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Hello, I made a short adrenaline-style Spinosaurus tribute video that I thought some folks here might get a kick out of. Warning: violence and hard music.

Hey everyone! It’s been a crazy busy June, July and beginning of August for me! I just finished moving into my house and I just got married on August 9th so my life has been a tornado. As a result I haven’t been able to comment, participate and keep up with all you fine folks on the forum like I usually do. I was still able to get out collecting here and there and I met up with fellow forum member @DrDave and did some exploring for the lower Devonian eurypterid Erieopterus. I won’t report on that until I have something to share. I think me and Dave found the right horizon now I just gotta search till I find something. Anyway I’m just gonna share the highlights from 3 trips to Briggs rd and 3 trips to DSR and a bonus day at Penn Dixie. Ill do the highlights from Trips on 6/30 7/06 and 7/28 to Briggs rd first. I found some pretty important specimens. Briggs rd is a very interesting site and you can find 3 different species of trilobites here. The Eldredgeops is the most common by far but the greenops and dipleura have made some appearances. This has got to be my most impressive greenops in a long time. This is actually a complete specimen!! The pygidium is tucked underneath. I have the right eye safe in a small ziplock bag. It came off in the counterpart and I saved it to try and glue back when I get the nerve. here’s a picture of the back. I have the counterpart for the pygidium and I’ll need to glue and prep if I want it perfect. Some of the material is attached to the counterpart. Im really excited about this specimen because the quality is good enough to compare with the greenops from DSR and Buffalo area. These eastern New York greenops are considered an undescribed species so I’m glad I have something quality I can use to really eye out the differences. After @Darktooth and his rock club went to Briggs I happened to be there the next day and found this awesome half specimen of a large dipleura! When I got there I found the body segments in 2 pieces and they looked like they went together. After awhile I came across the counterpart in rubble and realized “where is the cephalon?!” I went nuts looking for it with no luck then decided to try and pry a pieces of the wall off and BOOM! The cephalon was still in the outcrop lol. Super lucky. This was my best dipleura from Briggs so far. I’ve found some nice partials but this is the best I’ve found so far. @DrDave was kind enough to gift me this perfect un weathered cephalon. This specimen came from very fresh rock and is nearly perfect. I told Dave I’ve been trying to collect some quality cephalons from Briggs for comparison. I’ve noticed most specimens are usually missing a well preserved exoskeleton. This makes it hard to really compare with the western New York Eldredgeops that grow much much smaller. It’s interesting to me that the greenops are considered a different species and the Eldredgeops are not as you go east across New York State. I’m not here claiming everything is a new species only pointing out the discrepancies in species distribution across the state. Somehow the greenops change species as you go east while the Eldredgeops rana stays the same across the state. It’s not like the Eldredgeops from the east and west are identical either. The eastern New York Eldredgeops can grow to 3 inches! Just food for thought. I think about weird stuff like this a lot ha. anyway...here’s a close up of the undamaged cephalon. A tiny amount of with with an air abrasive and the eye detail will be perfect. here’s and example of a typical Briggs rd cephalon. The eye lenses are very 3D and preserve well even when the exoskeleton is weathered away. It’s hard getting a fresh specimen. just a couple nice cephalopods courtesy of Briggs rd. I love trilobites but I appreciate a quality cephalopod should a complete on present itself lol. Next is DSR highlights! Phyllocarids on the menu