Enlil
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Have any of you specimens been identified to genus level?
Dinosaurs from Darwin
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SteveNT
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"Perhaps you need to go fossiling with Guzzo and his spear next time!"
Ha ha absolutely! You'd never know where he was with that camo though. He could sort out the swine while I slipped through to grab a fossil!
I went out to the reefs in the middle of the night a few times (the big lows in the Dry are in the dark am). It's not great with torchlight and one night I was followed for 3 hours by a 3 meter handbag, Not relaxing. I'm happy to wait for the Wet and get out on the ocean floor in the afternoon.
Enlil, certainly but I have many many specimens with several museums and really they tell me the names but I forget, only so much you can fit in your head. I like doing the homework, doing the hard yards and then FINDING THEM!!!
Nothing like achieving what you set out to do, to me it's the antiquity, rarity and all the other things I see/ find on that journey that repay me for my efforts.
Dirk Migairin was the paleo I kept in touch with up here but he has sadly gone and his replacement is in the Alice, way too far away for a " come and check this out!!!".
Ha ha absolutely! You'd never know where he was with that camo though. He could sort out the swine while I slipped through to grab a fossil!
I went out to the reefs in the middle of the night a few times (the big lows in the Dry are in the dark am). It's not great with torchlight and one night I was followed for 3 hours by a 3 meter handbag, Not relaxing. I'm happy to wait for the Wet and get out on the ocean floor in the afternoon.
Enlil, certainly but I have many many specimens with several museums and really they tell me the names but I forget, only so much you can fit in your head. I like doing the homework, doing the hard yards and then FINDING THEM!!!
Nothing like achieving what you set out to do, to me it's the antiquity, rarity and all the other things I see/ find on that journey that repay me for my efforts.
Dirk Migairin was the paleo I kept in touch with up here but he has sadly gone and his replacement is in the Alice, way too far away for a " come and check this out!!!".
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pythonmum
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One of the great challenges in paleontology is having the time to go hunting for fossils. Another is having the time to figure out what you have found! Of course, I should probably add in money to do both. You are lucky to have the time and reason to go exploring. You can let others do the comparison with museum specimens and trawling through old literature to make sure no one described the species in an old obscure publication somewhere. There certainly are many areas of Australia which remain unexplored for fossils. With some of the oldest rocks on earth, there is the potential to find many interesting fossils here. We certainly have a wealth of ancient stromatolites, which you have also found. It will be interesting to see what you turn up in the future, as long as you stay away from those swimming handbags...
SteveNT
Very Well-Known Member
Ha ha, yea the handbags are always a worry.
I have been told about (and seen specimens from) a thin layer of siltstone near the mouth of one of the big rivers up here. It is packed with teeth from several species of sharks. A fisherman taking a leak found them! No idea about the age but the teeth are all completely black. The museum has been given a couple of specimens (but not the pick of the bunch) so I will head out there when the tides are right and pick up a couple of barra or threadfin salmon as recompense for my efforts!!
I have been told about (and seen specimens from) a thin layer of siltstone near the mouth of one of the big rivers up here. It is packed with teeth from several species of sharks. A fisherman taking a leak found them! No idea about the age but the teeth are all completely black. The museum has been given a couple of specimens (but not the pick of the bunch) so I will head out there when the tides are right and pick up a couple of barra or threadfin salmon as recompense for my efforts!!
Enlil
Not so new Member
Ah well SteveNT, thats what paper and pens were invented for.
SteveNT
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Then you have to remember where you put the piece of paper and if, after several relocations you still have it?
Enlil
Not so new Member
I put mine under the fossil, you can write it on rock around the fossil, but never on it. Gee Museums know how to devalue these valuable assets.
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Jeannine
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did u hear about that boy in Russia (think it was) who went for a walk and found a mammoth?
what i wouldnt give to find something that old
Russian boy discovers wooly 'mammoth of the century' - Yahoo!7 News
what i wouldnt give to find something that old
Russian boy discovers wooly 'mammoth of the century' - Yahoo!7 News
Enlil
Not so new Member
The smell of rotting flesh.
SteveNT
Very Well-Known Member
Yea that's right. Did you see the footage of the dog having a discrete chew on the "mammath of the century"? Imagine a frozen elephant thawing and rotting. Pheeeeew!
A pastoralist up here found an articulated diprotodon skeleton recently (secret location) and apparently there is a lot of digging going on there atm. At least bones dont stink!
A pastoralist up here found an articulated diprotodon skeleton recently (secret location) and apparently there is a lot of digging going on there atm. At least bones dont stink!
albinowoma
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SteveNT, are you still around ??
SteveNT
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Sure am? Any reason cobber?
albinowoma
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Just read about the plesio vert and was wondering if you'd send them to people who'd like to have one or two in their collection? And how to go about it? I have a couple of fossilized lobsters from up that way too. Where abouts do you find them? I take it they're pretty common ( as in I got 1 from mt Morgan, along with a couple of crabs) and the other out of the states...on one of the crabs, there was extra material on the back so I chipped away at it and came off down in part to the shell and to think that you're the first person to see that since it died ( esp in fish) is still pretty Amazeing.
SteveNT
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The prawns are very recent, less than 4,000 ybp and come from Gunn Point. They still live in the mangroves. They are very common. The vertebrate material is protected by law so I cant sell or trade. I have an arrangement with the NT Museum, I collect and they take whatever material they want for their collections, I keep the rest.
I havent been out to these reefs for a few years but the tides are right in the next few months. I will find out if I can "gift" specimens to others. Here are some shots from my last visit to the fossil reefs.
Pliosaur vertebrae
Other bone material (bone is brown, mudstone dark grey). Presumably from the same animal as it is all within a few meters. However the area is subject to constantly shifting sand and silt so you never know what will be exposed from
one day to another.
I havent been out to these reefs for a few years but the tides are right in the next few months. I will find out if I can "gift" specimens to others. Here are some shots from my last visit to the fossil reefs.
Pliosaur vertebrae
Other bone material (bone is brown, mudstone dark grey). Presumably from the same animal as it is all within a few meters. However the area is subject to constantly shifting sand and silt so you never know what will be exposed from
one day to another.albinowoma
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I had a look on eBay last night
Thalassina anamola
Blacktown formation
Walsh river
Queensland. From the USA was $300 lol what a joke
How far out are those specimens? Is there any way you can use water to pressure wash the mud/sand/silt away with?
How big are they? Do they come up easily?
Also do you know anything about fossilized turtles?
Thalassina anamola
Blacktown formation
Walsh river
Queensland. From the USA was $300 lol what a joke
How far out are those specimens? Is there any way you can use water to pressure wash the mud/sand/silt away with?
How big are they? Do they come up easily?
Also do you know anything about fossilized turtles?
SteveNT
Very Well-Known Member
These Darwin ones are Thalassina also. In the 70's a bloke here sent a shipping container full to the US as fossil scorpions ha ha. Apparently he made a lot of money at the time.
The Cretaceous fossil reefs are 500 meters offshore. Removing the silt/sand would be very temporary, it would be back next tide. They are only accessible during spring tides (for a few hours maybe 12 days a year). After a cyclone near miss or direct hit the reefs are scrubbed completely clean and then you see some amazing things. The problem remains that they are intensley brittle so other than cutting and removing huge slabs of rock they are too difficult to extract without destroying them.
Re turtles, the Wilton area in Qld has plenty. I know where some are here in the Top End but it is a top secret location. Too easy to access and would be destroyed in no time.
Nothing infuriates me more than the destruction of fossils that have been preserved for tens or hundreds of millions of years for a few cheesy dollars. I broke the nose of a hippy I found smashing up fossils on these reefs so he could sell the bits for $5 at a local flea market.
The Cretaceous fossil reefs are 500 meters offshore. Removing the silt/sand would be very temporary, it would be back next tide. They are only accessible during spring tides (for a few hours maybe 12 days a year). After a cyclone near miss or direct hit the reefs are scrubbed completely clean and then you see some amazing things. The problem remains that they are intensley brittle so other than cutting and removing huge slabs of rock they are too difficult to extract without destroying them.
Re turtles, the Wilton area in Qld has plenty. I know where some are here in the Top End but it is a top secret location. Too easy to access and would be destroyed in no time.
Nothing infuriates me more than the destruction of fossils that have been preserved for tens or hundreds of millions of years for a few cheesy dollars. I broke the nose of a hippy I found smashing up fossils on these reefs so he could sell the bits for $5 at a local flea market.
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albinowoma
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those damm hippies lol. my grandfather used to make roads across the northern end of oz during the war amongst other places and he had quite a few fossils and wood. one of them was the top half of a turtle shell, the same pattern as todays ones basically(45cm long roughly) but it dissappeared from my mums place ages ago before she moved then when my sis and her husband helped her to tidy the place to sell it they threw out all the "rocks" that were there. fn idiots. mainly large shells, ?leaves and ferns and those cubed/chunky structured lined ( i dont remember them to much exactly ) fan coral looking ones??? and a couple of diff animal boned ones that were interesting to name a few.
are the turtle shell fossils expensive? just lamenting at what could of been
oh well. i still have two large mother of pearl shells (like large oyster shell) of his tucked away. i walked into a smaller jeweller in bris city and asked roughly how much would they be worth to him and took about 2seconds to say about $200 so i know they are worth more then that, oh year... there's a pearl the size of the first knuckle of ya little finger stuck to one of the halves
are the turtle shell fossils expensive? just lamenting at what could of been
oh well. i still have two large mother of pearl shells (like large oyster shell) of his tucked away. i walked into a smaller jeweller in bris city and asked roughly how much would they be worth to him and took about 2seconds to say about $200 so i know they are worth more then that, oh year... there's a pearl the size of the first knuckle of ya little finger stuck to one of the halves - Status
