fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 23, 2007 15:04:55 GMT -5
yes, we've spent close to 10 years working on the site, and there's been several Journal of Paleo papers, a doctoral paper, and at least a half dozen GSA poster sessions or tech sessions talks. And there's plenty more to come, since we've jsut found researchers who are experts to work on other individual fossil types. It's a turbidity flow (mudslide). They had to be buried alive to preserve that way, urchins of this time period (Pennsylvanian age)disintegrated within hours after death according to our research at UT, and these are still completely articulated. It's now considered one of the top 50 invertebrate fossil sites in the world, and is easily the best Paleozoic age urchin locality. There's actually 7 distinct turbidites with urchins (the most common fossil), crinoids, starfish, brittle stars, brachiopods, edrioasteroids, and common critters in a 2 foot thick zone. Each layer has its unique characteristics. This layer, though, is my favorite to quarry, since every slab this size always has urchins on it, and they are 5 - 7 1/2 inches in diameter. You should see them up close - there's details down to 1/50th of a millimeter in diameter that can be prepared out with my new and super-top-secret abrasive blasting technique. Photos simply cannot do these justice.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 21, 2007 16:02:59 GMT -5
here in TX.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 21, 2007 9:40:35 GMT -5
I don't have a bigger picture of that specimen, but I do have a good photo of the type specimen I collected. It's a 3 1/2 foot by 3 foot mass kill slab with 28 urchins and a perfect crinoid. It currently is in the UT-Austin museum. I'm one of the authors that described it, and I've dug and prepared thousands of these. Paleontologists like myself often go a lifetime not finding a site like this, and I probably never will find another site with the number and quality of new species (20+ new species currently and growing). This slab took 150 hours of prep work. It would have really been nice to have that game cart for this, I had to hoof it out on my back 3/4 of a mile. Here's a closeup of one of the singles. There's more photos of them in my photobucket account. s93.photobucket.com/albums/l56/danryderfossils/Archaeocidaris/and here's the mass kill slab. This is probably the finest fossil that I've ever collected and prepared.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 21, 2007 1:21:22 GMT -5
incidentally, those corals and the urchin occur less than 10 miles from each other
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 21, 2007 1:20:54 GMT -5
I have tumbled them before, but they are soft, and need a vibratory tumbler for a good final polish. They make killer pendants when cabbed. My avatar is my favorite fossil species, a spiny urchin that I discovered 15 years ago.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 20, 2007 20:14:54 GMT -5
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 22, 2007 1:31:13 GMT -5
I've had a lot of stuff from the Viburnum trend, but none of that. Very pretty and weird!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 21, 2007 9:26:29 GMT -5
you needed one of those game field carts I posted. Great find!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 20, 2007 9:03:49 GMT -5
and years to cut all of that, what a score!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 19, 2007 9:54:36 GMT -5
that's a neat freeform. How are you going to mount it?
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 17, 2007 2:04:08 GMT -5
I'd love to see when that bone is slabbed.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 13, 2007 1:18:06 GMT -5
spectacular! Loosk like they iris like crazy!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 19:40:25 GMT -5
great stones and super shine!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 13:24:07 GMT -5
I love those hematite/jasper stones!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 19:28:42 GMT -5
Llanite is like granite, of mixed hardness. It can take a good polish by cabbing, but NOBODY has been able to get a mirror polish via tumbling yet. Usually, the few jewelers that carry it (courtesy of a few that collect it and cab like me) set it in gold. It can be stunning. I hope to finish a cab of it tonight, assuming that I can find my polish in the garage. Texas has lots of cutting material that people don't see often. That's what I like to collect
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 13:23:11 GMT -5
The Texas red corals often polish burnt orange, perfect for TX (go Horns!) The gray ones polish gray, brown, and sometimes black, and are actually from OK. I end polish hundreds of these corals every month. Both corals are calcite, so a quick 100-600-ZAM is all you need to work them. Llanite doesn't tumble terribly well due to the difference in hardness - the beta quartz (iridescent, opalescent blue) is much harder than the feldspars and black matrix, but it does take a nice polish via cabbing. It's technically called a porphyry rock, but it looks like a granite. The pink limestone is from the old Lambert Ranch - you can also find black and gray limestone with the crinoids in it.
I always have lots of the corals for trade, and often the llanite. I know the reefs where you find the corals quite well, and the sites are always quite productive.
Glad you like them! Have fun cabbing and tumbling, Curt! Dan
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 19:30:25 GMT -5
hardness of 3, and brittle. They usually come out brown, but will break in a rotary into little bits.
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 13:28:31 GMT -5
Belemnites are sometimes nicknamed "squid butts" or "cigar fossils." They are related to the modern cuttlefish, and also squids. Cuttlefish have a cartilage rod inside of their bodies at the opposite end from the head, and belemnites have theirs made of calcite. Careful tumbling them, they are calcite, and they also can split lengthwise easily. If I remember right, that species is Pachyteuthis densus. Nice find. I've had these before, but enver had a site to hunt them. Any matrix slabs with lots of them? Dan
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 11, 2007 13:32:49 GMT -5
that's some green moss agate!
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fossilman
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2007
Posts: 256
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Post by fossilman on Jun 10, 2007 20:56:31 GMT -5
it may well be Mexican dolomite, I've had a bunch of it very similar looking from Mexico. And most of it's been carved into eggs and spheres.
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