same on the crinoid as in the typical found within quarry... Texture colour and grain size etc ?...
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Post by Joe Botting on Jun 7, 2014 11:13:07 GMT -5
Joe.... Is the matrix the same on the crinoid as in the typical found within quarry... Texture colour and grain size etc ?... Identical, and quite distinctive. We've even considered someone planting it there, but no; it came from that quarry, and the sedimentology matches two short intervals between the sandstone beds very precisely... |
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Post by ammocarbsteve on Jun 7, 2014 13:25:41 GMT -5
Joe.... Good...I'm glad... I only asked out of interest...at the back of my mind I considered the specimen pretty special so I thought who would discard such a wonderful specimen anyhow... It wouldn't make sense...
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I'm working on getting permissions sorted at the moment, so we'll see how it all works out.