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Shwmae!
Jul 11, 2009 8:34:08 GMT -5
Post by cerredwen on Jul 11, 2009 8:34:08 GMT -5
Hi everyone. Just stumbled across your web site and would just like to say thanks to everyone involved, as it's been near impossible trying to find any info on the Builth Llandod fossils. Myself and my partner have just got into fossiling since finding out that we live on top of an arc of ancient volcanic islands! Hoping to avoid being labelled as 'anorac' types, but we've definitely caught the trilobite bug. Incidentally, we've found a few examples of what we believe to be Ogyglocarella just down from gilwern hill, a few of them being complete speciments about 5cms in length. Are these a rare chance find or are they two a penny in this area?
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Shwmae!
Jul 20, 2009 1:52:06 GMT -5
Post by Joe Botting on Jul 20, 2009 1:52:06 GMT -5
Hi Cerredwen, Delighted you've found us! This is exactly the sort of thing that we set the site up for in the first place, and if there's anything at all that we can do to help or encourage, please just ask. We're in Llandod a few times a year, and occasionally do a talk or something similar, so if you have any requests, here's the place to ask. Also, make use of the Radnorshire Museum - a large chunk of our collections are on display there, where we've put together quite a lot of background info. If you're finding entire trilobites already, you're doing well! If you mean to the south of Gilwern, near the Rhogo road, then they're not likely to be Ogygiocarella, because the rocks are too old in that area - a better bet is Ogyginus . The quick ID is from the number of ribs in the pygidium (tail): 7-8 Ogyginus corndensis, 9-10 O. intermedius; and then 11-12 Ogygiocarella debuchi and 13-14 O. angustissima. Once you get your eye in there are other differences as well, but that's the defining feature. Assuming you've got Ogyginus intermedius, in brown sandy beds with bivalved molluscs and perhaps gastropods and tergomyans/monoplacophorans, they're not rare. Complete ones are never abundant (although more so in the Builth Inlier than practically anywhere else in Britain). Your next challenges in those beds is to find Plaesiocomia and Platycoryphe - it's the only place in the area that they turn up! Feel free to upload any photos if you want to check anything, of course! Joe
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Shwmae!
Jul 24, 2009 15:07:34 GMT -5
Post by cerredwen on Jul 24, 2009 15:07:34 GMT -5
Hi Joe, The reason for thinking that they were Ogygiocarella is down to the fact that UK Fossils are advertising an exact same specimen on their web site shop for £90 (although mine are complete, theirs isn't!) I counted the ribs on the pygidium and they would appear to be intermedius as you suspected. Personally I don't care which species they are - I'm just chuffed to find them! Haven't been up there for a couple of weeks due to the weather but hopefully be back up soon.
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Shwmae!
Jul 24, 2009 16:17:04 GMT -5
Post by Joe Botting on Jul 24, 2009 16:17:04 GMT -5
Guess what - UK Fossils have got it wrong! ;D It happens a lot, actually, when you see them for sale - and there are some horrendous spelling errors on their lists as well. Of course, names and spelling only matter when you want to know more about what you're finding, but I'm sure you'll be thinking along those lines at some point. I know what you mean about just being glad to find them, whatever they're called - it's an amazing feeling when you start discovering these things that have been dead for 450,000,000 years, and you're the first person to see them. You'll quite quickly get to find the common species familiar, though, and at that point you'll start to see patterns. The most rewarding step in fossiling is going from seeing individual shells, to seeing the remains of a once-living creature with its own habits and behaviour... In this case, Ogyginus and Ogygiacarella are quite different - the former lived everywhere from the shallow coasts to the deepest muddy bits, whereas the latter only seems to have lived in the relatively deeper, offshore places. Of the two species of Ogyginus in the area, corndensis is by far the more common - intermedius is really restricted to a short time, and possibly even to the small area around Gilwern. It's when you start questioning how things lived and why you find them where you do that it gets really interesting! And once you start looking for the small things as well, you'll be amazed at how many different creatures you start to find. Hope the weather clears up for you. We probably won't get back out there until September now, but I'm already itching to get back to our new site!
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