safossils Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 I stopped by a local outcrop of Mid Permian Concha Limestone yesterday. Didn't find anything worth taking home, but I snapped a few pictures of Paleozoic Invertebrates "in situ". Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chalkfiend Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Heck, I would have tried to pop that coral loose! Seeing something is better than seeing nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members geofossil Posted April 21, 2008 Members Share Posted April 21, 2008 I really enjoy these type of photos that show the locale and fossils 'in situ'. Those of us from northern climates can almost feel that great Arizona heat (snowed here yesterday). There's not a lot of fossiliferous Permian exposures in accessible places in North America so it adds to the interest. I've 'poked around' in the Concha limestone a few times. Lots of material hardened into the matrix similar to what you show but no intact specimens. That seems to be the norm for a lot of the upper Paleozoic formations in the southwest...then 'eureka'...you find an area with loose fossils. Curious? Have you collected inverts along the road at Kohl Ranch (near Payson)? We spent a day there a couple years ago and it was a lot of fun. It was Upper Carboniferous material but in some of the dry creek beds around the area we also found a few Devonian brachiopods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 In TX Pennsylvanian deposits I try to target the shales as opposed to limestones for best preservation of isolated specimens. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safossils Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 Most of the Paleozoic formations in Southern Arizona that contain fossils are thick bedded Limestones. Any rock layers that were not well consolidated eroded away when they were lifted by Mesozoic and Tertiary faulting. I have yet to come across a site that has whole specimens weathered out. I've seen photos from Texas where Gastropods and Crinoids are lying loose on the ground, and I'm amazed. There maybe some places like that out here, but I have not found them yet.This outcrop is very close to town, and everything that can be removed pretty much has been. It must have been magnificent back in the day, but it's been ravaged. I've encountered the remains of a lot of botched extractions. I've never hunted in the Payson area, but I passed through there quite a lot before I got interested fossils. There's some really nice country up there. Someday I'll get back up there to do some looking. There are a lot of rocks exposed along the Mogollon Rim escarpment . Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Walt It is true about some of the TX Pennsylvanian shale exposures. The Lake Bridgeport area in fact has really cool trilobites, gastropods, goniatites, nautiloids, etc. popping out of ironstone concretions in the clay. And there are a few spots nearby where the crinoid stems are more abundant than the dirt around them, at times acting like roller bearings and literally taking my feet out from under me, resulting in an unceremonious butt plant on the slope. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safossils Posted April 22, 2008 Author Share Posted April 22, 2008 The forth picture down on This Page is the one that I was thinking about from Texas. Looks really cool. Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safossils Posted May 4, 2008 Author Share Posted May 4, 2008 I stopped by this outcrop again today. This is in the mid to late permian Rainvalley formation. Found a few more typical invertebrates, and a beehive. My son almost stepped right on it. That would have been akward. I photographed one of the many botched extractions.....Looks like someone did a lot of work with a chisel for nothing. Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJ Mary Ann Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 I photographed one of the many botched extractions.....Looks like someone did a lot of work with a chisel for nothing.Walt Nice photos! I want to go there! Mary Ann -Mary Ann ********* "There is nothing like geology; the pleasure of the first day's partridge shooting or first day's hunting cannot be compared to finding a fine group of fossil bones, which tell their story of former times with almost a living tongue." Charles Darwin, letter to his sister Catherine, 1834 ********* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest solius symbiosus Posted May 4, 2008 Share Posted May 4, 2008 Any ideal on what caused the structure in the last pic? It appears from the photo that there is a darker, more course grained, material within the host. Then the host and the inclusion are traversed by viens of calcite(?). Interesting structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
safossils Posted May 4, 2008 Author Share Posted May 4, 2008 The darker portions are fresh surfaces exposed by chiseling. There are several viens of calcite running through the rock as well. The round circle is carved into the rock about 1/2 inch in spots. I'm not sure what this person was expecting to accomplish. Cross Sections of Gastropods like these are easily found in the gravels at the bottom of the hill. Walt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 He was drawing a face. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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