Another Devonian weekend :)

[Al Tahan]

Hey everyone,

 

Back again. Couldn’t resist lol. I figure I could offer up some positivity during these uncertain times. Unfortunately it’s getting pretty serious in New York State with C19 cases blowing up. Our family business is under some stresses and I had to make some difficult decisions today so this post is also a little therapy for me. I really love paleontology it allows my mind to wander away from the present! 

 

I got back out into the field again this past weekend on Saturday 3/14/20 and Sunday 3/15/20. This time of year I have very little to do other than go hiking/collecting on weekend. Summer activities aren’t here yet and collecting during those hot summer days can be rough. 

 

I’m itching to do more exploring for new locations in New York but I’m still drawn to the classics like Cole Hill. On Saturday 3/14/20 figured I’d check out the Middle Devonian Delphi Station Member of the Hamilton group in search of Dipleura. Still dreaming of an articulated specimen but I’m always happy with some nice cephalons. 
 

I took a couple field shots. They always look so nice fresh and wet haha. 

 

2 nicer cephalons 

 

 

a nice inflated cephalon 

 

Some smaller cephalons

Giving the pygidiums some love. One was big!! 

This looked interesting. Not sure what it is exactly. 
 

gastropods and bivalves!!

 

A flattened cephalopod and I think that’s a branching bryozoan. Needs to be glued together. 
 

 

I didn’t get the complete specimen but I still enjoy the location. Does need some work to get into the bedrock. It’s getting tough to find places to work. Mother Nature helps out as time goes. 
 

up next is my Sunday 3/15/20 trip to DSR and I did really well!! Finally scored the Greenops I’ve been looking for!

 

stay tuned  

[FossilNerd]

Looking good so far! I understand the hard decisions and need for a little self therapy with the recent happenings of the world. Glad you got out and de-stressed a little! I had my fossil hunt therapy session yesterday. 
 

Staying tuned... 

[Al Tahan]

Last weekend when I went to Deep Springs Rd there was still a decent amount of snow there and everything was still pretty saturated so I wasn’t really in the mood for digging. This weekend it was a much different story. There wasn’t any snow so I did more surface scanning then decided to dig up fresh slabs. Breaking out the sledge/wedge and pry bar! 

 

I was able to get this very large slab moving. It broke up into manageable chunks which was perfect!

 

I had to clear a lot of debris before this thing would move. Lots of extra weight. 
 

Bingo....there isn’t a better sight than this. There was a significant amount of physical effort to get to this point. I took a solid 30 minute break, crossed my fingers and got splitting....

 

And that’s the after. 

First I found this...not too bad. Has some issues but I was able to get it to a respectable state. I will show the final result when I do the at home photos. 
 

I was trying to break down the massive slab with the above pictured greenops...the slab was huge. 
 

 

I made a somewhat chaotic split and saw the most amazing counterpart to a greenops I’ve ever seen at DSR. My heart skipped a beat.....WHERE IS THE TRILO!?!?

 

 

 

 

 

Gotcha! 
 

This...this right here made my 2020 fossil season so far!! Been trying very hard to get a high quality Greenops at DSR. I have some good ones but Nothing with that wow factor! 
 

Ok up next will just be some cleaned up photos of these nice trilobites and some other finds from DSR
 

Few photos incoming 

[Ash]

Beautiful! I’m looking forward to the ID on your mystery piece

[erose]

Darn I miss the Devonian!

[Jeffrey P]

That mystery piece looks like a conularid. Big congratulations if it is. I've never seen one from Cole Hill or DSR for that matter. Also nice score on that prone Greenops. Many of my best complete ones were found first as imprints. Good to know that DSR is snow free now. It's just a matter of time before I'm up there collecting. 

[Al Tahan]

I think the top right is a hylolithid of some kind? 
 

I surface collected the Dipleura cephalon and I also found this Greenops in the large area I worked. There is a good chance the pygidium is tucked underneath. 
 

Obligatory Phyllocarid photo haha. Just a mash of partials. Still very neat. It also appears to have a single segment of a telson in the top left of the top specimen.
 

This was the first trilobite I found that led to the find of the day. Cleaned up real nice. I was having lighting issues so sorry for the funky color of the photo. 
 

The counterpart almost looks better lol. Has valuable information about the pygidium in it that was lost in the positive. 
 

I very delicately cleaned this off cause I wasn’t sure how sturdy the exoskeleton was on the body. 
 

It’s pretty well in place....and stained brown. The left eye is in the counterpart and if the day comes I will try to have it prepped. 
 

The counterpart even has a baby Dipleura association  

here’s its current state. Pretty ugly color without It being wet. Too bad that eye is missing....more important information. Not to mention the pygidium is covered.....grrrrr. Oh well...I see potential!! In due time. 

This Greenops from DSR and eastern New York does not has a species described in literature. The book “Trilobites of New York” illustrates 2 greenops trilobites with no species name. 
 

this one matches nice....this was also found in the upper windom shale (very far west of DSR) which would make sense.....since the Stratigraphy described at DSR.....is Windom shale. Biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy at work here. It finally makes sense now lol. I’ve read DSR is windom shale but I couldn’t really find something saying exactly why.....just that it is windom shale....I’m sure the answer was out there I just couldn’t find it. I wasn’t sold on a geologist making the determination based on maps only. Units change...thicken, thin, appear, disappear all across the state....stratigraphy is HARD!! Im glad I made some type of bio stratigraphic connection before I drove myself crazy wondering. Before radioactive dating fossils were the only markers of time. In a sense they still are....hello index fossils we still need you!!! 
However, I wish I had more information on the eyes in my specimen. I want to be able to count the rows of lenses etc...  I can’t tell 100% but I think the specimen in the book has an axial node (hope I used that term right) on the Cephalon. 

 

Just throwing this in here haha. The original Greenops Boothi. This name got slapped onto a lot of trilobites in New York and was eventually split into several greenops species and whole new genus bellacartwrightia. 
 

 

Anyway....it was a fun fossil weekend. I’m very thrilled with all 3 of my Greenops from DSR. I love searching the unknown and I really want to try and keep finding quality specimens of this somewhat forgotten  Greenops trilobite from DSR and eastern New York. 

 

Thanks for reading, stay safe

Al 

 

[Wrangellian]

Wow! I recognize the wow factor there. I like all the other stuff too, you've got a nice diversity of things there. Some of your pics are on the small side -do you think you could provide some larger versions of those earlier pics with multiple things in them?

Thanks for providing me with something to look at, to hold me over until I can get back up my local site to do some of my own collecting, which I haven't done since last summer! At least that is something I can do while everything else is cancelled or on hold.

Take care.

[aek]

Nice trip report! I hope to return to those locales one day. Could your mystery from Cole hill be a conulariid?

[Misha]

Nice finds!

Is Cole hill open to the public like DSR?

[FossilNerd]

That Greenops looks like it was a lot of work to get out, but man was it worth it! Congrats on your season maker! 

[Ludwigia]

Congrats on that Greenops. And you still have the left eye, so it'll be a real "looker" when you're done with prepping it. And I agree with Jeff on your mystery find that it looks like a conularid.

[Manticocerasman]

great report and finds  

To bad I'm stuck at home right now, I'd love to do a few devonian fieldtrips

 

[Monica]

Congrats on the conulariid!!!  And the hyolithid!!!  And everything else!!!  I can always count on you to show us some drool-worthy pieces 

[Al Tahan]

@Wrangellian

 

hope these are a little better  

 

those other ones did come out terrible. The lighting just wasn’t cooperating.

 

 

 

let me know if you want some close ups on other fossils  

[Al Tahan]

@Jeffrey P I was thinking that was a possibility but had 0 confidence in the thought. Basically cause of what you said....you don’t see it usually. Thanks for the ID! 
 

 

[Wrangellian]

1 hour ago, Al Tahan said:

@Wrangellian

 

hope these are a little better  

 

those other ones did come out terrible. The lighting just wasn’t cooperating.

 

let me know if you want some close ups on other fossils  

Thanks. Part of it is the size of the photos... they're only showing about 4x6" on my monitor. I guess most of you are using cellphones so it doesn't make any difference for you, but there's lots more room to play with on a 1080x1920p. screen like mine!

So, I still can't tell, what is the long item in the mid-right of this pic... burrow?

[Shamalama]

On 3/19/2020 at 9:08 PM, Jeffrey P said:

That mystery piece looks like a conularid. Big congratulations if it is. I've never seen one from Cole Hill or DSR for that matter. Also nice score on that prone Greenops. Many of my best complete ones were found first as imprints. Good to know that DSR is snow free now. It's just a matter of time before I'm up there collecting. 

Not to rain in the parade, but is it possible that mystery piece is a portion of a Goniophora?  http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/2010/06/goniophora.html  It's an alternate hypothesis but a conulariid could be possible too.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Super finds and congrats on the wonderful Greenops. 

[Al Tahan]

@Wrangellian yea it was definitely a borrow or at least that was my thought