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A Day Hunting Trilobites With Dave

Malcolmt

By Malcolmt
in Fossil Hunting Trips

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Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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Spent a wonderful day on Sunday with my Fossil Forum Buddy Dave (Quarryman Dave) at Penn Dixie just west of Buffalo New York. After the normal hassle of getting fingerprinted at the border. We made an uneventful trip to the fossil site, although Dave did get lost at least three times trying to find the place. He only got lost once on the way back. Overall we arrived at 9:30 and left at 6:00. After a long day of splitting rock non stop we were very tired after the walk out to the car (which was past the closed gates) with buckets full of rock and equipment in hand.

Met some great new people from New Jersey, you know who you are. Here's hoping we get to hunt eurypterids with you in the near future.

Here is our work area for the day we created that bench and excavated about 50 square feet of surface area down about 24 inches.

post-4886-0-52340300-1369677064_thumb.jpg

My estimate is that we were seeing about 4 to 5 trilos mostly partials per cubit foot we split.

I suspect by the end of the day we found 50 to 60 trilobites with the potential to be complete (all but 2 phacops, I know they changed the name but I am old school)

We found two that might end up being reasonably complete greenops but they are by no means perfect. The greenops tend to be in the more crumbly layer.

Here is the overall group photo of what we found

post-4886-0-40599300-1369675909_thumb.jpg

Here is a challenge to you , how many trilos can you see in this picture I gave up when I got to 50

A couple in here will prep up real nice. I will post pics once they are prepped.

I put a few more pictures in my gallery as they don't fit here because of size restictions.

Edited by Malcolmt
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Herb Regular Member

Herb

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WOW! I'm going there in June, I hope I have 1/2 the luck you had. Nice haul.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Shamalama Regular Member

Shamalama

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Well, THAT will give you something to work on this winter! Nice haul, you got the right layer there. :) Glad you got down there when the weather was as nice as it has been this weekend. You get fingerprinted at the border coming into the US? I thought I had it bad when they searched my car for soil when I mention fossils.

-Dave

__________________________________________________

Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

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Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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Yes I am not Canadian, I am actually a brit with a British passport, so every 90 days I have to get a new green VISA waiver this entails getting fingerprinted and having my picture taken and paying an entry fee for the green card. And here I thought the Brits were Americas best allies......

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JimB88 Regular Member

JimB88

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Thats quite the haul! Cant wait to see them prepped.

BTW: what did they change Phacops to?

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xonenine Regular Member

xonenine

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terrific haul, glad you had a great trip! :)

"Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus

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hrguy54 Regular Member

hrguy54

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good luck with the prepping...I find that to be as much fun as the hunt/dig. I look forward to seeing your results.

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Fossildude19 Regular Member

Fossildude19

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Wow, you two really cleaned up down there, Malcolm.

Hope the Greenops preps out nicely for you.

Congratulations.

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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Kosmoceras Regular Member

Kosmoceras

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What a haul, those will keep you prepping for a while. There are some great close up pictures in his gallery.

Regards,

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Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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Without any prep having been started I see parts of 23 trilos on the front of the slab and 4 on the back of the slab. There are also about 10 brachs and some horn coral. Of the trilos 3 perhaps 4 appear to have the potential to be complete. When I start to prep under the scope I will likely find more trilos that are completely buried. This has the potential to be a nice slab. It was the bottom of a concoidal formation at the lowest part of the trilobite producing layer. In the picture of the work area this would be the base of the contact layer of those big blocks and the floor of the pit. Right at this contact point there is a very flakey wet shale layer. This is the start of the water table this season. The exact location this slab came from was the block that has been removed immediately to the right and one block increment in front of the leaf blower

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Lmshoemaker Regular Member

Lmshoemaker

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This sounds a bit goofy, but what is your method for removing large slabs like these?

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Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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I have three big chisels, a mini sledge and two very large pry pars, and two two foot long wedges. The big prybar is 6 feet long. The smaller one is 4 feet long. I fracture the bottom of the rock at a seem in multiple places and then it becomes a fight between my pry bar and the rock , generally the pry bar wins. At this location I take out blocks that are anywhere from 1 foot by 1 foot by one foot to ones that are about 2 1/2 foot by 1 1/2 foot by 1 foot. The layer I work will split out in a block about 12 inches deep. The best trilos come from the bottom of the bock just above the shaley layer. There is also a good layer near the top of the block that seems to have the greenops (mostly tails)

Edited by Malcolmt
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Quarryman Dave Regular Member

Quarryman Dave

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yes took many wrong turns in Buffalo only to be detoured by a run marathon that closed many streets in the area!. It was a fantastic day! and we met some great people from jersey hope to hook up with them in the future. Thanks Malcolm for preping them + my potential Bois Blanc trilobite. can't wait to get back to the penn site! and am pretty excited about our mini mass grave of elredgiops we found

Edited by Quarryman Dave

Quarrycomber

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Lmshoemaker Regular Member

Lmshoemaker

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I have three big chisels, a mini sledge and two very large pry pars, and two two foot long wedges. The big prybar is 6 feet long. The smaller one is 4 feet long. I fracture the bottom of the rock at a seem in multiple places and then it becomes a fight between my pry bar and the rock , generally the pry bar wins. At this location I take out blocks that are anywhere from 1 foot by 1 foot by one foot to ones that are about 2 1/2 foot by 1 1/2 foot by 1 foot. The layer I work will split out in a block about 12 inches deep. The best trilos come from the bottom of the bock just above the shaley layer. There is also a good layer near the top of the block that seems to have the greenops (mostly tails)

So a pry bar is needed for this typically?

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Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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You would be severely hampered in my opinion without a 3 to four foot crowbar of some type. I tend to have good luck hunting because I move more rock than most people in the same amount of time.

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  • 1 month later...
Malcolmt Regular Member

Malcolmt

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Sorry , been very busy as of late and have only prepped a fraction of them and have not taken pictures at this point. Will eventually get some pictures up. I promise

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crinoid1 Regular Member

crinoid1

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Good haul! Can't wait to see them cleaned.

Gabe

I like crinoids......

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