On days when I do not find very much, I tend to also take fossils with me that normally
would not be taking,  this wreck of an Amaltheus is such a case,  found in early April this year :

A wreck of an Amaltheus as found – hope for a salvagable inner whorl ?

I was hoping for a good inner whorl to salvage and may be something subconsciously
registered as  interesting with this ammonite.I prepped the ammonite this weekend
and noticed (apart from it being a rather nice inner whorl) that it does have
rather strong ribbing :

A 7.4 cm Amaltheus stokesi/bifurcus “inbetweener”

The “Schlegelmilch” also list the umbilical width of the ammonites, with
Amaltheus bifurcus at 34-45 %  and Amaltheus stokesi with 25 – 28 % –
and this ammonite has exactly 28 % !

So it looks like this ammonite is something of an in-betweener, a late A. bifurcus or an
early A. stokesi or even a hybrid, since these ammonite species did occur together.

Whatever it is, I´ve had so much fun prepping and wondering about it, that it´s been
really worth taking the chance with the wreck that it was. It´s so much better not
expecting a lot from a fossil and finding a little jewel hiding in there than expecting
a lot and finding it´s a wreck…

AndyS

Small 2.5 cm Hildaites murleyi next to a small Cleviceras and a few ammonite aptychi and possibly belemnite hooklets (!)

When it comes to filling a gap in our collection, we collectors become a bunch of wishful thinkers, easily taking the slightest hint that a specimen might be the sought after species as fact.  Please note that this explicitly includes myself, and I´ve got a feeling it is directly proportional to the time that gap is perceived to be open.

One of my examples in this area is the below ammonite, found in October 2010 at Hawsker Bottoms.
I was so ready to call it Hildaites murleyi, believe me, mainly for the fact that it exhibits a finer ribbing than the usual Hildoceras lusitanicum (see here). But a final niggle remained, the preservation just did not fit – it was a typical commune zone Hildoceras lusitanicum preservation, with a sugary pyrite/calcite shell, that was almost gone, and a pyritic internal mould with some replacement shell.

Finely ribbed 8.5 cm Hildoceras lusitanicum MEISTER from the commune subzone at Hawsker Bottoms

Hildaites murleyi is an exaratum/falciferum subzone ammonite on the Yorkshire coast and in my experience relatively rare.
I´ve only really got one Yorkshire specimen I´m 100 % sure of that it is Hildaites murleyi, and it is the one shown in the title picture.
You can´t beat a good ammonite association, even better one that is so diagnostic as the above one : The small ammonites next to the Hildaites murleyi are Cleviceras, this small 10 x 5 cm matrix sliver also has many small shiny black ammonite aptychi and possibly belemnite hooks, which are so typical for certain exaratum subzone beds.

Beautiful 8.5 cm Hildaites murleyi (MOXON) in a borealis nodule from Hildesheim/Germany

Now when you closely compare the two ammonites you can see the difference immediately:

Direct comparison of inner whorls of Hildaites murleyi (left) and Hildoceras lusitanicum (right)