Another trip to La Familia Quarry

[Nautiloid]

Hello y’all!

On Sunday, my close friend@KompsFossilsNMinerals and I met up once again to do some collecting at La Familia quarry in search of some good trilobites, and as always, we didn’t leave empty handed! We hit a few different sections of the strata, and we managed to have some level of success at every spot we worked. 

[Nautiloid]

This was my first good find, from the first section we hit. This is a nice prone example of Gravicalymene magnotuberculata. It’s only missing a little shell on the axis of the pygidium, which is pretty good considering how it split. It’s a little over an inch long, which is about the average size for the prone bugs it seems. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Nautiloid

[Nautiloid]

For a while I was only finding the occasional partial Gravicalymene, but then I split a massive block and uncovered an amazing cluster of juveniles! Took me about half an hour to break down the block to a manageable size, but it was worth the effort. I think there’s 17 bugs on the plate, but I seem to find more every time I stare at it! We have found very few specimens of this size at the site, so this is quite the peculiar find. 
The majority of specimens are prone, but there are also some rollers and ventral bugs on there too. 
 

Here are some of the bugs on the plate. There’s a super nice cluster of 7 or 8 individuals right in the center which is neat!

[A.C.]

Amazing plate! Excited to see once prepped!

[Thomas1982]

spectacular!  That multiplate will be a nice showpiece after some prepping.

[Nautiloid]

2 hours ago, Thomas1982 said:

spectacular!  That multiplate will be a nice showpiece after some prepping.

Thanks!! It should look amazing! It’ll be a real nightmare to prep though haha

[Tidgy's Dad]

Jolly good finds. 

Lovely. 

[Fossildude19]

Cool finds, for sure. Thanks for sharing them.

[KompsFossilsNMinerals]

Sorry for the delay on my part.  Here are my finds from this trip!

 

Juvenile Isotelus gigas molt

 

Schrödingers Gravicalymene, unsure if the head is present.

 

 

Large Gravicalymene caught between the layers, will have to do extensive prep on this guy.

 

The second Conulariid (Conularia trentonensis) I’ve found, and the second I know of from La Familia Quarry.

 

[Jeffrey P]

Great trilobite finds- both of you, but that awesome conularid really takes the cake. Big congrats. I assume these are all Ordovician. What formation were you collecting in? Thanks for sharing.