Beautiful Sunday Galena Hunt

[Caleb]

After spending a day roofing my garage I decided I needed a break and spent Sunday, July 29th collecting the Galena Formation of Southeast Minnesota. I woke up Sunday morning unreasonably sore and decided that breaking rock was not what I wanted to do. I picked up my father and we headed off to do some relaxing surface collecting at some road-cuts.

The find of the day was a decent Dolichoharpes cephalon. I have only collected a small handfull of these from the Galena Formation in the 17 years I've been seriously collecting, so they are quite hard to come by. Since the Prosser member of the Galena Formations is very similar in age and fauna as the Kimmswick Formation of Missouri and Illinois, it could be Dolichoharpes uniserialis. Although the Galena specimens have also been referred to as D. ottawaensis so I'm not 100% on what to call this bug other than Dolichoharpes sp.

Some of the other things I picked up were one very possibly complete Anataphrus borreaus trilobite, a Westonoceras minnesotense nautaloid cephalopod(photo coming soon), and a large(for this area) horn coral for prep practice. The Anataphrus is enrolled which is common for this type and is displaying all 8 of it's thoracic segments. However these bugs are notorious for being headless molts. A little prep should prove quickly if it is a complete specimen.

[trilobiteruss]

Cool finds, Sunday was a great day, wish I were that close to fossil outcrops...

[Caleb]

Thanks Russ, the weather could not have been better for being outside in general!

[squalicorax]

Sweet stuff Caleb! I never have hunted the Galena. It looks splendid.

[Caleb]

Here's the cephalopod I collected.

Westonoceras minnesotense(pretty sure...)

[Caleb]

Sweet stuff Caleb! I never have hunted the Galena. It looks splendid.

Thanks! The Galena has a huge range of fauna so it's great for someone focused on a specific fossil. For me that's Trilobites and so far we have compiled a fauna list of 22 genera and 28 species. I can't even imagine how many brachiopods, cephalopods, gastropods or echinoderms there are! So much more research to do...

[Roz]

You find some really nice stuff, Caleb! I love that Anataphrus..

[Fossildude19]

Great finds and report, Caleb!

Thanks for posting them - always like to see what you've been finding.

Am always amazed with how you know what's what from just little bits showing.

Regards,