pleecan Posted October 22, 2010 Share Posted October 22, 2010 Welcome to the forum Rumi. Thanks for your recommendation to the beginner. I agree... Ebay is a great place to shop for used microscope.... picked up a AO boom stand mounted stereobinocular for $50 and $120 shipping due to the heavy shipping weight... came from a US University research lab... The cheapest used stereo microscope cost me $25 not including shipping... bottom line is that you don't need to spend a fortune on optical equipment to probe the microworld. I am a beginner just starting out looking at micros March of this year... having lots of fun exploring microworld. Here is a link for more microfossils from Arkona: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/13039-micro-fossils-from-arkona/ PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumi Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Those are nice photos, Peter! The Arkona Shale produces some fanmtastic ostracods: excellent preservation, and lots of complete carapaces, very good for checking valve overlap, etc. I'm attaching photos of two really common species from the Silica Shale, roughly the same age as Arkona (Givetian). I think ostracods in the Silica are less common, but equally well preserved -- not as many complete carapaces, though. I am finally getting a few microfossils from a locality here in Arizona, Pennsylvanian, Desmoinesian. Not too well preserved compared to the Great Lakes Devonian localities, but better than nothing. They are partially pyritized........... Rumi Welcome to the forum Rumi. Thanks for your recommendation to the beginner. I agree... Ebay is a great place to shop for used microscope.... picked up a AO boom stand mounted stereobinocular for $50 and $120 shipping due to the heavy shipping weight... came from a US University research lab... The cheapest used stereo microscope cost me $25 not including shipping... bottom line is that you don't need to spend a fortune on optical equipment to probe the microworld. I am a beginner just starting out looking at micros March of this year... having lots of fun exploring microworld. Here is a link for more microfossils from Arkona: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/13039-micro-fossils-from-arkona/ PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Thanks Rumi. For the micros.. I have switched to metallugical microscope to photograph the microfossils.... I think the metallurgical microscopes are superior to alot of stereo dissecting scopes. Recently I have used direct coupling microscope objectives into body of SLR camera which result in some nice photos on macro fossils.... have not tried it on micro fossils yet... Thanks for posting the 2 images... nice and sharp. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumi Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Thank you for the compliment, Peter -- but I have to agree, I think your metallurgical microscope can do a better job of image formation than my stereo. I need something more contrasty for a background, too, as the black floor of a micropaleo slide just "eats up" the black ostracods from the Silica Shale. It's interesting: not all of the ostracods from there are black, but the best-preserved ones often are. Rumi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Thank you for the compliment, Peter -- but I have to agree, I think your metallurgical microscope can do a better job of image formation than my stereo. I need something more contrasty for a background, too, as the black floor of a micropaleo slide just "eats up" the black ostracods from the Silica Shale. It's interesting: not all of the ostracods from there are black, but the best-preserved ones often are. Rumi Just an observation that for a given same magnification... A high quality ie Zeiss APO microscope objective will produce sharper images than any achromatic generic stereomicroscope. This is base in part on the design and application. I picked up my German Beck Metallurgical microscope used for less than $150 on Ebay. In microscopy... the guts is still the objective lens that determines the final resolution of the totality of the system. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 I should post some pics of some of mine.. some Teichochilina.... Ive found hundreds of Leperditia fabulites ... (the ostracods are the bean shaped forms..I need to take more pics of them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 neat stuff Jim. PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acryzona Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Rumi, Welcome to the Forum. I also collect ostracods from Silica, Bell and Arkona shales. If you look at my gallery on the Forum or search "silica" you see some of my pictures. I haven't had much time to work on the photography end of my hobby as I barely have time to process and pick samples! Acryzona Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumi Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Acryzona, I just looked at your gallery; can't think why I didn't do it this morning when I wrote the comment to your profile. Excellent photos!! I have seen all of these except the Octonaria. It's Octonaria quadricostata Van Pelt, correct? I'll have to sort through my Silica sample again -- I've only had it a week, have finished the picking, but have barely begun working on ID's. I've seen a lot of Octonaria crescentiformis Van Pelt in the Plum Brook Shale, and I know from reading Kesling that it also occurs in the Silica. If I can ever get anything decent here in Arizona, I'll be happy to send you some. Thus far I am washing out! I know of one locality that produces the rare ostracod, partially pyritized, and mostly very poor preservation. About two hours picking a sample today produced a total of 6 ostracods. One was calcitized, a complete carapace, quite perfect. The others were pretty crude, or crushed, or flaking away, or perfectly preserved but with both ends broken off -- a nice Hollinella, unfortunately! Good hunting, Rumi Rumi, Welcome to the Forum. I also collect ostracods from Silica, Bell and Arkona shales. If you look at my gallery on the Forum or search "silica" you see some of my pictures. I haven't had much time to work on the photography end of my hobby as I barely have time to process and pick samples! Acryzona Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acryzona Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Rumi, Yes, it is O. quadricostata. A few years ago, I was visiting PHX and wanted to collect near Kohl Ranch in the Naco Formation unfortunately never had the time. Ostracodes from the Naco Formation (Upper Carboniferous) at the Kohl Ranch Locality, Central Arizona Robert F. Lundin and Colin D. Sumrall - Journal of Paleontology Vol. 73, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 454-460 I emailed Robert Lundin and he thought the original locality may have been lost with highway expansion but looking online there appears to be other Naco outcrops in the area. Have you collected in the Naco? Acryzona Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumi Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Rumi, Yes, it is O. quadricostata. A few years ago, I was visiting PHX and wanted to collect near Kohl Ranch in the Naco Formation unfortunately never had the time. Ostracodes from the Naco Formation (Upper Carboniferous) at the Kohl Ranch Locality, Central Arizona Robert F. Lundin and Colin D. Sumrall - Journal of Paleontology Vol. 73, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 454-460 I emailed Robert Lundin and he thought the original locality may have been lost with highway expansion but looking online there appears to be other Naco outcrops in the area. Have you collected in the Naco? Acryzona Acryzona, Yes, I have collected there -- that's where I'm getting the odd, poorly preserved few! They have been working on the road there, true, but the "old" site is intact, and there's a new roadcut that's weathering quite nicely. And many other outcrops in the area, too. The Naco also outcrops near Winkleman, AZ, and I'm hoping to give that a look sometime soon. The Kohl Ranch locality produces a lot of nice brachiopods, and there are several species of bryozoans. I find large numbers of little bryozoan "twigs" in the sievings I take for microfossils, a few fenestrates, too. Too bad there are so few ostracodes, and I've seen no small forams at all. I have the paper you mentioned, and hope to get enough specimens to be able to put it to use! I have several Hollinella, but none is very good -- except the broken one I mentioned -- and unfortunately it is broken! Good hunting, Rumi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geodigger Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 I also love these crustaceans. The ostracods certainly add a whole new dimension to fossil collecting for many reasons including: adding to your species list for a formation you collect and for stratigraphic/correlation purposes. I've attached a picture of one I collected from Ontario, Canada from a type area that was collected in the 1930's. However, I still have not found the shale layer where there were supposed to be over 25 species of ostracods found. If anyone can send me a pdf of this article I would appreciate it. The article is: Kay, G. Marshall. 1934. Mohawkian Ostracoda: Species common to Trenton Faunules from the Hull and Decorah Formations. Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 328-343. Thanks in advance ... ostracods rule! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 Hey: I will look for ostacodes next year at Healy Falls.... I have vacant lot that is only a couple of blocks from Healy Falls.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acryzona Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Geodigger, I like the photo. How did you break down the sediment? If I don't have something easy like clay from Arkona or Silica Formations to break down in water, I've been experimenting with kerosene and water washes to fracture harder shales. Last weekend, I found a bottle of Quaternary-O in my shed from years ago. Worked wonders on cleaning up some microfossils from the Silica Shale at Paulding, OH. I'll post photos shortly. Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acryzona Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Forgot to mention - if you know someone with a San Francisco library card, the library has free online access to JSTOR - an electronic database of technical journals going back to the 1800s - including the Journal of Paleontology! Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Geodigger, I like the photo. How did you break down the sediment? If I don't have something easy like clay from Arkona or Silica Formations to break down in water, I've been experimenting with kerosene and water washes to fracture harder shales. Last weekend, I found a bottle of Quaternary-O in my shed from years ago. Worked wonders on cleaning up some microfossils from the Silica Shale at Paulding, OH. I'll post photos shortly. You might want to try varsol : See thread http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/16512-dissaggregating-this-small-mass-of-stone-city-vertebrae-material/page__p__182591__hl__varsol__fromsearch__1#entry182591 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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