Trilobite hunting in Utah

[doushantuo]

revision(from Pal.Zh.:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257843314_Hundred_Species_of_the_Genus_Peronopsis_Hawle_et_Corda_1847

[JohnBrewer]

Another great haul Lori and lots of fun I see. With the number of fish and trilos you could open up a shop! What's next I wonder

[Lori LuvsFossils]

Peronopsis is in here:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0264d/report.pdf

Interesting read (although somewhat complicated). I will have to retire to dive this in-depth. Thanks for the info!!

Dave, I've never hunted Kansas. I get busy with my real job & tend to go a few days - weeks between log ons. I hope I don't miss your report. I'm interested to know what this country has to offer. I'm glad you had a successful trip, whatever you collected. As far as the size of my newly collected Elrathias, I don't have all of them unpacked yet, but I just measured a small to large sampling & have a range of .25" to 1.25". It seems you already know the U-Dig ships shale for you to crack open at home. I saw that material. They have a specific pile set aside, dug up from their commercial pit to insure customers WILL find bugs. How many???? But they aren't sending willy nilly rock Good luck!

Thanks John! I get so attached to my fossils, I can't imagine a shop in my future, but when I'm gone my family tells me the rocks have to go. Ha (I'm eyeballing northern Nebraska) Happy Hunting to you !!!

[Wrangellian]

Good trip report... I've always wanted to do that spot too. Someday.....

Can't think of too many Cambrian sites where you can collect legally, and that one's pretty extensive (rich).

Why would they have a rock polisher on site, for fossils?

Those bits of gold color would be Pyrite (aka fool's gold ).

I guess you weren't lucky enough to find any of the other interesting things, like sponges or Chancellorias?

Ken mentioned upside down ones - Do I see a couple of them on that 'hash plate' you showed? (featureless oval shapes) - I was thinking there might be a way (untried by me) to remove them without damaging the plate: glue something like a stick of wood to them and then pull them off? Use a reversible glue so you can free them from the stick after.

[tmaier]

Here's a rather grainy photo of one of my Peronopsis interstrictus from the Wheeler formation. I bought mine in a check-out line at a pet store, which is a lot less work than described above.

This one is about 6 mm long (less than a 1/4 inch). I took this photo about 20 years ago using relatively primitive digital photography equipment, which is why it is so grainy.

[300BLK]

Awesome finds. I'm hoping be day I'll be able to head out there and take a few days to take a crack at it

[Wrangellian]

... I bought mine in a check-out line at a pet store, which is a lot less work than described above.

There's another place you never see fossils for sale in my area....

[tmaier]

I've also found fossils at pet shops in the rocks that they use for terrariums, like for reptiles and amphibians. They often like to use shale for that, and some of it is fossiliferous.

I've also found fossils at landscaping centers, where they have piles of beauty rock and other stones used for landscaping.

When you find fossils, don't tell the owners what it is. They sometimes get hyper about it and I've had them refuse to sell me the fossils. Just say it's a purty rock and you want it.

[Wrangellian]

Sage advice. I always hold my cards close to the chest.

Not too long ago I found a sheet of inchofossils that I wanted to collect from rock dumped at the local fairgrounds (dug from their entranceway), and to be legit I asked the manager if I could take it. They said they'd want to look at it first, of course, so I told them where it was and they later got back to me saying it was OK for me to take it. They probably had visions of something spectacular, until they saw the insignificant little ripply/turdy blobs on the rock. I had a feeling that the thing not looking like much to the uninformed eye would work in my favor.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Wrangellian

[Ludwigia]

Great trip report, Lori! Thanks for sharing! How are you able to tell the difference between Elrathia kingi and Bolaspidella housensis ?

[Lori LuvsFossils]

Why would they have a rock polisher on site, for fossils?

Those bits of gold color would be Pyrite (aka fool's gold ).

I guess you weren't lucky enough to find any of the other interesting things, like sponges or Chancellorias?

I'm not sure it's technically a "rock polisher", rather more of a bench grinder. People apparently use if to rub off the small bits. The employee said we could cut our slabs down then "polish" them with said machine. I didn't give it a try.

I leaned toward Pyrite, but hoped it wasn't. I remember hearing about pyrite being bad news for fossils.

I cracked open a large seaweed/ leafy thing. There was no way I could travel with it. I put a bright bucket next to it and told the office where they could pick it up. Honestly, I won't know what all I've got in the rocks I brought home for quite awhile. I flopped back over to a fish plate & have been stuck on it for the past 2 days.

[Lori LuvsFossils]

Pet store....easier... Baaahahahahaha! I'm not as wise.

Thanks Ludwigia. I purchased a book to help with ID's. The difference between those 2 = the # of Thorax rings. (Rings has a more formal name, but I'm without my book at the moment).

[Ludwigia]

Thanks, Lori. I'll have to check up on that, since I have a couple of question marks in the collection. Which one has more rings? Elrathia or Bolaspidella?

[Fossildude19]

Thanks, Lori. I'll have to check up on that, since I have a couple of question marks in the collection. Which one has more rings? Elrathia or Bolaspidella?

Try this PDF, Roger.

Regards,

[Ludwigia]

Thanks, Tim. That's a great help.

[Khyssa]

Wow, that is a lot of trilobites! When you add in all those fish you found you are going to be pretty busy prepping them all. And now I've added another place I want to hunt some day in the future.

Kara

[TrilobiteLou]

I lived in Salt Lake City in the early 90s and hunted this area before there were any offices, mining claims, or other businesses around. Some exposures were littered with loose trilobites that weathered out of the soft shale. I only found trilobites. I hope to one day make it back to this area. I still have most all the specimens I collected in my collection.