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Hello for all. It has been a while to leave a post here! I am currently in Burlington, VT as a UVM student. Before the end of the summer recess (August 18), I traveled to northern Vermont consulting some articles about Cambrian and Ordovician formation located in Highgate Falls and South Hero. In this post, I will just talk about one trip to Highgate. I left my dorm around 11 a.m., and I get the Higate Falls near 1 p.m. After straying about 3 hours, I finally realized that the outcrops described as fossiliferous in the article are located in the private land. Thanks to my student ID card, the landowners welcomed me I could not hunt fossil around the Ordovician formation (Highgate Formation; Upper Ordovician) because the cliff was really steep and seemed very dangerous. It is on the left side of the picture (Red line). So, I just focused on the right side (Yellow line) that is Gorge Formation (Upper Cambrian, Upper Sunwaptan Stage, 492-491 MYA). Below is a photo of the Gorge Formation I found some trilobites and brachiopods (not on this post), but I have no clue about their scientific name even though I checked my article... I would appreciate if you correct the wrong scientific name 1. Lotagnotus americanus Billings, 1860 2. Geragnostus ( Micragnostus ) bisectus (Matthew, 1892) (Shaw, A. B. (1951). The Paleontology of Northwestern Vermont. 1. New Late Cambrian Trilobites. Journal of Paleontology, Vol.25, No.1, pp.97-114.) 3. Librigena.

I was about to purchase this Crotalocephalus but looking at its feet I’m a bit concerned that it’s not genuine, can anyone give any advice? Cheers chris

What is this trilobite (11cm long) possibly from Morocco that a relative has?

Hey guys I need some help identifying these possible trilobites. Any information about which part of the trilobite the specimen is, species, etc would be appreciated. All of these specimens were found in Cincinnati, ohio in rocks from the Ordovician period. These 3 similar looking fossils are about 1 centimeter in length. This fossil is 3 centimeters in length. Showing front and back. This trilobite impression is 6 centimeters in length and 4.5 centimeters in width.

This past weekend, I had a chance to collect a well known roadcut outside of Clermont Iowa. The site is Ordovician in age and exposes the Clermont section of the Maquoketa Formation. one of the interesting pieces that I collected was this tiny trilobite. As you can see from the picture,There is not much to go on however the hypostome is preserved. I am hopeful the Trilobite will be complete and was wondering if anyone might know what species it is/could be. Any help is appreciated.

Has anyone had luck finding instars, or baby trilobites? Packy

Thoughts on these trilobites from Morocco found on our favorite auction site. Is there any restoration? Has any part been carved or painted? Any I do is greatly appreciated!

It was a pretty good week fossil collecting I managed to make it to Penn Dixie Tuesday and Friday. A few of us Canadians had the place to ourselves both days Tuesday was an interesting day, three of us went Mike, Greg and myself and we all ended up with heat stroke. The temperature topped out at 39 Celsius and then you add in the humidity factor and it was low 40's. Stupid weather for collecting but we all found some very good stuff. Greg found a huge plate that I cut down in the field for him to about 12 inches by 12 inches. It would appear to have 4 complete prone E. rana on it . It currently sits in my basement waiting to be prepped. I do not have a picture as of yet but if I get his permission I will post one. Mike as usual is the greenops whisperer and he found 2 or 3 relatively complete and large greenops at the top of the blocks in the main Penn trilobite layer. I was having a reasonable day I probably had 20 to 30 enrolled or partially enrolled trilobites in the bucket along with a very nice Pleurodictyum americanum (a tabulate coral) . I only find a few of these each year at Penn and always take them home because they prep up quite nicely. I was getting a bit frustrated that both Mike and Greg were finding prone rana's including Greg's spectacular plate, when my fortunes changed with one split of the rock. For those of you that have been collecting with me you know that my style is to spend the morning breaking out huge blocks from the main trilobite layer with big prybars, wedges and chisels and then I split for the whole afternoon. We were working a large bench and had gotten to the state where all the blocks were locked in because of convoluted dome structures and the lack of natural cracks. The blocks that day were coming out about 200 to 300 pounds and about 12 to 18 inches thick. Eventually I would resort to the diamond gas saw and create some weak areas that we could exploit, but back to this story. In frustration with the heat and three guys not being able to get the next block out I just took a chisel and a 5 pound mini sledge and took my frustration out on the rock. Well to my pleasant surprise off popped a piece of matrix that clearly had 2 nice bugs in it. Wow one strike of the sledge and the fortunes of the day are totally changed. I always tell people who are collecting with me to keep at it, your are only one strike of the hammer away from having an amazing day. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures in the field my phone would not let me it said the battery was over heated. Here is ta picture of the shard about 1/2 hour into prepping. What you cant notice in this picture is that there is a 3rd bug buried to the left, I was just able to see the edge of a pygidium from the side. For once I got lucky and it was not just an isolated pygidium. Here it is probably an hour into the prep Prep was pretty standard using a COMCO air abrasion unit at about 30 PSI with 40 micron previously used dolomite, utilizing .025. .015 and .010 tips. Very little scribing was used on the piece because was quite thin and looked to have weak spots that were stabilized with cyanoacrylate and dilute vinac in acetone .Anyway for your viewing pleasure here is a series of pictures of the completed bugs. The plate has no repairs or restoration and the bugs are lying in their original positions. Going into my collection besides the "Perfect Bug" I found earlier this season.

About a month ago I went to Penn with two fossil buddies and they both found prone greenops. Sadly I did not find one. However both of these greenops were split between the positive and negative and probably were missing some skin as the material was quite flaky. For one of my friends this was his first ever find of a prone greenops. Prone greenops that are nicely laid out are a very rare find in the Windom shale. Most of the ones I have found from there or others that I have prepped for people are fully, partially enrolled or distorted. So to my fossil buddy this was a bit of a special find. We wrapped up the two pieces in tin foil in the field and I agreed to take it with me and prep it for him. Well zoom ahead a month in time and I am going out with him last week to collect and he asks how is his greenops coming, whereby I realize that I have not only not started it ,but in my senility had forgotten I had it and had no clue where it was. Well when I got home it turns out that I had never unpacked the bucket of fossils from that trip and low and behold his fossil was packed just as we had left it. A careful look at both parts under the scope confirmed my opinion that the bug was in pretty rough shape , but a prone greenops, not to mention perhaps his first ever prone warranted we attempt to bring it back to life. Unfortunately I did not take any pics until a ways into the prep but here is what I did to start. 1. Washed the mud off both plates scrubbing with a tooth brush 2. Squared up what would become the fossil plate with the diamond gas saw 3. Cut out as small as possible a square from the top piece of the matrix that contained the top part of the greenops using my 7 inch tile saw with diamond blade 4. On a belt sander using aluminum oxide 120 grit thinned the top piece as much as safely possible to help minimize my prep time later. 5. Using super thin cyanoacrylate glue reattached the top portion to the main slab clamping tightly with a c-clamp. Asusual all prep was done under a zoom scope at 10x to 20x magnification using a Comco abrasion unit and in this case a German Pferd MST 31 scribe exclusively.. Not a lot of scribing was done other than to outline the bug as the skin was not in great shape. Abrasion was pretty much done with a .18 and .10 nozzle using 40 micron previously used dolomite at 30 PSI. Here is the bug after about an our of prepping . I have outlined in red where you can still see the outline of the section that was glued down. A lot of people do not realize that many of the fantastic trilobites you see on the market have actually been glued back together because the splits are often through the bug. I once did a Moroccan trilobite that was in 7 pieces when I received it Here is the bug after another 40 minutes Took some pictures of the prep but frankly they ended up too blurry to use so here is the prep after abrasion is complete and after I have repaired a lot of the parts that broke of in the split. I tend to use a white repair material and always take a picture to let the owner know what has been repaired Here is the bug after coloration applied . The repairs were allowed to cure overnight before coloration and a bit of extra carving to clean up spots.Just waiting for me to do a final cleanup tomorrow after everything has cured a bit more. A long way from being the worlds most pristine or perfect bug but I am relatively pleased that we were able to breath some new life into an ailing bug. Totally prep time about 3 1/2 hours over 4 days. I suspect the owner will be pleased with the result. I have seen people toss bugs in the field that were in this type of shape. For those of you who just need to know the bug is 27mm x 18 mm A slightly different view

Here is a prep series of a tiny Pseudodechenella lucasensis from the Mid-Devonian Silica Shale that I found in Paulding, Ohio, yesterday. Not complete, but not a common find, so I am very happy with what I got. I'm probably going to restore this by sculpting the genal spines, etc. 1. Farm Fresh 2. Roughly exposed with pin vice. 3. More cleaning with pin vice. 4. Final product after air abrasion with dolomite. 5. This is a tiny one...

The missus and I spent a good part of the day at our spot in the middle Devonian. I chopped out several large slabs while Deb split some of the smaller chunks and managed some overburden duty. The split in the wall may seem promising, but there are a lot of interlocking pieces that have to be removed in sequence, something like taking apart a jigsaw puzzle, but needing to locate the key stones first.