Out & About

[Kane]

I've been out quite a bit this season, but still haven't had my "wow" trip-maker yet. Due to various situations, most of my digging has been very local, with one away trip to Quebec. 

 

For local sites, I've been prospecting new spots and doing due diligence on old ones, too. Around me is Devonian, and more particularly the ugly portions of the Devonian of Ontario that are parsimonious, tough, sometimes lacking in bedding planes, occasionally blank or cherty, and generally displaying fossils as they might appear after being thoroughly whipped in a Ninja blender. But, hey, it's always fun to get out.

 

New site #1: Amherstburg Fm material (L-M.Devonian)

 

 

Not the best facies of the Amherstburg Fm, but certainly some stromatoporoid action for those who enjoy the lumpy-bumpy spreaders.

 

 

It isn't the mid Devonian of my city without bumping into a rostroconch. I swear these things are stalking me.

 

 

A chalk-cherty mass and a view of a very busy coral layer.

 

 

Another coral layer

 

 

Bryozoans galore, and some of these can spread quite an area.

 

 

All bryozoans, but indicative of the diversity among them in this material. 

 

 

More coral horizons -- a colony and some solitary cups

 

 

Giant colony

 

Big stromato... and close-up:

 

 

 

 

[Kane]

Site #2: Bois Blanc Fm chalk-chert horizon etc.

 

This site is actually set in a ditch next to a corn field. It has treated me ok in the past, but it is also quite fickle and ugly material in general.

 

 

Case in point would be this Anchiopsis pygidium. It looks like it has been preserved at the bottom of an ancient ashtray. 

 

 

 

And three others in varying states of meh-ness.   

 

Although not the best representative, this facies also contains large vugs of sparry calcite. That is usually not a great sign for fossil preservation in general.

 

 

Crassiproetus glabella and pygidium

 

 

A very sad cephalon fragment, possibly Pseudodechenella, but likely a "leaverite."

[Kane]

Site #3: A big sand pit

 

My city sits atop something like 500 metres of alternating layers of sand and cobble, the latter composed of a mix of metamorphic rocks and Devonian salad spanning the Bois Blanc Fm up through some Hamilton Gp rocks. During the last ice age, this was one of the areas that "let go" of its lake barrier and resulted in an enormous outpouring of water across southwestern Ontario at a rate far exceeding that of Niagara Falls, and for a much shorter duration. Sourcing good material is a challenge as many of the Devonian rocks are quite poor or low diversity (one interval has about 2-3 feet of nothing but one species of tiny brachiopod).

 

I did find some giant Eldredgeops parts I forgot to photograph. But, just parts in a shale that doesn't outcrop anywhere in Ontario.

 

So, I picked up some Bois Blanc Fm for a split.

 

A big clam.

 

 

Poor preservation and tough to make out, but upper left the pygidium of Anchiopsis and bottom right likely a phacopidae (Burtonops or Viaphacops).

 

 

Anchiopsis cephalon. 

 

 

Brach having popped free of its matrix

 

 

One of those phacopidae.

 

 

Another Anchiopsis pygidium. There's a theme here and it is... incompleteness. 

[Kane]

Site #4: Another Ditch

 

This was a new prospect filled with Bois Blanc Fm rocks, different facies. 

 

 

Partial pygidium of Terataspis grandis. It does continue up into the rock, and is ventral. It is also set in the most miserable, dense chert in existence to make preparation an exercise in self-defeating endeavour.

 

 

Genal spine of Terataspis, and like a lot of fossils in this very dense material, any splits occur through the specimen, rarely around the specimen.

 

 

A colourful Anchiopsis pygidium missing the spine..

 

 

Weathered axis of a Calymene platys. 

 

 

Oddball high-spired gastropods, and a fairly large rostroconch that is partially pyritized.

 

 

I returned a few weeks later to this spot with a friend and found this fairly large Anchiopsis pygidium. I have since been clearing the matrix off, and it looks even bigger now.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kane]

Site #5: The old backyard haunt - Amherstburg and Lucas Fms

 

I've probably visited this spot over a hundred times now, and it is convenient since it is just a 15 minute walk from my house. Not much to show for it but the usual material, including silicified gastropods, rostroconchs, etc. 

 

  .

Platycerid

 

 

The two photos above: can you spot the Acanthopyge genal spine? 

 

 

Because they simply won't leave me alone.

[Kane]

Nearing the end of April, it was time to get out of town, so I headed by train to Quebec City, which took about 15 hours when considering layovers in Toronto and Montreal.

 

 

Here is the tower in Toronto that controls people's minds, or some-such.  

 

 

And here is Montreal, including a bit of the skyline on the way to Quebec City

 

 

It was a dreary looking day. By the time I arrived in a rural area just southeast of QC, there was still snow on the ground in a lot of places:

 

[Kane]

Spent a week digging at a few good sites, but haven't taken photos of all the material yet. A lot of it will be trilobites: Ceraurus, Flexicalymene, Meadowtownella, and some Triarthrus. All of them need prep.

 

Flexi

This one is actually rare albeit fragmentary: a Thaleops cephalon in the Neuville Fm. 

T  

 Flexi

Probably my best Ceraurus. Only minimal shell damage, but mostly buried and complete. The problem with exposed trilobites is weathering, so the more buried the better. I'll get to work on this one once it gets shipped out to me (I couldn't take everything back on the train).

 

I have since done some work on this one since this photo was taken, and it is likely my very best Flexi from this trip.

 

 

 

Somewhat weathered Flexi

 

   

 

Iffy Ceraurus

 

 

Not likely to have a cephalon, but it could be tucked. 

 

Probably a chuck-it Flexi

 

 

Nice pose, but missing parts

 

 

Triarthrus beckii -- note the nodes running down the axis. This looks nice and 3D in person.

 

 

Heartbreaker Meadowtownella.

 

 

Super tiny Triarthrus (need to retake the photo with the Olympus) -- about 2 millimetres long.

 

 

As above, ~2mm

 

 

This Meadowtownella actually has hope as it is fully buried. No saying yet if it is complete until it gets to the prep bench.

[Kane]

Finding a complete Isotelus in Quebec is not easy, and I didn't succeed in that venture. This one was in a massive boulder, and there is no way to simply "split" them out of the dense limestone. It was also not in a good place to get the rock saw (and it was just too massive a boulder to get down the steep rock face). So I got it out the old fashioned way, losing very little in the process. I glued the broken parts on. Sadly, I don't think it has a pygidium, or it has been displaced. Still, not a bad size. That said, some of the parts I encountered belonged to specimens that would easily have reached 14 inches / 36 cm, but just... parts. 

[Kane]

I also bought a few trilobites from my friend, with more coming in the mail

 

 

Although missing a bit, this is still a nice and puffy Thaleops.

 

 

Ceraurus plattinensis

 

 

An almost 7 cm Ceraurinus. 

 

 

[Kane]

And some stuff for me to prep.

 

The sequence of images didn't come out here the way I inputted them. Doh. This is a tricky enrolled Cyrmetopus that I am trying to freestand, and will need to do some resto on. This will not be easy.

 

[Kane]

Today's site #1 -- Dundee Fm, a diagenetically reworked layer.

 

A lot of the material here comes out in chunky blobs, vugs, and sometimes in violet.

 

 

Coral dominates, and is generally "hollowed out."

 

 

Proetids are the only trilobites I have found in this material. Here we have the pygidia of Pseudodechenella.

 

 

And more Pseudo parts. Nothing comes out complete in this material save for a few brachiopods and the coral.

 

 

Crassiproetus parts.

 

 

Can't forget about the brachiopods, including that Leptaena on the left. The camera does no justice to the violet hue in which they appear.

 

 

A planispiral and a high-spired gastropod, steinkerns of course.

 

 

A few more proetid parts. This stuff is very busy, but also not the best of preservation.

 

 

A large rostroconch. The bigger ones stalk me here.

 

 

A purple proetid pygidial part.

[Kane]

Site #2 -- A quick pass in monotony

 

But first, a goose and goslings break:

 

 

What looks like a lot of promise is actually quite miserable material. It's chalk-cherty with ragged brown layers of staining or simply burrows and... coral and bryozoans only. Not even a tiny whisper of brachiopod or a single crinoid ossicle. Just... coral and bryozoan (but mostly coral).

 

 

So begins the giant coral exhibit of my trip, which will also lead us to the end of my journey thus far.

 

 

Absolute madness

 

 

 

[Kane]

The scale on those corals is a bit tough to make out in those photos, but they are significantly sized. 

 

But the end of May also signals the arrival of daisies that will dominate the month of June, taking the baton from the tulips, crocuses, daffodils, and dandelions of April-May. I do hope to get out to more places outside of town soon!

 

[Crusty_Crab]

39 minutes ago, Kane said:

Spent a week digging at a few good sites, but haven't taken photos of all the material yet. A lot of it will be trilobites: Ceraurus, Flexicalymene, Meadowtownella, and some Triarthrus. All of them need prep.

 

Flexi

This one is actually rare albeit fragmentary: a Thaleops cephalon in the Neuville Fm. 

T  

 Flexi

Probably my best Ceraurus. Only minimal shell damage, but mostly buried and complete. The problem with exposed trilobites is weathering, so the more buried the better. I'll get to work on this one once it gets shipped out to me (I couldn't take everything back on the train).

 

I have since done some work on this one since this photo was taken, and it is likely my very best Flexi from this trip.

 

 

 

Somewhat weathered Flexi

 

   

 

Iffy Ceraurus

 

 

Not likely to have a cephalon, but it could be tucked. 

 

Probably a chuck-it Flexi

 

 

Nice pose, but missing parts

 

 

Triarthrus beckii -- note the nodes running down the axis. This looks nice and 3D in person.

 

 

Heartbreaker Meadowtownella.

 

 

Super tiny Triarthrus (need to retake the photo with the Olympus) -- about 2 millimetres long.

 

 

As above, ~2mm

 

 

This Meadowtownella actually has hope as it is fully buried. No saying yet if it is complete until it gets to the prep bench.

Just drooling over the thought that you can go to a local site and find such complete and beautiful trilobites. Not even a possibility where I live on the west coast, 

[Top Trilo]

"Iffy Ceraurus" "Chuck-It Flexi" 

 

You probably have found more trilobites than all the trilobites that exist in Colorado. You found more than if I were to go fishing in the Late Cambrian (I'm not the best fisherman so probably wouldn't take much )

 

Great finds Kane, I really enjoyed going through your posts.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lots of fun! You have been busy.

Seriously nice trilobites and I love the corals and especially the rostrochonchs. 

[Fossildude19]

Great stuff, K-man!

I know they annoy you, but I love those rostroconchs!

[MeargleSchmeargl]

I wish Rostroconchs would stalk me everywhere I go. That sounds like a good problem to have!

[Kane]

Thanks, all.  I do plan to ramp everything up now that I am effectively free from teaching until September. 

(And maybe I can give those rostroconchs the slip  ). 

[fossilhunter21]

That is a lot of nice finds, Kane! 

 

Thank you for sharing,

 

-Micah