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My husband and I collected a lot of hash plates from a field trip near Cinncinnati, OH last summer. We finally got around to getting the mud off and examining our finds, and noticed a small, nearly complete trilobite cephalon that is neither Isotelus nor Flexicalymene, both of which are the more commonly-found trilobites for the area. This was Waynesville Formation, Ordovician era. Here's a photo throught the microscope. The cephalon is approximately 1 cm wide: My husband thinks this is a Ceraurus sp. I can see the resemblance to the pictures he found, but ours has two lobes on either side of the midline, while all of the pictures he found show three. I also think there are other subtle differences, so I'm hoping someone with more experience than us will weigh in. At the moment, what we have to go on for ID-ing the fossils we've found is the Dry Dredgers website list of what is known from this formation. There are several trilobites that can be found there, but Ceraurus is the closest to what we have. Is this Ceraurus, or have we found something that isn't on the Dry Dredgers' list?

Any help identifying this fossil my wife found in Grand Isle, Vermont would be greatly appreciated.

A few weeks ago I was planning a trip to Ottawa Ontario and back, and many Forum members offered excellent advice on possible stops along the way. So, Here is how it all turned out. Stage 1: Georgia to Ottawa. My plan was to get on the road by 1:30 or 2 (as I had to give a lecture that ended at 12:30), and make enough progress so that I would be able to squeeze in a stop or two the following day and still arrive in Ottawa around dinner time. Alas it was not to be. Various work related issues which could not be ignored or deferred kept popping up, with the result that I hit the road just after 8 PM, 6 hours late. Despite driving until 3 AM, and hitting the road again by 7 after grabbing a 3 hr snooze, I was so far behind schedule I had to pass by the turnoffs to Gore, VA and Brookfield, NY without stopping. At least I have the information for another day. As it was I arrived in Ottawa just an hour behind schedule, having covered a little over 1200 miles in 22 hours (including the 4 hour stop). Along the way, about 1 in the morning, as I was sandwiched between tractor trailer trucks and going through a construction zone, one of the trucks launched a rock at my windshield, leaving me with a large crack that ran right across the center of my field of view. At least the windshield didn't totally shatter. Fossils collected: 0 Stage 2: Ottawa After spending Saturday and Sunday at my niece's wedding and visiting family, on Monday I had a day to revisit several sites where I had had success collecting when I lived in Ottawa in the 1970s and early 1980s. First up was a site on the Ottawa River shore. Immediately it was evident that the site had been recently visited by collectors, as rock layers were pried up and overturned along the length of the exposure. Nevertheless there is a lot of rock, much of it in the form of limestone cobbles covering the lower part of the shore. This is the kind of exposure that requires close inspection, and luck to have the light and view just right. My time was not wasted, as I spied a pebble with a complete trilobite looking up at me. Not just any trilobite either, but an especially rare species, Sceptaspis lincolnensis: This will take some prepping to free the thorax from the hard limestone, but it's all there except for the tip of the pygidium. Previously I had only ever found one free cheek and a couple of pygidia of this species, so I'm quite happy with this find. I also found what might be a complete Cerarus, and pieces of several other trilobites including a rare Amphilichus glabella. The site is Upper Ordovician, Sherman Fall horizon, Ottawa group. I then moved on to another Ottawa River shore site, where I previously found trilobites, complete crinoids, and rather water worn edrioasteroids. Again there was abundant evidence of previous rockhounds, and all I found was a tiny but complete Flexicalymene senaria. No photo as it needs a lot of prep still. The third stop was yet another shore outcrop, a site where I found (30 years ago) numerous edrioasteroids and cystoids. The outcrop was still there, but almost inaccessible due to prolific growth of hawthorns, complete with large spines. Eventually I was unable to make forward progress at all. I recalled, vaguely, that there was a path that ran about midway up the cliff/slope, so I started to climb. It was rough going as I had to move back and forth to find places where the slope was climbable and not vertical cliff, but even the most friendly path involved grabbing cedar trees and pulling myself up a very steep slope, mostly significantly steeper than a 45 degree angle. As I image most of us have discovered, at some point it is almost impossible to climb back down so I had no choice but to keep climbing. A couple of times I tried to pull myself up using a tree root or trunk that turned out to be unattached to the ground, and nearly launched myself into the void. I never did find the path I remembered, and after a 200 foot or so climb I reached the top of the cliff, where I found myself in back of the National Art Gallery in downtown Ottawa. All I had to do was scale a wrought iron fence, the kind with the nice sharp points on all the bars. Somehow I did that without leaving behind any of my anatomy. The ordeal was not all for naught, thankfully. I didn't find any edrioasteroids, but I did snag this: It's a very nice Cyclocystoides, again a rare find. Unfortunately it's missing a bit, but you can see that the central plates and the outside ring of tiny plates are present, as well as the main ring of large plates. Usually all you find is the ring of large plates, so this specimen is quite fine despite the missing bit. After that, I left the river and drove to a roadcut about 25 miles outside of town. Back in the day this roadcut exposed a couple of layers of very fine limestone with articulated crinoids, trilobites, and even starfish. The layers were exposed in large benches so there was a lot of exposure to search. As recently as five years ago I made a quick stop there and snagged a couple of Iocrinus specimens. This time the productive layers were completely stripped off, down to the massive and almost unfossiliferous limestone layers underneath. Not only was there not a crinoid calyx to be found, I saw only a couple of small pieces of stem. I left with nothing, a first for me from that locality. I'm glad I got to collect it 30 years ago, though even then it was past its prime as word of the site had circulated through the Ottawa U geology department. After that I headed home for dinner with the family. Still, despite everything I had pocketed a couple of rare species and I had spent a day in the sun, so I was happy. More in the next post. Don

A number of Forum members; Dave, (Shamalama), Carmine (xonemine), Mike (Pagurus), and Tim (Fossildude 19) and Tim's son, Aiden, met up Saturday at Nowadaga Creek near Little Falls, NY, in Herkimer County. Tim organized it. It was a wonderfuland successful gathering: Dave showed off some recent finds from Madison County, NY he collected the day before. Tim brought the complete fish fossil he found the week before. We collected fossils in outcroppings along the stream, (Utica Shale- Upper Ordovician). The graptolite, Didymograptus and cephalons of the trilobite, Triarthrus becki were prolific in the rock. Bodies (thorax/pygidium pieces) were far less abundant. Carmine arrived late (GPS failed and he got lost) but found by far the most trilo bodies of anyone. In addition to graptolites and trilobites, a few small straight-shelled nautiloids, a few bivalves and a couple coiled shells (gastropods/coiled nautiloids?) were also found. Everyone did well and a great time was had by all. Aiden's bivalve find and his coiled shell, were perhaps the highlights of the day, but getting the opportunity collect with other Forum members was definitely the highlight and made it all so worthwhile. This is Mike and Dave in this shot and some of Carmine's finds.

Hello everyone, I have trouble identifying this fossil which is unlike any I've found in siliceous nodules of Šárka formation (LLanvirn) in Czech Republic. At first I thought it's a fragment of a Conularia, but the shape and structure's not right. I have found only this piece, but it seems to be part of a larger organism or colony. It reminds me most of a cast of colony of barnacle-like organisms. The size of the structure is 3x3 cm, about 12 mm in height. Any ideas? Thanks Ondrej