Some Big Ones!

I have to look where they are, this was about ten years ago or even longer, some are not at me but at relatives. I´ll look if I will find something. About a half year ago I was again near this region where we once found the large ammonites, because there was again road works. I was searching for several hours, but the only intact fossil I found at this place was a small mollusc shell. But I found a sadly very damaged ammonite in a large block of stone which was about 40cm in diamter, and I believe it was even not complete.
There are at some places in this region very much ammonites, and some spectacular fossils were found not far away from here, for example the ichthysaur-fossil with embryos from Holzmaden.
I visit often the paleonthological and geological museum in Tübingen, a comparably small but very interesting museum, which contains several world-famous fossils. Here´s a link where you can see some pictures: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/geo/gpi/sammlung/museum/pal.html
When I visit it at the next time, I´ll made some pictures of the nice cephalopods, in general I am more interested in the exhibited vertebrates. They have also a really giant ammonite with a diameter of more than one metre, but I think it comes from the USA. They have also some wonderfull fossils of cephalopods which shows even the hooks of the arms, similar fossils are in the Löwentormuseum Stuttgart.
I can still remember that I was once in France at a students-exchange and we made an excursion in a mountainous region. There were was a brook, and there were also many ammonites, some of them in the range of 20-30cm, perhaps bigger, but I could take only some smaller ones at home.
 
I actually found two relics of those ammonites and uploaded them in the gallery. The larger one is not fully intact and has a diameter of more than 30cm, but I remember there were fragments I found which must have belonged to even larger specimens, but I can´t find them anymore.
In fact the largest intact ones were probably not 40cm, but closer to 30cm, but it was more than a decade ago and I was still...well...smaller.
Fossils of large ammonite aren´t very uncommon here and there are in fact also several complete fossils, for example in Tübingen, which are in fact in the 40cm range.
 
Sordes,

Thanks for the information, link and photos of those excellent specimens. I apologise for not posting anything in reply in the last couple of days - you have not been forgotten - but I really have been exceptionally busy for once. (Work, application forms, beer festival etc). I promise to get back to you properly asap.

Thanks again.

Phil
 
I led a field trip yesterday, we went out and collected this large ammonite I found back in '05. The first pic is wraping up all the pieces, the second shows the fossil in the hands of the State Paleontologist, Jim Kirkland. It will go on display at the Utah Geological Survey offices.
The next pic shows some of the participants looking for fossils, and the last is a sign one of the kids had pinned to his pack, a future paleontologist for sure. :smile:
 

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A few more pics of the collection process:

The first is the fossil after we took all the rocks I had on top of it off. they were on there to hide and protect it from deer and the elements (do deer collect things too?):wink:

Second, we were deciding how big some of the cracks were and how many pieces we would wrap separately.

Third, Jim made a sketch of the fossil to show the preparator how the separate pieces should fit together.

And finally, wrapping the pieces in paper and using duct tape to keep them from breaking up any more during the trip back to the lab. As with all scientists, there was a major discussion (almost heated) about how best to use the duct tape and which direction it should be wrapped. :hmm:
 

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I started to ask about how you could have left it behind for several years before bringing in troups (or extracting it yourself). I have the answer to the first part but why did you leave it to begin with instead of removing it at the time? (loved the duct tape observation, it puts life in proper prospective!)
 

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