Permo-Triassic cephalopod hunt

Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
542
Today's trip didn't actually result in any cephalopods since I ran out of daylight, but there was a beautiful late afternoon light over interesting scenery and I now know how to get to the locations.

The first photo shows white Permo-Triassic limestones caught up beneath the huge slab of Cretaceous ocean crust that was obducted onto continental crust here during Late Cretaceous time. The darker rocks in the distance are ophiolite (ocean crust). The picture with the palm trees also shows typical ophiolite scenery.

The red rocks beneath the ancient watchtower are deep-water sediments intensely folded during the emplacement of the ophiolite. The detail of the near-vertical bedded red rocks shows Permian cephalopod limestones. Triassic breccias and platy limestones are a short distance to the right of this view.

I'll add some cephalopod pictures after the next visit.
 

Attachments

  • conv_304384.jpg
    conv_304384.jpg
    116.1 KB · Views: 114
  • conv_304385.jpg
    conv_304385.jpg
    176.1 KB · Views: 110
  • conv_304386.jpg
    conv_304386.jpg
    177.4 KB · Views: 111
  • conv_304387.jpg
    conv_304387.jpg
    207.7 KB · Views: 110
What a beautiful, mysterious place Oman is, I don't know why but "mysterious" always comes to mind when I view the beautiful horizons there. I'm with Kevin, looking forward to this!
 
It's true, there is a lot to like here.

So, I went back today (with a couple of accomplices) and yes D, a hike up a mountain was involved. There was some very fossiliferous rock up there and we found several ammonoids together with orthocones, corals, crinoids, bivalves and brachiopods.

We stopped at Bidbid fort (top photo) on the way, drove through some fine scenery, had lunch on an outcrop of red deep-sea cherts (with the Euphorbia in the foreground), and eventually looked up at that outcrop of limestone, our destination for the day.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297619.jpg
    conv_297619.jpg
    500.4 KB · Views: 129
  • conv_297618.jpg
    conv_297618.jpg
    274.7 KB · Views: 92
  • conv_297617.jpg
    conv_297617.jpg
    139.7 KB · Views: 119
  • conv_297616.jpg
    conv_297616.jpg
    165.8 KB · Views: 87
Continuing up the hill ...

There were these interesting plants on the way up. I think they are Physorrhynchus chamaerapistrum, a member of the mustard family.

As you'd guess, the view from the top was spectacular. After a while we gave our attention to the large blocks of Permian and Triassic limestone in their matrix of Triassic (Lower Dienerian) breccia.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297620.jpg
    conv_297620.jpg
    438.7 KB · Views: 88
  • conv_297621.jpg
    conv_297621.jpg
    124.7 KB · Views: 102
  • conv_297622.jpg
    conv_297622.jpg
    215 KB · Views: 111
  • conv_297623.jpg
    conv_297623.jpg
    99.7 KB · Views: 90
This block consists of lowermost Triassic coquina limestones resting on Middle Permian (Wordian) reefal limestones with corals, calcarous sponges and stromatoporoids.

The coquinas are packed with bivalves (Promyalina, Claraia and Eumorphotis), with an occasional ammonoid or brachiopod (rhynchonellids).

The ammonoid in the photos looks like a Pseudogyronites to me.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297627.jpg
    conv_297627.jpg
    232 KB · Views: 106
  • conv_297626.jpg
    conv_297626.jpg
    283.7 KB · Views: 133
  • conv_297625.jpg
    conv_297625.jpg
    260.7 KB · Views: 100
  • conv_297624.jpg
    conv_297624.jpg
    228.8 KB · Views: 82
and then it was back down the hill before the sun was gone.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297631.jpg
    conv_297631.jpg
    136 KB · Views: 104
  • conv_297630.jpg
    conv_297630.jpg
    210.9 KB · Views: 92
  • conv_297629.jpg
    conv_297629.jpg
    256.2 KB · Views: 104
  • conv_297628.jpg
    conv_297628.jpg
    216.9 KB · Views: 107
a few more pictures ... and enough for today. I'm tired.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297632.jpg
    conv_297632.jpg
    184.5 KB · Views: 119
  • conv_297633.jpg
    conv_297633.jpg
    215.9 KB · Views: 86
  • conv_297634.jpg
    conv_297634.jpg
    257.2 KB · Views: 103
Beautiful scenery Hajar! Oh how I wish this snow was gone. :sad:
Like Terri's Ordovician, your Triassic is alot like we have over here. Unfortunately it, like the Ordovician is just a slightly different age, the Ordovician of Tennessee is just younger and the Triassic of Oman is just older. We find Eumorphotis and possibly the last of Claraia, but the ammonoids are quite different.
 
When your snow has gone it will be too hot to go out here.

Interesting to think that these animals were living shortly after the most severe mass extinction in Earth history.

Here attached is a photo from last night's starwatch site (what a spectacularly clear night and Jupiter with four moons a fine sight). We camped on Lower Permian rocks, cross-bedded shallow marine with very abundant fossils.
 

Attachments

  • conv_297653.jpg
    conv_297653.jpg
    327.2 KB · Views: 81

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top