Amazing day collecting at Martin Quarry

[Nautiloid]

Greetings everyone!

 

Today I had the very special opportunity to collect in the Whetstone Gulf formation at Martin Quarry. I had a really great time and I just wanted to share some of my finds with you fine fossil forum folks!

Enjoy 

 

[Nautiloid]

Here are some of the nicer Triarthrus eatoni I found. I found 6 or 7 completes. A couple of these guys could have soft tissue preservation. 
 

[Nautiloid]

I think these guys are pretty interesting. They’re Diagoniella sponges, apparently they’re pretty rare. Me and the other guy who was there found a huge colony of them toward the end of the day. Together we probably got 50+ individuals!! Most of the specimens were 1 or 2 cm long but we pulled out a few over the 2 inch mark. 
 

[Nautiloid]

Here’s a good sized straight shelled cephalopod with a Triarthrus eatoni thorax. The layer we found the sponges in also had a ton of these partially pyritized cephalopods . 
 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Nautiloid

[ChristineR]

2 hours ago, Nautiloid said:

A couple of these guys could have soft tissue preservation. 

Looks like you had a great day in the field! 
Out of curiosity, what leads you to believe there could be soft tissue preservation? Is that a known occurrence in the location? 
 

- Chris 

[Ludwigia]

Are the Triarthus also pyritized? It would be interesting to see them after prep.

[Fossildude19]

7 hours ago, ChristineR said:

Out of curiosity, what leads you to believe there could be soft tissue preservation? Is that a known occurrence in the location? 
- Chris 

 

This is the famous Beecher Trilobite Beds. 

 

 

 

@Nautiloid

Congratulations Owen! Glad you had a good time and made some decent finds there.  

 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice finds.

Love the sponges.

Thank you for sharing.

[Nautiloid]

7 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Are the Triarthus also pyritized? It would be interesting to see them after prep.

Yes a few of them are pyritized! I’m gonna send them back to get prepped at some point.