Comparing fossil seaweed (attached to a rock anchor) found at Solnhofen with similar seaweed found along the coast at a recent inter-tidal mudflat in Hong Kong

This post is one in a series of posts which compares the depositional environment of the late Jurassic lithographic limestones at Solnhofen in Germany based on extracts from Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology with observations made at a modern inter-tidal mudflat at Ha Pak Nai, Deep Bay, New Territories, Hong Kong and proposes an inter-tidal mudflat origin for the examples cited.

This post compares a photograph of a seaweed attaching to a rock as an anchor (Phyllothallus latifrons) found at Solnhofen with a series of photographs of a similar modern seaweed found along the coast of the inter-tidal mudflats at Ha Pak Nai, Deep Bay, Hong Kong, which seasonally wash up in large numbers in April and May each year.

Extract from: Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology

“The specimen shown in fig 7.1 is attached to a piece of reef rock similar to the reefal limestone which occurs to the south of Solnhofen in the region of Neuburg an der Donau” (Barthel et al - Page 103).

Photographs of seaweed attached to rocks and shells at Ha Pak Nai

(Scale where shown: 30 centimetre/12 inch ruler)

May 2009

April 2010

April 2011

References

Barthel, K.W., Swinburne, N.H.M., and Conway Morris, S. (1994). Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.