SW Wisconsin Hunt 9-11-2016

[Raggedy Man]

My wife and I took a trip to Grant County here in Wisconsin on 9-11 as a tribute to the anniversary of the day that affected us all. We left around 6:30am-ish and arrived at our destination a little past 8am. It had been raining the past several days so our chances were good that slides had exposed new rock and washed away dirt from old. Upon inspection, the site looked fantastic, but the insects were out in full force. I began by just a quick walk around scouting and picking up pieces here and there; a few brachiopod plates and corals. Throughout the day we found many partials, but these were of specimens we did not currently have in our collection. I had intended to visit a few sites I had been to before. The site we were at was our first time there and the finds just kept coming so we stayed there the length of our hunt. 

Here are some pictures of the site and our trilobite finds. These were all found at one site in the span of 6 hours. I have tried to identify them the best I could so if I made an error feel free to correct me. Id rather have the correct name on the label than not.

 

 

Mffln mbr-Platteville Formation

Middle ordovician

SW-Wisconsin

 

 

Measurements are in centimeters 

 

Hermiarges aff. H.paulianus (Clark-1894)-Cephalon(On Right)

Sceptaspis lincolnensis (Branson-1909)Pygidium(On left)

 

 

 

Thaleops sp. 

With cephalopod and brachiopod association

 

 

 

Ceraurinella templetoni  n. sp.

 

 

Amphilichas sp.

 

 

Bumastoides milleri (Billings-1859)

 

 

 

 

continued on next page...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Raggedy Man]

Raymondites longispinus (Walcott-1876)Cephalon

Unknown Pygidium-possibly Basiliella barrandi (Hall-1876)

 

 

Gabriceraurus mifflinensis n. sp.

 

 

Ceraurus plattinensis (Foerste-1920)

 

 

 

We did find others, but they're the same as the ones posted. I will eventually get them photographed and added to this topic. Id also like to thank @piranha for verifying my ID on a few of our finds. Thanks Piranha!  Thanks for viewing our finds and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did finding them!

 

Best regards, 

Paul and Laura

 

[Fossildude19]

Excellent finds and report, Folks!

Great assortment of Trilobites there.

Thanks for posting it. 

[snakebite6769]

Awesome finds sir! Thanks for sharing. I hope to make it out that way sometime next year 

[Raggedy Man]

20 minutes ago, snakebite6769 said:

Awesome finds sir! Thanks for sharing. I hope to make it out that way sometime next year 

Let me know when you do!

[snakebite6769]

Will do! I'm sure looking forward to some finds I don't have hehe. How is the material as far as preparation? I have been doing prep on some new material near home which is super dense material so it's hard to prep but I figured out how  

[Bev]

Great finds Paul & Laura! Excellent photography also! 

[Raggedy Man]

Thanks Bev. I don't get to hunt with Laura much, but when I do we usually do fairly well. My favorite find was the 

 

 

Hermiarges aff. H.paulianus (Clark-1894)-Cephalon(On Right)

Sceptaspis lincolnensis (Branson-1909)Pygidium(On left)

 

I almost tossed it as I didn't recognize(see) the trilo, but my hand held onto it..lol. I guess my subconscious was screaming at my hand ...NO!!!!!!

LOL

 

 

 

 

[Bev]

They are a beautiful pair! Congrats! 

[Ridgehiker]

Cingrats

 

Great trip report that is so well presented.  

 

Agree...all are good finds but the two associated bugs in the last photo are extra special.

[smt126]

Looks like some great finds. This has been a pretty mild year I must say regarding the mosquitos, but it seems like the last few weeks they finally started hitting hard. I was out cutting the grass tonight, and they were just swarming. Are they bad even with the bug spray? Did you mostly just surface collect?

[Raggedy Man]

1 hour ago, smt126 said:

Looks like some great finds. This has been a pretty mild year I must say regarding the mosquitos, but it seems like the last few weeks they finally started hitting hard. I was out cutting the grass tonight, and they were just swarming. Are they bad even with the bug spray? Did you mostly just surface collect?

I start by assessing any site for recent activity,(rock slides, evidence of someone being there the past few days, etc..). Once that's done, I'll surface collect making notes as to where pieces fell and ended up. Then I go up and look for big pieces that coincide with the trilobite beds I can split. Some sites all you can do is surface collect, but others have a substantial amount of dislocated bedrock ready for the hammer. Maybe in the future when you get some free time I can take you out there to a few known spots to help you get started.

 

 

 

Best regards,

Paul

[Raggedy Man]

2 hours ago, Canadawest said:

Cingrats

 

Great trip report that is so well presented.  

 

Agree...all are good finds but the two associated bugs in the last photo are extra special.

Yeah I couldn't believe the diversity that one site had. We definitely had a good time. Thanks for looking!

 

Best regards,

Paul

[smt126]

1 hour ago, Raggedy Man said:

I start by assessing any site for recent activity,(rock slides, evidence of someone being there the past few days, etc..). Once that's done, I'll surface collect making notes as to where pieces fell and ended up. Then I go up and look for big pieces that coincide with the trilobite beds I can split. Some sites all you can do is surface collect, but others have a substantial amount of dislocated bedrock ready for the hammer. Maybe in the future when you get some free time I can take you out there to a few known spots to help you get started.

 

 

 

Best regards,

Paul

I'm not quite sure when that free time will happen lol. I'm going back to school in a couple months, and the little guy is 3 years out from kindergarten. My wife keeps asking what I'm going to do on my weeks off(I work 7 days on 7 off)when they are all in school full time. I have some big plans come that time for taking this fossil hunting to a new level. For now though all my adventures have to be small children friendly.

[Raggedy Man]

On 9/20/2016 at 10:44 PM, smt126 said:

I'm not quite sure when that free time will happen lol. I'm going back to school in a couple months, and the little guy is 3 years out from kindergarten. My wife keeps asking what I'm going to do on my weeks off(I work 7 days on 7 off)when they are all in school full time. I have some big plans come that time for taking this fossil hunting to a new level. For now though all my adventures have to be small children friendly.

Like I said bud, when you get free time let me know. The offer stands.

[ynot]

Sweet finds!! 

 

Tony

[1AZ]

Awesome finds !!

Congrats!