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Triarthrus day !


taj

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First sunny day of the week . Wife and kids getting slowly crazy while I have to deal with a higher than average workload from home. Hum ...time to steal a few hours with the two oldest ones and get back to the Nicollet Fm (ordovician ) nearby.

 

This time Flexys did not make the cut , or none did with all parts intact ( except maybe one found by my eldest) . This Triarthrus Rougensis made my day though , the best (by far ) I found so far . Followed by another promising one later .2 and a half hours well spent!

 

PS: wow , just noticed this is my first post since landing here ! Time flies faster and faster ..

 

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What better thing to do on a beautiful day like that?  And it appears it was a productive as well.

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Good find, bien a vous! I miss collecting those deepwater olenidae, and the smell of that dark shale when freshly split! That's a lovely specimen. :trilosurprise:

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Very nice Triarthrus. Complete ones like that are a rare thing no matter where you look. Congratulations. Is that the old quarry site in LaPrairie? Looks familiar. 

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Thanks!. I have been stomping there daily  for almost 3 years . Every time I started seriously looking for fossils , I have been disappointed . Thanks to the COVID though , and based on a few discussions with other fossil hunters I met during my daily jogs,  I finally paid some serious attention to the site and it paid off. That's a very nice place to enjoy fresh air when parks in Montreal downtown are pretty (over)crowded. So much safer also !!

Now the sad part is that quarry ceased operations at least a year ago , has been sold , and will soon become a housing lot . Huge landscaping needed before that , of course , which is currently on hold due to COVID , but not so far in the future only  uppermost layers will be accessible ( with any luck )

 

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the smell of that dark shale when freshly split!

Sure ! , and then the smell of crazy glue before these bugs disintegrate before your eyes .This stuff is incredibly brittle . Never seen anything quite like this .

 

NB : and my son did find the only intact flexy in a refuse pile!

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9 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Very nice! :envy:

Where abouts is the Nicollet Fm exposed?

South shore of Montreal , to start with :).Any civil work , housing lot , or even small dig is likely to bring it up to light . But it is sooo frail , lifetime of exposed slabs measures in hours . And of course the former Hanson /Forterra Quarry .

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The big Triarthrus  is going to remain "as is" . I was lucky enough to pull it out intact . The counterpart was in a slab big enough , but the actual bug came out on a flake . So no prep except some crazy glue on the underside for consolidation.As for the other ones found so far , including some decent Flexys , well , prep will be a very delicate process. It will have to wait for tools I use at the club . Unfortunately the club is going to be closed until september ...:(

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7 hours ago, taj said:

South shore of Montreal , to start with :).Any civil work , housing lot , or even small dig is likely to bring it up to light . But it is sooo frail , lifetime of exposed slabs measures in hours . And of course the former Hanson /Forterra Quarry .

Oh, wow. You mean it crumbles on exposure to air? That's worse than my local Cretaceous shale. Actually your shale looks exactly like mine.. so now you know what I have to deal with - except that you're finding trilobites in yours!

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On 4/19/2020 at 11:24 PM, Wrangellian said:

Oh, wow. You mean it crumbles on exposure to air? That's worse than my local Cretaceous shale. Actually your shale looks exactly like mine.. so now you know what I have to deal with - except that you're finding trilobites in yours!

Yep . It is quite damp, so once exposed it starts to dry up and flake . Some chunks are bigger than others , but vibrations from digging are also adding to the stress . Actually I even used the damp/dry technique to fine-prepare some bits at home . Works well for flaking out some shale from the fossil . Of course you have to be ready to jump in with your glue !

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Sounds quite tricky. I have enough trouble with the shale over here, I don't need it to flake away upon drying also! :shakehead:

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Beautiful day Yesterday . Was able to snatch a couple hours  by the end of the afternoon . Very odd.

Split-split-split-split-(nothing)-trilos -trilos-trilos-Split-split-split-split-(nothing). Almost all the finds concentrated on a 10 mn span over these 2 hours ... 

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I have the same experience, but mine is usually split-trilo-split-split-split-split-split-trilo-split 

 

For some time, the majority of my (“keeper”)finds are either in the first few minutes or last few minutes of several hours of effort. 
 

I now expect the pattern when I fossil hunt and consider it a Murphy’s Law of fossil hunting...(sigh)

 

Nice Triarthus!!

Edited by DrDave
Forgot something
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For some time, the majority of my (“keeper”)finds are either in the first few minutes or last few minutes of several hours of effort. 

That's my usual pattern also !I might add that many of my best finds belong from that part of the trip when I decided to stretch the limits ( just a little further than , just a few more minutes than ...)  So I was somewhat bemused by this new one , but well in the end only the final count will matter :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

2 more biggies last wednesday . Not even sure they are the same species of Flexys . Currently trying to prep this one with water , let's see what happens 

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Thanks  Monica ! I can only try the slightest prep for these beauties . Waay to frail . Have to wait for the club to reopen to access their tools , Unfortunately not before september . Which is very wise since a good deal of the permanent people are spot on the worst age range for this (%%(**! virus . Can't wait for the intra provincial restrictions to be lifted though , fresh air from the Neuville fm will be most welcome!

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Here is a partial result . ( Sorry for the poor light in the pictures ). This is only so far as I will dare to go for now . The finishing touch will come with a light  air abrader touch (not before september though)which should reveal nice details and colours of the exosqueleton . Note that the latest Flexy popped up , already free of matrix and quite solid , at the most unexpected of times ! 

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