2020 Ontario Trilobite Hunting

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

By the way did you also know the Rochester formation is exposed at the Punchbowl too? It's that dark grey band of rock layer underneath the Lockport formation. 

[Kane]

That is great to know -- my thanks! I am no stranger to hard hikes and climbs, so I should be ok. The view should prove even better when we go back again and make the way down.  I did notice the trash, which was in equal doses saddening and maddening.

 

Yes, I did know about the Rochester. I can name all the stratigraphy, which is easy to point out as they are quite distinct. Even the Lockport's two main members can be reliably discerned by eye, but more up close. 

 

With respect to collecting, however, CAs are unambiguously opposed to it, as even rocks fall under the rules that stipulate no removal of any property (animals, plants, and anything else). It is the one thing CAs have in common across the province. The one exception in some CAs would be fishing in prescribed seasons, although I'm unsure if there is a catch and release policy. As tempting as it may be to collect a few souvenirs from these lovely places, the law says I have to do that elsewhere.  

[Kane]

Two site visits to report on. 

I returned to my backyard honey hole a few days ago to split the last viable rock that might contain any trilobites. Four hours and only this sad split of a nice sized Trypaulites sp. I left it in the field. 

[Kane]

As my lovely was not up for making a long drive today, I went out on foot to visit an abandoned gravel pit. The place is massive, and about 500 feet deep. There is no exposed bedrock despite that depth, but alternating layers of sand and water-rounded rock, suggestive of post-glacial outwash. It is a mixed bag of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic material. 

 

Typical Dundee Fm Leptaena, followed by the saddest Eldredgeops rana partials ever. 

[Kane]

I was encountering a wide range of Devonian material, from some blue chert coral-infused Bois Blanc, some Onondaga, lots of Dundee, and even some of those paper shales filled with Leiorhynchus that are found in the Hungry Hollow Member. 

 

A few more rana bits. I kept the red one because... red rana.  

[Kane]

The ranas are like the cockroaches of the Devonian. But, I would say Pseudodechenella is also pretty close:

[Kane]

But this is where things got exciting for me. Anchiopsis anchiops pygidia. Quite nice ones, too. These were in a rock just loaded with their pieces. A true moult-rock. 

[Kane]

Not just tails, either, but nice cephalons, too. 

[Kane]

I also found two examples of this: their hypostomes!

[Fossildude19]

Awesome finds! Congratulations, Kane

Looks like you saved a good one to be your last, at least.  

[Kane]

And finally this large and tantalizing piece of Coronura.

 

This was just meant to be a quick peek to cover a lot of ground. This site is slated to become a housing development and an urban park at some point. My poor tactical backpack is already tearing everywhere, and it didn't help that I added about 20 pounds of rock to about 30 pounds of tools. The straps have torn so often that it is mostly just a knotted braid. And the thing is just a year old! I wanted to stay longer, but Mr Scott's voice was in my ears, "she kinna take anymore, cap'n!" So I eased my way back, climbing some steep cliffs and hoping the bag would not split. Miracle upon miracle, I also had to go through a thick tangle of thorn bushes, and did not get one cut. 

 

So I'll need to go back to this spot to find more. But I'll be returning to my other Bois Blanc spot this Friday first.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love all the Anchiopsis bits, one of the tail spines is very nicely preserved. 

And the Leiorhynchus plate is great. 

When you say, " As my lovely was not up for making a long drive today", are you referring to Deb or the car? 

[Kane]

Just now, Tidgy's Dad said:

Love all the Anchiopsis bits, one of the tail spines is very nicely preserved. 

And the Leiorhynchus plate is great. 

When you say, " As my lovely was not up for making a long drive today", are you referring to Deb or the car? 

You would have been over the moon with those brach shales, but they are also very thin and brittle. Next time I go, I'll try to snap a few pics of some of the large Dundee Fm paraspirifers, scout's honour!

Hehe. I would say both Deb and the car   . As I don't drive, I have become the world's most skilled passenger.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

15 minutes ago, Kane said:

As I don't drive, I have become the world's most skilled passenger.  

I don't drive either. 

What with not smoking and not driving, we're stupendously good for the environment. 

[Kane]

Just now, Tidgy's Dad said:

I don't drive either. 

What with not smoking and not driving, we're stupendously good for the environment. 

Not to mention candidates for the lowest life insurance rates ever.  

[Malcolmt]

Wish I could be out there exploring with you....

[Peat Burns]

@KaneI love that you are exploring the clasts in the glacial deposits.  Now that's what I call due diligence.  And it makes me nostalgic of my childhood when fossils from glacial deposits are all I had. 

 

I later learned that the stratigraphic origins (down to formation) of the erratics could often be determined from lithology, biostratigraphy, and glacial geology.  And once I knew that, I could grab rocks that had no evidence of fossils on the outside, and start splitting them and finding exquisite fossils on the inside.

 

Great finds.

[Kane]

16 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

@KaneI love that you are exploring the clasts in the glacial deposits.  Now that's what I call due diligence.  And it makes me nostalgic of my childhood when fossils from glacial deposits are all I had. 

 

I later learned that the stratigraphic origins (down to formation) of the erratics could often be determined from lithology, biostratigraphy, and glacial geology.  And once I knew that, I could grab rocks that had no evidence of fossils on the outside, and start splitting them and finding exquisite fossils on the inside.

 

Great finds.

Certainly due diligence... or just plain stubbornness. Ideally, I would prefer to be in the source bedrock, but fortunately a great deal of exposure to Devonian rocks around the province makes it so I can more or less trace down to formation upon sight, usually by the two-step process of lithological properties and faunal associations. It allows me to skip over piles and say, "aha! That's a crummy piece of Lucas Fm!"  Grain size, colour, whether it splits along joints, present minerals, relative faunal abundance -- all of that is kept firmly in mind when going through erratics. When I have to keep my trips more local, I know that my immediate vicinity is turtles all the way down -- I mean, glacial erratics.  

 

Breaking open the clasts gives a bit more mystery and surprise, for sure, and it is all too common that what is blank on the outside is filled with fossil riches within. When I'm breaking rock in the source formations, there is no mental detective process like there is when working in the geo-erratica. 

[Monica]

Beautiful Anchiopsis anchiops pygidia!!!  But I really love the Leptaena from the gravel pit 

[Kane]

8 minutes ago, Monica said:

Beautiful Anchiopsis anchiops pygidia!!!  But I really love the Leptaena from the gravel pit 

Thanks.:)  

There are some boulders on a nearby hike trail that are so filled with Lepties, that it accounts for how easily the boulder crumbles. Some of them can even be quite colourful. 

They always catch my eye on account of their ridges. When they appear together, the rock takes on the appearance of cartoon radio waves:

 

[RuMert]

Nice views of the terrain and the city in addition to the finds. Very atmospheric

[Kane]

18 hours ago, Malcolmt said:

Wish I could be out there exploring with you....

It does feel a bit weird and wrong not to share prospecting adventures and sites with a cherished field comrade such as yourself.  Yes, I get to keep all the spoils, but the real joy is in the sharing. Once you're out of the Q-zone, I do have a long list of leads to share with you.  

[Kane]

Just a quick update before I'm off on an all-day dig tomorrow. 

 

In the rocks I brought home from yesterday's adventure, I split to find another Anchiopsis cephalon.

[Kane]

And I did a quick prep to reveal more of the cephalon of this one. I'm impressed by the size. 

[Peat Burns]

2 hours ago, Kane said:

I'm off on an all-day dig tomorrow.