huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353 
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Post by huskeric on Jun 8, 2016 16:40:54 GMT -5
I was out in Calabasas, CA on business, and read about Topanga Canyon boulevard. My coworker (who thinks I'm a lunatic now) took me out to a little park area, and I started pulling rocks up from everywhere I could. There is a big hill behind the park, and there were big piles of rock that had fallen away, and I picked up a whole bunch of them. I didn't end up bringing them all home, as I would have needed another suitcase, but here are a couple of interesting ones that *might* be fossils. I think the things that look like bubbles, might just be that, but I also think the black fish fin might be that. I doubt they're anything spectacular, but interested to know thoughts. Thanks!  |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,492
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Post by Sabre52 on Jun 10, 2016 7:53:06 GMT -5
Used to be lots of places in Ventura County, north of LA county that had similar sandstone filled with fossils. Various fish and plants were fairly common. The coolest ones were little pipefish. Next time you go there, hit the LA museum of natural history. When I was there last, they had a whole display of those sandstone fossils and the rest of their fossil section is spectacular too. Museum is in a bad neighborhood though, so don't get off on the wrong streets like we did. I was wishing I had a couple of SAWS mounted on our car where we wound up.....Mel
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2016 12:58:23 GMT -5
Look into changing the white balance in your camera so we see more than the gold color of tungsten lights.
Thanks for posting
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inyo
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since September 2014
Posts: 85
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Post by inyo on Jun 10, 2016 15:37:52 GMT -5
I was out in Calabasas, CA on business, and read about Topanga Canyon boulevard. My coworker (who thinks I'm a lunatic now) took me out to a little park area, and I started pulling rocks up from everywhere I could. There is a big hill behind the park, and there were big piles of rock that had fallen away, and I picked up a whole bunch of them. I didn't end up bringing them all home, as I would have needed another suitcase, but here are a couple of interesting ones that *might* be fossils. I think the things that look like bubbles, might just be that, but I also think the black fish fin might be that. I doubt they're anything spectacular, but interested to know thoughts. Thanks!
Interesting material, indeed. From my geological recollections of time spent in southern California a number of years ago, the rock group looks like specimens from what's called the upper Miocene Modelo Formation (or middle Miocene Monterey Formation). If it's Topanga Canyon Blvd., I would lean more toward Modelo, I reckon. It's known to contain loads of superior paleontologic specimens: well preserved fish skeletons (in addition to scales and dissociated bones); seaweeds; mollusks (mainly pelecypods); microscopic plants and animals; and even land plants. Your rock specimens, as a matter of fact, are likely loaded with diatoms--a microscopic single-celled aquatic plant.
If you ever get back to that area, head on over to Old Topanga Canyon Road in the Santa Monica Mountains. Assuming of course that you can locate there places where it's still permitted to park along the street, you should be able to recover plentiful turritella gastropods, oysters, and numerous additional varieties of well preserved mollusks from roadcuts in the middle Miocene Topanga Formation.
But, anyhow--about your three Modelo chunks. Top two specimens appear to represent inorganic artifacts of sediment deformation--not fossil remains. Bottom piece bears what could well be a portion of a pelecypod. Doesn't really look like a genuine fish fin to my eye.
Here's a photoshop-enhanced version of your original image: I used the following functions: auto levels; curves; sharpen (once); and image size (I increased the size of your photograph, slightly):
Links To All Of The Fossils-Related Pages I Have Created
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,600
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Post by jamesp on Jun 11, 2016 10:42:19 GMT -5
Great adjustment
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huskeric
spending too much on rocks
Member since May 2016
Posts: 353
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Post by huskeric on Jun 15, 2016 6:35:32 GMT -5
Those Turritella shells were one of the things I had hoped to find. My coworker thinks I'm a lunatic for climbing up the hill and bringing 50+ lbs of that stuff back to my hotel room. I think he's probably right. Thank you for the information, that is REALLY interesting stuff!
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geezer
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2016
Posts: 338
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Post by geezer on Jun 28, 2016 10:34:09 GMT -5
Those Turritella shells were one of the things I had hoped to find. My coworker thinks I'm a lunatic for climbing up the hill and bringing 50+ lbs of that stuff back to my hotel room. I think he's probably right. Thank you for the information, that is REALLY interesting stuff! You are a lunatic, and you fit right in with the rest of us! |
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