One Of My Favorite Trilobites But So Far I Am Skunked For The Perfect Specimen

[Malcolmt]

I must admit that ceraurus is one of my very favorite trilobites. I have been hunting diligently to try to find a prone museum quality specimen for my personal collection. This is the best that I have been able to find so far (I have about 5 others that are all in the neighborhood of 80% complete). Although this is not shown in the pictures there is a perfect hypostome that I have exposed on the bottom of the specimen. On the plus side it is very inflated and 3 dimensional with no squashing.The area that I am hunting for these is very fragile shale that has only been recently exposed and it is not standing up to rain very well.

I found this one about four weeks ago. Not quite there yet for my perfect specimen but still not too shabby. What was particularly interesting about this one was that only 3 pleural arches were visible on the matrix and the rest was buried. I actually thought that I had found a flexicalymene which is the most common fossil at that location. The shale that it is in has been exposed to rain and is quite fragile. before starting the prep I soaked it in a very dilute solution of PVA (poly vinyl acetate) and acetone). This acted to consolidate the matrix. As I prepped I used a hypodermic needle to infuse more PVA solution as the exoskeleton had cracks in it and was prone to want to flake off. The prepping was done under a zoom scope using 44 micron dolomite air abrasion at a low PSI (18) and small nozzle size (.018 inches) There is still about 20 to 30 minutes of prepping to go before it is finished. I'll wait for my perfect specimen before entering one in fossil of the month..... lol......

I think I have the species correct but if you disagree with my identification please jump in...

Ceraurus globulobatus

Veralum formation

Brechin , Ontario, Canada

1.8 inches long (47 mm)

1.4 inches wide (37 mm)

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Crinus and Northern Sharks from the forum this weekend at the site where this was found. Turned out to be an absolute miserable cold rainy day. I arrived at the site about 8:00 AM and stayed till about 2:30 and it rained constantly the whole time I was there. I did however manage to find a crinoid calyx with arms (no stem), 4 enrolled flexicalymene and 4 enrolled isotelus , all complete. This season I seem to be finding mostly enrolled isotelus. I have only found 3 complete prone isotelus this summer.

I had not posted anything in a while so I hope you enjoyed, I think you were all getting tired of my eurypterid posts....

I have found some amazing isotelus this summer, I really need to get my act together and prep them and take some pictures.......

stay tuned..........

[PennyT.]

Please share photos of the enrolled Isotelus and prone, when you get the chance. Would love to see what yours look like. And the Ceraurus is a beauty.

[piranha]

With your great luck I suspect it's only a matter of time until the eurypterid whisperer finds the mass assemblage of cheirurid trilobites! You might want to label it as Ceraurus sp. pending a forthcoming revision in progress. It might not be complete but definitely an excellent example for your collection. Congrats!

[TMNH]

Nice one Malcolm! Looking forwards to seeing your other finds too.

[Auspex]

This specimen enjoys a very animated pose; it is not hard to imagine it crawling!

[lmacfadden]

Wonderful finds!

[squalicorax]

Excellent Trilobite !

[Ludwigia]

Very good work, Malcolm. Could you also post a photo of the underside with hypostome? Can't wait to see your fist-sized Isotelus.

[Coco]

...I think you were all getting tired of my eurypterid posts....

It is a very nice trilobite !

Coco

[erose]

Oh that is still more than 90% excellent!

[Bev]

GREAT FIND! AND

[trilobiteruss]

Excellent find, i echo the other positive comments here on your find!

[Northern Sharks]

Nice one Malcolm, complete prone Ceraurus' (Cerauri? )are not that easy to find. After I left where we were, I climbed around on the mountain, up and down the gulleys. No lie, the first one I climbed up gave me the enrolled Ceraurus about 1/3 of the way up,then 15-20 feet above that, the uber-rare paracrinoid, Comarocystites. From my vantage point, I saw you were still poking around, so I figured you must be finding something. The next gulley I climbed yielded the enrolled Isotelus. No pics yet, but the area where we began gave me a nice brachiopod with 3 crinoid holdfasts attached as well as what I'm pretty sure is a rusophycus from a good sized Isotelus.

[Malcolmt]

Northern, never had much luck on the mountain but then as you know I am a bit apprehensive of the steep parts that seem to hold no fear for you and Dave. Look forward to seeing a picture of your trilobite track way. Cute little enrolled Cerarus, I have never found even a partial enrolled one. I know J. also found an enrolled Ceraurus in the area we were all digging

Nicest find of the rainy day was an inch and a half wide enrolled isotelus that of all places I found in the spill pile where they dug the drainage ditch to the north of where we were hunting..... Decided to check it out as I was walking my cart back to the hill up to the road . By 2:30 that area was a total mud fest.

Learn something everyday, I did not know the comarocystites were super rare. I have a couple down in the basement from there in matrix that I found last year that I have not gotten around to prepping. (Turns out what I have is likely cyclocrinites see post below)Will have to dig them out now to check for sure.....

As it stands will probably be back there Saturday morning (8:00AM) as they are called for good weather. Perhaps will see you and J. there.....

[Northern Sharks]

Northern, never had much luck on the mountain but then as you know I am a bit apprehensive of the steep parts that seem to hold no fear for you and Dave. Look forward to seeing a picture of your trilobite track way. Cute little enrolled Cerarus, I have never found even a partial enrolled one. I know J. also found and enrolled Ceraurus in the area we were all digging

Nicest find of the rainy day was an inch and a half wide enrolled isotelus that of all places I found in the spill pile where they dug the drainage ditch to the north of where we were hunting..... Decided to check it out as I was walking my cart back to the hill up to the road . By 2:30 that area was a total mud fest.

Learn something everyday, I did not know the comarocystites were super rare. I have a couple down in the basement from there in matrix that I found last year that I have not gotten around to prepping. Will have to dig them out now .....

As it stands will probably be back there Saturday morning (8:00AM) as they are called for good weather. Perhaps will see you and J. there.....

I won't be there this weekend, I'll be up on my roof replacing shingles. Are you sure that what you have are Comarocystites(echinoderms) and not Cyclocrinites (algae)? The Cyclocrinites looks like a stone golf ball and isn't all that uncommon, the Comarocystites has 2 bumps, the base of the arms,and an anal pore on the side. Crinus hasn't been fortunate enough to find any in all his years coming to this area. This one is my second, but talking to J. it seems that in a good year, one example might be found in the quarry by all collectors combined. If you have 2, that's quite a hoard. Here's the first one I found a few years ago

[squalicorax]

Northern. Wow Very nice!!!!!!

[Fossildude19]

Malcolm,

I am with the others - I understand your feelings, but that find is not too shabby either.

Thanks for posting it.

Regards,

Tim

[Wrangellian]

Nice one Malcolm, even if it is not complete. Nice prep job so far!

My laughter joins Coco's on that particular comment too!

I'll be watching for any find you post, trilo or eury - they're always worth looking at.

BTW interesting echinoderm, NS! I love oddball stuff, esp. rare odball stuff, and that one fits the bill. Reminds me of the (not quite so oddball but odd enough being stemless) Marsupites we have around here, which is rare enough that I have only found individual plates of it.