Birthday bag !

[spartacus]

here's a picky of the birthday haul from Longeville sur Mer, the day which ended with the "Dinobus" returning home on the back of a recovery truck
top middle is a 6.5 inch Oxycerites orbis found by MGL & the only one yet IDed, from the Bathonian stage of the Jurassic so it's a bit old & hence a bit beaten up. It was lying at the top of the beach as were the others (cack in piccy-sorry) except my "Big boy" which I gently teased from the limestone platform with 1.5 kilos of forged steel + 1 manpower.

Keef

 

[neuropteris]

Happy Birthday Spartacus 21 again?

Interesting finds - do you think any of them will prep out? Top left and bottom right look like they could have centres hidden away.

Andy

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Nice haul Spartacus, Looks like that new airscribe will be busy this winter.

And it is always good to hear stories of someone using their BFH.

 

[Phil]

Very nice collectioon of old cephs there Lord Spart. What is the beastie lying under the tip of the ruler? I can't make it out I'm afraid.

Was it the weight of this collection that broke the back of the Dinobus?

 

[spartacus]

Yo guys !
Andy, divide by 2 then add 1/2 & yes 21 again ! . None of them are ever gonna be shiny showstoppers but all should respond to a little tungsten carbide TLC. tick tock only time is my enemy !

Kevin, cheers, my purpose on Earth is to wield the BFH !
I've 2 of Ken Mannion's finest waiting to attack, now where's that spare time ?

Phil, the beastie under the ruler is a very slim oxycone (with a bit missing). As ever, ID is a mission when you're fick & my duff photography ain't helping !
There's plenty more where these came from & this time the carb. float will not & cannot jump off it's pin.
BTW, when it's dark, raining, your nipper is in need of a kip & your wheels are dripping in petrol , don't rely on Ronald Macdonald to lend you his phone to call for recovery

Keef

 

[spartacus]

turns out Phil's mystery object is an Oppelia aspidoides & has just been subject to a tidy up, piccy soonest

Keef

 

[spartacus]

yo guys, it's been a while & time enough for a piccy of Oppelia aspidoides (with chunk missing), a zone ammonite from the Bathonian
Keef

 

[fossilkid25]

hey spartacus
could you e-mail me please at [email protected]

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Looking good Keef

 

[Phil]

Woah, nicely done Lord Spart, great job. What an incredibly slender involute Horn of Ammon. Nice to have you back too.

Here's a couple of Oppelia factopods for you, gleaned via the Paleo-Prong from the net and Paleobase2:

* Oppelia: Jurassic Bajorcian, this genus lived for 7.3 million years, i.e 176.5-169.2.

* Superfamily: Haplocerataceae, Family: Oppeliidae.

* As with many ammonites the males and females shows marked dimorphism, with the females being much larger. In fact it was so marked that for many years two sexes were thought to be different genera.

* Oppelia's growth pattern was studied by Westerman, Checa and Hewitt in 1993. They determined that by examining growth increments in the jaws, Oppelia appeared to have reached maturity in one year. This is similar to many living cephalopods which reach sexual maturity in a year or two, spawn and die.

(Source: Hewitt, R.A, Westermann, G.E.G. and Checa, A., 1993, Growth rates of ammonites estimated from aptychi: Geobios, Memoire Special 15, p.203-208.)

 

[spartacus]

hi Big Kev & Philpot, thanks for the gen. Sorry my attendance is a bit sporadic but busy plundering the French fossil record amongst other things.

Have you any idea why my Geological guide (Jean Gabilly) to this area places Oppelia aspidoides in the Bathonian ? This pans out as it was found, albeit on the foreshore & possibly out of sequence, with the Oxycerites orbis & do you have a piccy of the girly of the species ?

Hi Jamie & goodluck with your excavation of Peterborough !

Keef

 

[Architeuthoceras]

7 mill includes Bajocian and Bathonian (from the 2004 Time Scale), I'm afraid the dates are different than yours Phil

 

[Phil]

7 mill includes Bajocian and Bathonian (from the 2004 Time Scale), I'm afraid the dates are different than yours Phil

Oh, I can't really explain that Kevin. I lifted those dates directly from the entry on Oppelia from the CD-Rom Paleobase 2, I can only assume that the entry must be wrong. I didn't think to try and check it as I just assumed that the entry was right.

This ammonite is definitely known from the English Bathonian as I found a paper relating to it:

Arkell, W.J., 1951, Monograph on the English Bathonian Ammonites: Palaeontographical Societ Monograph, v.105, p.47-72.

Paleobase also lists it as a boreal ammonite and shows a photo of an example of Oppelia subradiatus taken from the Sauzei Zone, Middle Jurassic (Bajorcian) from Somerset in England.

I've no idea if that helps or not. Dunno, as they say.

 

[spartacus]

Oh dear ! what have I done ?

Keef