Faringdon (Wickelsham) and Baulking, Oxfordshire. 6 April 2002
A
bright day but with a cold wind that caused some 16 of our members to
wrap up warm for this visit.
David Turner (our Field Trip Organizer) with a smile and facing the camera. Other members trying to hide from the camera!
Naturally, their obligatory 'Hard Hats' and 'Day Glow Vests' aren't being worn as they haven't entered the quarry proper!
Above a view of the second location. (Baulking Clay Pit). Members said there was no cover from the cold wind, but collecting from the surface was reasonably easy! The exposure here is of the Fuller's Earth of the Baulking pit. These deposits, which formed a montmorillonite clay, date from the Middle Jurassic period (about 180Ma ago). Incidentally, the name Fuller's Earth is derived from the oil absorbing properties of the clay which were exploited in the process of fulling cloth (cleanse and full, hence the job description Fuller!) and also in the preparation of fleeces.
The biggest specimen of the day (and on view at April's
meeting as were all the other specimens below).
A Nautiloid, found by Ursula & Jon Deith (and broken by them as it rolled around in the car!)
The specimen is about 20cm high and was found at the a.m. locations of Wicklesham & Roger's Pit, where the Faringdon Sponge Gravels of the Lower Cretaceous (about125 Ma ago) are exposed.
Wendy
& John Lacy's collection from all sites visited that day. The sandy
brown specimens having come from either the Wickelsham or Roger's Pit
(Faringdon locations a.m.) The grey looking pieces are from Baulking.
In the top left corner is a fossil sponge (everyone found plenty of
these). The old adage; "pick up everything you think looks out
of place and sort it later" applies.
Here
is an interesting bit out of the above box. A fossil vertebra, quite
long (and relatively heavy). Two suggestions have been made (a) Crocodile
or (b) a derived fossil from the Jurassic (Dinosaur?). One to chase
through the reference books. (excuse fingers!)
Pictured
here is a small tooth, about the width across my finger and collected
by Sandra or Bob Blackburn. Dark brown and smooth, possibly a crocodile
tooth. However, this one was slightly heavy and distinctly different
from the other small croc. teeth found that day. Could this be derived
from another time and/or belong to something else. (I assume it's a
tooth?)
A collection of small teeth. The bottom three are typical of crocodile
teeth with striations along their length. The small group of buttons
are probably from fish. (Those at the top were rather small and my eyesight
isn't that good plus I don't know anything about fossils, so no comment).
(My apologies to the member who brought these and a large range of fossil sponges, I forgot to note your name).
In discussion, I understand that some of the teeth were found by sieving and the fossils sponges were easy picking from a pile made by the quarry workers as somewhat of an unwanted byproduct of the sand extraction.
The
reason for going to Baulking in the afternoon was (a) the limited time
allowed by the quarry owners for the morning visit and (b) to smash
away at the nodules in the (forlorn, on this occasion ) hope of finding
big ammonites.
Here is part of one collected by Ursula & Jon, it is a good hand size chunk and probably would have been about 20cm in diameter in life.
Members were lucky that the sun shone all day, as if it had rained, collecting would have been a mud-bath with nowhere to hide!
Another picture of the Baulking location. (Who dug the hole and why? Toilets?)
All location pictures by Sandra and Bob Blackburn. Plus a special thanks to all those members who brought their specimens to April's meeting for the rest of us to view!
(RC 11 April 2002)