Three Different Trips In The Humber River Area

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Ever since summer vacation started I have been free to explore the Humber River area and made frequent hunts there in the late Ordovician rocks of the Georgian Bay formation of the city of Toronto. I realized that I did not have a substantial amount of material from this location that I discovered by accident, and so I decided and started to invest some time in exploring this particular location. Last year I only made seven visits, but I did not hunt productively, as I was in my first year of fossil collecting and as a result I had very little material from this location. I knew this location that I accidentally stumbled on had a lot of potential, considering that a great deal of the original exposures are still intact and there were few disturbances done by tractors, whereas compared to Mimico Creek a great deal of the original and actual exposures have been buried. I made three different visits, the first trip I believe was last week and the third today. On the first trip I only took home three specimens, but gradually as I hit the third visit the amount of my finds increased.

On the first trip I only found at least three materials. The first thing that I discovered was a Treptoceras crebiseptum specimen.

What made me surprised with this specimen was that this specimen actually had Cornulites sp. attached to it. I've never seen something like this in Mimico Creek. There were tubes of the worm attached on the orthocone and also the orthocone was not squashed flat because of the nature of the shale it is in. Actually, I noticed that certain shales in this location did not squash completely flat the orthocones that get preserved in them, which is very different from Mimico because most of the orthocones I find in Mimico shale are compressed.

Sorry if I didn't carry any macro lenses and a good camera to capture the Cornulites, the location's flood from a recent rainfall made the place really mucky and wet and the flood waters were just starting to recede.

Out of all the Treptocerases that I discovered on that trip, this was the only one that I decided to take home.

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

The second fossil for me on this trip to be discovered was this Isotelus maximus pygidium. I found it on a weathering wall of shale, smothered with oozing moisture and moss. This is actually the first pygidium that I ever found at this location and it is not that big (roughly less than 10 cm in length). I had trouble extracting it because it started to crumble when I was removing it from where it was.

It was a bit of a hassle trying to assemble it back together when I got back home and I had to use mixtures of glue and water with my artist's paintbrush just to stabilize it.

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

The third find during the first trip was a juvenile Endoceras proteiforme specimen from a limestone rock. I didn't have any hammer to extract it out of the rock because I don't own any hammers or tools (except a trowel which I carry with when I go hunting), so what I did was I extracted the fossil out of the limestone by dropping it on a bigger rock and out it popped.

The rock before being smashed; it was a bit cracked, but not enough for me to be able to get the specimen out.

The specimen.

I do not have photos, but what made this specimen interesting to me was that it had what appears to be Corynotrypa sp. bryozoas lacing itself on the phragmocone. The bryozoas were very small and faint so it was difficult for me to capture it. I never encountered Corynotrypa bryozoas back in Mimico Creek so I thought this was unique.

I also came across a new type of bivalve one which I never encountered also in Mimico Creek. It was almost sub-circular in shape, and there were a number of them that I have seen in this certain location.

Ok, this is all for tonight. I'll continue tomorrow when I pulled myself together again. I can't believe I under slept just for today's trip, which is the last trip that I mentioned in this topic. I'll mention and share more photos of bivalves, cephalopods, trilobites, trace fossils, monoplacophorans/ gastropods, and many more fossils. I can tell no one has been hunting in this spot, because in today's trip I just realized that there's actually an abundance fossils, thanks to the low water levels that came after the big rainfall this week in Toronto.

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Here is the Corynotrypa bryozoa that I was referring to before:

A bit difficult to see because of it's very faint.

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

On the second trip I found just a few materials because apparently the water level was up still. I found an Ambonychia radiata smothered by a bryozoa and saw some trace fossils from some fallen rubble.

Then while scanning on an exposure my eyes rested on an Isotelus thoraic molt. I found the molt like this below in the picture on a ledge of shale and noticed that where it came out of, there also lay its negative cast. I've never come across a complete Flexicalymene yet in this location, but I think Isotelus molts will do for now.

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

The positive and negative together:

I also found this unknown bivalve:

Hmm, could it be a cyrtodontid?

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

I waited for four days before making the third trip just to allow the water level go down in the location. On the third trip I decided to go and expand the area of where I will be hunting. And that's when I started collecting a lot.

On the third trip with the low water level I was able to discover a layer with many calcite-replaced bivalves. It seems that they had their shells preserved as calcite instead of a black film which I get at Mimico. The calcite shells also had specks of pyrite in them. The neighbouring shales of the spot where I found these were empty and I can't find any fossils in them except in this layer.

[Raggedy Man]

Great trip report! It looks like that site is fairly productive. Thanks for sharing!

Paul

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

The calcite replaced shells with pyrite specks. I've always found calcited cephalopds but I think these are really fantastic. I mostly found partials but I did manage to get a whole clam fully calcite.

The whole clam with both valves fully calcite but this photo only shows the front only. The gold shimmering specks are pyrite. I think the species is Modiolopsis concentrica.

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

More photos...

Many fragments show detail of the shells. There were also other fossils found along side the calcite bivalves, like this orthocone next to a Cyrtolites.

Another photo of the whole complete clam. I wanted to get an actual slab of these things but the rock in which these things are set in separate easily even though it isn't shale. :X

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

I went up further into the location and found plenty of rubble of recent disturbance. There were plenty of trace fossils to be found.

Some weird palaeophycus

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Is the first one zoophycus?

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

I also came across some Isotelus molts among the rubble. The last fragment was a part of a big pygidium. So these molts are suppose to represent different stages of its growth? And how come the edge of the last photo of the pygidium there are these weird "veins"? When I find molts they sometimes have that unknown structure. :S

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

I also found this extra pygidium on a nice slab.

I also found this fragment of Endoceras among the rubble.

Endocone:

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Extras.

A gastropod.

I also found a Flexi head that seems way too big for a Flexicalymene granulosa on this hash plate.

I think showed enough photos. There were lots more in that location, but I decided I think these photos that I shared are enough. I cant wait to invest more time and exploration to this location and find more!! But I think I'll rest for now because each of the trips I did were about 4-6 hrs long. I'm glad the tractors didn't ruin all the original exposures in city.

Edited July 4, 2015 by JUAN EMMANUEL

[ZiggieCie]

Great finds, great post. THX for sharing.

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Yesterday I couldn't resist the temptation of making a visit again because there was a heavy downpour in the city again back at Tuesday, so i ran back to the place to see what's new.

As I was walking along a bank my eyes spotted this Isotelus thoraic molt among the pile of rubble.

To my suprise it's an actually large molt!

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

Its mostly composed of the thoraic segments and part of its pygidium, and there are also bits of the hypostome at the bottom of it. It is also approximately 17 cm wide. I tried to look around if there any cephalic parts around, or any remaining pygidial pieces but I'll come back for those next time. I was hoping for a complete trilo but this can do.

[Auspex]

What a beast!!!