A Great Trip in the Neuville Formation, Quebec City Area

[Kane]

Recently returned from a near week-long dig with a field comrade in the Quebec City area, visiting many sites, dealing with torrential downpours, sleeping rough, and covering roughly 2,000km of road. It was a fantastic time with a good friend and quite productive. I came back with about six flats of fossils. I'll show a few of them. 

 

None of them are prepared yet, and I have a lot of work to do! I'll show them in their raw field state for now.  The Neuville Formation is upper Ordovician, comparable to the Cobourg/Lindsay Fm in Ontario. The faunal composition is different, though. The material is known for its crinoids and trilobites (mostly two species, but others do appear now and again depending on the member). 

 

First up, Ceraurus pleurexanthemus, which are generally on the smaller side and comparable those found in the Rust Walcott.

No pygidial spines on this buddy.  

Small, but complete. This will be a nice one. 

 

Scrappy and uncertain to be complete, but better to take it home to find out than leave it in the field. As an added bonus, a small Isotelus gigas hypostome.

Buried and uncertain. One has to scan these rocks carefully as something like this can easily be missed.

Possibly complete.

Another possible one with what may be a Cryptolithus cephalon on top.

Again, hard to say until I get it in the lab. 

Will the head be there? Not sure yet. It could be tucked.

 

Very tiny, but likely complete

e

Buried, but also possibly complete

This one is a bit uncertain at the moment

 

 

 

Some Flexicalymene senaria. These ones are scrappy. 

 

In terms of Flexis, these are the true prize finds. Both of these are about 5 cm (2") long, making them among the biggest in this formation. The second one will likely be a bit larger once prepared. They are monsters!

And these are Cryptolithus cephalons. No luck finding complete ones this trip.  

[Kane]

I found two of these Rusophycus. This one is a healthy sized example.

A nice little jumble of graptolites:

This conulariid will look nice once I prep it:

Large bivalve -- not common in this material.

What a heartbreaker. Isotelus negative. Finding them complete is quite uncommon. Parts are more standard.

 

A bit tough to see, but this is either a Dendrocrinus or an Iocrinus. These prepare beautifully.

 

I picked this one up because it looked neat. This is a branching bryozoan. 

 

This is likely a Syringocrinus in the oxidized layer.

 

This jumble of spicules is actually a very rare sponge that has yet to be described. I might reach out to Joe Botting ( @Spongy Joe ) about this one. 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the great trip-makers was this gigantic Isotelus. Sadly, a bit of the right side is missing, but it is semi-enrolled and encased in the rock. My guess is that it would have measured about 7 inches. This will not be an easy prep, though, as the skin tends to adhere to the rock, so it will be a slow process of glue, scribe, more glue, more scribing. I'll have to grind down the topmost matrix to get close to the trilobite first and take care not to impart too much vibration. 

[Kane]

While visiting with a friend in Montreal who curates a museum, he had some books to sell, so I picked up those two classics. 

 

Upon arriving at home, a package for me including Ptychopyge lesnikovae, Asaphus lamanskii, and Asaphus expansus deltifrons. I also bought a trilobite from my field comrade, which is a 3 cm Lonchodomas mcgheheei from the Bromide Formation, Simpson Group (Blackriveran, Middle Ordovician), Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma.

 

So that was the trip. Many memories made, and a pile of fossils to prepare. This is what I live for.  
 

[FossilNerd]

Wow! What a haul! Glad you were able to get out and have a productive time; both in fossils and memories. 

 

Hopefully we get to see some of these after prep. 

[Malcolmt]

Incredible....I think you should have left a few of those on my driveway!!!!!!!!

 

[Kane]

11 minutes ago, Malcolmt said:

Incredible....I think you should have left a few of those on my driveway!!!!!!!!

 

Heheh... You'll have a chance to find them this year, I'm sure. It was great seeing you on the way back -- sorry we had to leave so soon!

[Tidgy's Dad]

So happy that you had fun and such a successful trip. 

It all sounds wonderful and I look forward to the after prep photos which should be splendid. 

Love the sponge, graptolites and especially the conulariid, too. 

Classic texts and some beautiful bugs.

Life's Good. 

[Paleorunner]

you have a great job to do, I wait patiently for the cleaning result.
  hope you get good results.

[connorp]

A week in the Ordovician – you are definitely living the life 

Some great finds there, can't wait to see them prepped.

[Kane]

Aye, I'm chomping at the bit to get into the prep lab... I just have to get through a stack of papers to grade and then I'll be free to get on with the now large backlog of prep material!

[piranha]

  

[Fossildude19]

Wow!

Glad you had a successful trip, Kane!

Looks like you hit a jackpot!  

[FossilDAWG]

You did good!! 

Don

[ClearLake]

34 minutes ago, Kane said:

I just have to get through a stack of papers to grade

Great finds!  Just give them all an "A" and get to the real fun!  Haha  Great trip.

[JohnJ]

Another memorable adventure safely achieved!  

[Ludwigia]

All I can say is ***Drool***

[historianmichael]

Awesome finds! I am excited to see what they look like when you’re done prepping them. You are incredibly lucky living in an area with such well preserved Ordovician trilobites and crinoids.

[RuMert]

Nice variety of spectacular specimens

[Kane]

Just prepared the giant Flexi. It will need restoration on some of the axial rings from being exposed and jumbled around rocks. 

About 8 hours alternating between scribing and a crappy Paasche. Landscaped the matrix using the scribe, Dremel, and Paasche.

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

That came out very nice!

Don

[Kane]

Thanks, Don.  Looks better in person as the camera washes it out a bit. I just wish this one had the cheeks!

[FossilDAWG]

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

Thanks, Don.  Looks better in person as the camera washes it out a bit. I just wish this one had the cheeks!

?? It looks to me as if the free cheeks are there, maybe just folded under a bit?

 

Don

[Kane]

4 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

?? It looks to me as if the free cheeks are there, maybe just folded under a bit?

 

Don

I didn't see them under the scope, but they could be partially separated and buried. Perhaps I'm not as far along with this one as I thought!  I'll see if I can fish them out.

[FossilNerd]

Looks nice Kane. Even with the wear from exposure and possible buried free cheeks. 
 

Musings of a FossilNerd… Are they really “free cheeks” while imprisoned in matrix?  

[Kane]

27 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

Looks nice Kane. Even with the wear from exposure and possible buried free cheeks. 
 

Musings of a FossilNerd… Are they really “free cheeks” while imprisoned in matrix?  

Would that make me a liberator instead of a preparator?