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It all started with Raggedy Man coming over from Wisconsin to fossil hunt SE Minnesota Bluff Country on Labor Day weekend camping out by the trout stream in my yard.

 

Raggedy Mans tent.jpg

 

He was after the other parts of the rare trilobite he had found here on his last hunting trip. And he FOUND a large part of it! I will leave it to him to post the picture.  :-)

 

The next day Fossilized6s showed up to hunt and we had a blast hitting various sites, I got tired and they went out until dark. I am posting some of the highlights of the trip, the full trip and lots more pictures are here:

http://www.bluffcountryfossils.net/blog/labor-day-2016-with-tff-friends/

 

Nature Road Charlie.jpg

 

I had salmon, rebaked potatoes, and garden beans on the grill for them when they got back as Charlie had set up his tent also.

 

The next day PapaDave joined us!

 

fossil hunters comparing notes.jpg

 

R-L: Raggedy Man, PapaDave, and Fossilized6s comparing notes and where to go.

 

After pouring through some of Sloan's book (THE BEST for Minnesota) we decided to head out and hunt some sites off of my new Forestville Fossil Hunting sites map and see the famous Rifle Hill Quarry.

 

sloans book cover.jpg

 

All three of these guys were focused on trilobite hunting, so I set them up with the most likely trilobite sites.

 

sloans trilobite pic page.jpg

 

Rifle Hill Quarry is famous in the fossil literature from the 1800s, so we just had to see that.

 

Rifle Hill Quarry Lake.jpg

 

My thinking is that in the 1800s they were excavating through the shale layers at the top of the quarry which is very fossiliferous, not so much today.

 

Charlie hunting rifle hill.jpg

 

We over-viewed a couple of sites and then hit 3 sites, and that is when Charlie came up with a trilobite! "Finding this makes the trip worthwhile!" he said.  :-)

 

Charlie with trilo standing.jpg

 

Then we went to a site where I had found a trilobite last time Raggedy Man was here and had given it to him. PapaDave found this beauty!

 

Daves trilobite.jpg

 

Old Bev was getting tired by then, so I convinced them to go to the premiere gastropod quarry in Minnesota - my personal favorite.

 

gq pond.jpg

 

I wish I had some pics of the finds, maybe they will post them in replies, but Raggedy Man came up with a nice big Maclurites sp. (an index fossil for the Ordovician) and PapaDave came up with some beautiful cephs and gastropods.

 

Here are several of PapaDave's finds from that hunt:

 

daves ceph.jpg

Cephalopod

 

Continued...

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

:wacko:
 
 

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Daves fisherite.jpg

A complete Fisherite.

 

daves gastropod.jpg

A beautiful gastropod.

 

Raggedy Man and Fossilized6s went out hunting again after they brought me home and PapaDave departed. They found a layer of trilobites at one of my favorite spots!  We just ordered pizza that night. They left the next morning, fossil hunting their way back to Wisconsin. But before they left, we chatted about them coming back later this month or early next month after a couple of hard frosts, to lay the weeds down and fewer insects and snakes, and even possibly having a TFF Meetup!

 

My personal favorite for this hunt was a beautiful Hormatoma sp. gastropod - I'm a gastropod girl!  LOL   :-D

 

Hormatoma sp. on blue.jpg

 

But my backpack was definitely heavy from two days of fossil hunting!

 

labor day fossils 1.jpg

 

labor day fossils 2.jpg

 

labor day fossils 3.jpg

 

I went out to explore some new spots and found FIVE what I believe to be virgin, not fossil hunted before, NEW fossil hunting spots! All within about 20 miles of Spring Valley on roads I hadn't driven before - yes, I got lost, so we'll see if I can find them back! They were all shale layers too.  :-)'C

 

On the way back I stopped at O'Connell's Excavating here in Spring Valley and found this awesome Maclurites' rock sitting on the pile.

 

mac rock.jpg

 

I wanted that! So the next day I went back when they were open, but it had already been spoken for. However, I did find this GREAT BIG cephalopod hanging out in their pile of monolithic rock.

 

mega ceph.jpg

Wow, the living chamber is even showing on this one!

 

I had a fossil hunting class through Eagle Bluff Skills School coming up on Saturday, so I immersed myself into cleaning and rearranging the fossil barn which was loads of fun as I found fossils I hadn't seen in a couple of years! Plus we had some torrential downpours of rain which means a whole new crop of fossils for the class.

 

Continued...

 

 

 

 

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

:wacko:
 
 

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fossil barn front aquarium.jpg

As you enter.

 

For whatever reason I'm getting a over limit on MB flag, and this is only 164k so I don't get it, so hopefully I can tell the rest of this tale with  or without pics.

 

Anyways I spent the week immersed in my fossil barn and am still rearranging it.  :-)

 

We had a perfect day for fossil hunting for this class of nine and PapaDave was there as well!

 

Maybe I'll try a new reply...

 

Continued...

 

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

:wacko:
 
 

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Well, even this one is refusing to allow me to upload more pictures! So, go here for the rest of the story...

 

http://www.bluffcountryfossils.net/blog/eagle-bluff-september-fossil-tour-2016/

 

And after all of this, I was so pumped that I decided to offer this!

 

http://www.bluffcountryfossils.net/blog/fossil-camp/

 

So, a wonderful week of being immersed in fossils and fossil hunting!

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

:wacko:
 
 

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Wow,Bev,those days must've been among the toughest of your life:P:D

And the pedant in me ,in typical Jekyll&Hyde fashion,rears his ugly head: it's Fisherites.

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for a great report and pics! And you have a trout stream in your back yard?!:envy:

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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1 hour ago, darctooth said:

Thanks for a great report and pics! And you have a trout stream in your back yard?!:envy:

 

Yes and it's even stocked with trout!  :D

 

I'm going to see if it will let me post some more pics... Ah ha! It will now!

 

fossil barn trilobite.jpg

 

I FINALLY got the trilobite cut out done and on the barn.  :-)

 

fossil barn prep area.jpg

 

Fossil prep area set up for multiple people to play around with.

 

fossil barn acid prep.jpg

 

MinnBuckeye's wonderful display and my acid prep area.

 

trilobite lagoon.jpg

 

PapaDave inspired me to redo my trilobite garden and circle, some labeled, the trilo parts.

 

strom display.jpg

 

I even weeded my Strom garden!

 

The day for the Eagle Bluff class was bright, beautiful and in the 60s, perfect for fossil hunting! PapaDave came along with the group and showed some of his fossils from out hunt the week before.

 

dave sharing.jpg

 

Our first stop was at my favorite fossil park. We had a young budding geologist on the tour and she took a look at the hidden stream coming out from beneath the bluff before fossil hunting.

 

hidden stream 2 people.jpg

 

site 1.jpg

 

Road side hunting. Then off to site 2 where we found this great Hormatoma sp. in the rock.

 

site 2 hormatoma sp..jpg

 

pj site 2.jpg

 

PJ was with an Aunt, I believe, who is a prof at WSU in Winona and encouraging her interest in geology and fossils. Then off to site 3.

 

site 5 2.jpg

 

Where Dave found a layer of FOUR Fisherites in one rock!

 

Let's hope I can continue!  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Nope, but maybe after a couple of more replies it may allow me too...  :-(

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

:wacko:
 
 

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29 minutes ago, Twinlukers said:

Nice reading!! Very nice

 

Thanks! Now we'll see if it will let me finish...   :-)

 

fisherite in rock.jpg

 

The group gathered will PapaDave worked on extraction.

 

Fisherite layers excavating.jpg

 

PJ with a complete Fisherites!

 

PJ with complete fisherite.jpg

 

PJ examining a hash plate of the Ordovician sea bed.

 

pj on the rocks looking at rock.jpg

 

Everyone had a GREAT time and found lots of fossils!

 

A wonderful end to a week of Fossil Fun!

 

The End  :yay-smiley-1:

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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6 minutes ago, JohnBrewer said:

Wow, looks like you had a fantastic time!

 

i had the same problem when uploading pictures which was solved by refreshing the page. 

 

Thanks John! Next time I will know what to do! If I remember...  :P

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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What a great report!

 

I especially enjoy seeing some taxa  from another location  that we can find in our region.   This is the case with the Maclurites.  Ordovician makes up only a small percent of our Rockies but I know I'm in this age when I find graptolites in shale or Maclurites in limestone.

 

Re photo limits.   I only put about a quarter of the fossil photos in my last trip as I had the same issue.  Good to know there is the solution mentioned above. I also like that we can now use larger photos as the greater detail adds more sense of 'being there' ( as you captured in your report).

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2 hours ago, doushantuo said:

Wow,Bev,those days must've been among the toughest of your life:P:D

And the pedant in me ,in typical Jekyll&Hyde fashion,rears his ugly head: it's Fisherites.

 

 

Actually, in its current context, Fisherites does not need to be italicized as its a generic descriptive term.

...I'm back.

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4 minutes ago, Raggedy Man said:

Actually, in its current context, Fisherites does not need to be italicized as its a generic descriptive term.

 

 

Not true.  The generic name is always supposed to be italicized.

image.png.a84de26dad44fb03836a743755df237c.png

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Really @piranha? Is this a recent change? I thought generic names used in the descriptive did not need to be italicized or underlined as in Bacillus vs bacillus. Though, I suppose confusion could happen between scientific communities in relation to context and intent. Thanks for the clarification.

...I'm back.

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Great trip report....I enjoyed it very much....:)

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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8 minutes ago, njfossilhunter said:

Great trip report....I enjoyed it very much....:)

 

1 hour ago, ynot said:

Very nice Bev! Thanks for sharing!

 

Tony

 

2 hours ago, Canadawest said:

What a great report!

 

I especially enjoy seeing some taxa  from another location  that we can find in our region.   This is the case with the Maclurites.  Ordovician makes up only a small percent of our Rockies but I know I'm in this age when I find graptolites in shale or Maclurites in limestone.

 

Re photo limits.   I only put about a quarter of the fossil photos in my last trip as I had the same issue.  Good to know there is the solution mentioned above. I also like that we can now use larger photos as the greater detail adds more sense of 'being there' ( as you captured in your report).

 

Thank you all very much for the nice comments.

 

But I'm still confused about "Fisherites"...

 

Maclurites means one or more, it just has the "s". I thought it was Fisherite for a single and Fisherites for more than one - right or wrong?

 

Also, Maclurites should be italicized? and Fisherite(s) should also?  So then, does "trilobite" get italicized then also or a specific like Anataphurus borreaus OR Anataphurus borreaus OR just Anataphurus sp.?  My spelling may be off, but you get the drift...

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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7 minutes ago, Bev said:

But I'm still confused about "Fisherites"...

 

Maclurites means one or more, it just has the "s". I thought it was Fisherite for a single and Fisherites for more than one - right or wrong?

 

Also, Maclurites should be italicized? and Fisherite(s) should also?  So then, does "trilobite" get italicized then also or a specific like Anataphurus borreaus OR Anataphurus borreaus OR just Anataphurus sp.?  My spelling may be off, but you get the drift...

 

 

Fisherites and Maclurites are the only correct names.  Dropping the letter 's' does not make a singular form.  

The word trilobite does not get italicized, it's not a formal scientific name.

 

 

 

 

image.png.a84de26dad44fb03836a743755df237c.png

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1 hour ago, piranha said:

 

 

Fisherites and Maclurites are the only correct names.  Dropping the letter 's' does not make a singular form.  

The word trilobite does not get italicized, it's not a formal scientific name.

 

 

 

 

So I went and looked up some rules and wow I'm a derp. My error wasn't with italics or underlining, but with my ignorance about Fisherites in general. Lol

...I'm back.

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2 hours ago, piranha said:

 

 

Fisherites and Maclurites are the only correct names.  Dropping the letter 's' does not make a singular form.  

The word trilobite does not get italicized, it's not a formal scientific name.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you So Much Piranha! I love TFF and fossil hunting because I always learn something new!

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app38/app38-233.pdf

 

This paper is pretty fascinating on Fisherites!  I never knew what to call those up and down lines in a cross section before perusing this paper.  :P

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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