Spring Fossil Trip - Part 2

[Shamalama]

Continuing from my last post, Sunday had me up bright and early heading towards Gamebridge, Ontario and the exposures of the Ordovician aged Verulam formation. I met Malcolmt at the quarry and we spent the better part of the day searching some recent blast debris as well as the "honey hole" area that he and Kevin had found all their goodies last year. Sadly, much of the material that they were searching last year has gone to the crusher now so the pickings were thin. I did manage to find a nice enrolled Flexi which Malcolm said he could clean up. I was worried it was incomplete but Malcolm says it came out pretty nice.

We then went down to the third level to look through some of the weathered piles where some local collectors often find good stuff. Malcolm managed to find a Starfish in some black shale but I had to content myself to the large Prasopora colonies and brachiopod plates that I love from this quarry. Some of the finds:

A typical large Prasopora bryozoan colony (sometimes called "gumdrops")

This is a cool fossil of a Prasopora colony that grew on a gastropod shell (Hormotoma sp.). The shell is long gone but the mold is still there thanks to the bryozoans.

Actually, Gastropod molds were very common that day. Here is a new genera for me that I need to ID yet.

Trilobite cephalons were fairly common too. On this hashplate there is a cephalon from a Thaleops (or Nanillaenus)

A couple of Cerarus type cephalons that need to be cleaned off a little.

And of course there were some Flexicalymenes

Then there is this mystery specimen. It looks echinodermish to me, any ideas?

My feet were really aching from climbing around on slopes at Arkona and rock piles at Gamebridge so I called it an early day. I need to get in better field shape!

Monday I drove back into the US and had an fairly uneventful border crossing. The guard who questioned me was asking about some of the rocks and fossils I had and their ages. He was amazed when I told him some were from 450mya and others were from 390mya. He pointed out that I had more than the limit of Canadian beer I should have (I had 2 1/2 cases whereas I can bring just one back with no fees) but he sent me on my way with no further fuss. This was a very good thing as I had some buckets with loose "dirt" from Arkona. In reality they were eroded rock but I've had issues in the past telling them that so I just say "rocks" now.

I spent the rest of the day at the Penn Dixie site which was in preparations for their "Dig with the experts" the following weekend. The club that runs the site (The Hamburg Natural History Society, Inc.) had brought in an excavator to help expose and lift blocks of the Smoke Creek trilobite beds as well as improve some of the site drainage. I wasn't allowed into the prepped area but I could go anywhere else on the site and search the large mounds of stripped overburden and leftover split pieces that surrounded the pit. A view of the area:

It was on those piles around the edges that I made my best finds. First was a two inch long Phacops rana lateral poking out of the face of a rock. It should prep out nicely.

Next is a piece of what I believe is bone from a fish. The jury is still out and maybe some additional prep work will reveal more.

Other than that it was the typical Trilobites and Brachiopods that captured my attention.

Some of the Phacops rana I found....

Here is one that Carmine left behind but I brought home.

A rare pygidium of Dipleura sp. shows a lot of dots but the shell is smooth. I'm used to finding them with no shell and the dots are columns infilled with mud.

This is one of two monster Greenops sp. pygidiums that Carmine and I found.

And then there are the brachiopods....

A couple of Spirifer consobrinus

This is a rarity: a clean, undistorted and articulated Mediospirifer audaculus

Then there is the common, but ridiculously difficult to extract intact, brachiopod Protoleptostrophia perlana

I found this nearly flat Paleozygopleura sp. when a rock split. As I was field trimming the piece the whole gastropod popped off!

Last but not least is this Pelecypod that I think is a Palaeoneilo sp.

Towards the end of the day a gentleman named Phil came into the site. He was out on a business trip to the area from California and had wanted to visit the Penn Dixie site. I showed him around and helped him find some stuff to split which he was overjoyed with. Phil remarked that they don't find these kinds of fossils in California where he is. He gets to Sharktooth Hill and the Cambrian Trilo localities but stuff like horn corals, brachiopods and Devonian trilobites are harder to come by. He spent and hour or so splitting some left over pieces of the Smoke Creek Trilobite bed and picking up brachiopods from the Bay View coral layer. Before he left I gave him a couple of large horn corals that I'd found at Hungry Hollow in Canada since Penn Dixie does not have many large intact examples available. I wrapped my finds up and headed to the hotel.

Tuesday I was to meet with Carmine (Xonenine) at Smoke Creek to hunt the type locality for the bed that everyone is after at Penn Dixie. Mother Nature, however, had other ideas as she pushed some heavy downpours and thunderstorms over the area and the creek was too flooded and fast moving to work in. You couldn't even see the rocks in the stream bed because of all the brown silt the flood waters were carrying. Instead we headed back to Penn Dixie to try our hand at exposing the Smoke Creek Bed ourselves in one of the drainage ditches. By the time we got to the site the rain was letting up some but there was stil plenty of water draining off. We actually got lucky as other parts of NY were hammered with the same rains and severe flooding occurred wiping out homes and businesses.

Carmine and I set to work at a section we thought would be productive. It was heavily weathered so the shale was very easy to remove and search but no trilobites. We worked until we got down to the Bay View coral bed where I was happy to collect Brachs. Carmine decided to check out another spot that he'd worked before and had better luck while I continued playing in the mud. In the meantime Jerry, the site manager, showed up with a busload of kids from a local school. They stayed over in another area of the site picking up corals and brachiopods and then left after an hour or so.

Around lunchtime we walked back up to the cars to find that Carmine's divers side window had fallen off it's track and was lost to the interior of the car door. This was bad for him as he still needed the car for a few more days until he got a replacement. We decided to work another couple of hours before Carmine had to leave so he could take his car door apart to fix the window. Despite the setback, Carmine was as happy as anyone I've ever met to just collect fossils. It was good to spend time in the field with him again and watch him dismantle a rock layer in search of Trilobites. We exchanged some Coral fossils (mine were from Arkona and his were from locally with a few cut and polished sections) and he was on his way. I hope that he was able to get things fixed enough until he picked up his next car.

I'm almost done and some of the best is yet to come while collecting with Mikeymigs but I will save that for the next post...

Thanks for reading!

-Dave

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report, as always, Dave!

Carmine is the best to collect with - and generous to a fault.

Glad you had a good, productive time!

Regards,

[JimB88]

Is there any fossils left there?

[Wrangellian]

that you have sites like that!

[Malcolmt]

Excellent report my friend. We have to meet up again soon to give you your Flexi. I actually hunted today with Carmine and Quarryman Dave at Penn Dixie. Carmine is the best!!!!!

I think it looks like fish to me.

Still no clue what the mystery fossil is, hopefully someone here will know perhaps Kevin or Crinus.

[xonenine]

terrific reports Dave you know, it is a measure of what a treat it was to go collect with you that I didnt remember the car window falling and the impending repair till I read it again.

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations on a great trip report and wonderful finds. I especially liked the Protoleptostrophia brachiopod. Would love to find one that good. I am planning a trip to the Buffalo area in early July. Your trip report helped psych me up. Thanks and can't wait to see the third installment.

[Shamalama]

Is there any fossils left there?

Penn Dixie has plenty of fossils for everyone!

[Shamalama]

Excellent report my friend. We have to meet up again soon to give you your Flexi. I actually hunted today with Carmine and Quarryman Dave at Penn Dixie. Carmine is the best!!!!!

Maybe I'll be able to make it up there in late June or early July. Gonna be hot, I know, but should be worth it.

[Shamalama]

terrific reports Dave you know, it is a measure of what a treat it was to go collect with you that I didnt remember the car window falling and the impending repair till I read it again.

Carmine, We've only been able to meet up twice in three years but collecting with you is like being with a old friend. Hope all is well with you!

[Shamalama]

Congratulations on a great trip report and wonderful finds. I especially liked the Protoleptostrophia brachiopod. Would love to find one that good. I am planning a trip to the Buffalo area in early July. Your trip report helped psych me up. Thanks and can't wait to see the third installment.

You really should get over there. Worth the 6 hr drive for me from Philly!

[Northern Sharks]

Nice stuff Dave. Your JD gastropod is Fusispira nobilis. Your Thaleops piece is the pygidium, not a cephalon and your mystery ehinoderm is just that, a mystery. Those types of things turn up from time to time, I have a few, but nobody really knows what they are. At least some of them may be crinoid tegmens according to a couple of respected collectors.

[Shamalama]

Kevin,

Thanks for the ID help. Malcolm also said the Thaleops piece was a Pygidium but the two segments look very similar to each other that I get them mixed up. I should have looked for a slight spine off the cheek like in the other specimen I found a few years back.

I looked it up and a tegmen is the "lid" of the crinoid where the mouth and anus were located. The arms of the crinoid would have attached to the outer edges of the tegmen and surrounded it.

[nala]

Wonderfull report and finds Dave!

[Shamalama]

Thanks Gery! Once I get things sorted I should have some interesting items for you to review.