Arkona 9/16/17

[Kane]

Deb and me spent about 7 hours in Arkona at the Hungry Holllow site where we had an opportunity to dig with @Northern Sharks and @middevonian - both great guys to crack rocks with - and two fossil club guests who were being shown around for the first time.

 

My day started off in the south pit where I fussed about in the coral biostrome of the HH member. There are some interspersed shale-y layers that can produce marine fossils other than coral. The high energy environment of its deposition means finding more or less fragments of trilos, a few brachs, pelecypods, bryozoan colonies, and crinoid stems/ossicles. 

 

Eldredgeops is by far one of the most common to find in these layers, but not so common to find full. That being said, they can come out fairly robust. We were finding some big fragments. In one (not pictured) that was half a cephalon, the eye alone was probably the size of a Tic-Tac. Pictured here is the biggest cephalon I pulled from the biostrome - a fairly plump glabella on this one:

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E. rana are nice, but my real goal was to bag a full Pseudodechenella. No dice on that one today, but at least some Crassiproetus pygidium fragments:

[Kane]

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By the afternoon, most of us headed to the north side and we trekked to the exposure where I've been busy extending benches. There is a very nice, smooth, lower energy layer just above the brachiopod layer with a much better chance of pulling out full Greenops rather than just endless bits, full Tornoceras uniangulare, and various pyritized nautiloids. Pictured here is a nice sized Torno with two nautiloid fragments. This Torno is not as inflated or large as the one I found last week in that layer, but the detail on it made it worthy to be added to the collecting kit.

[Kane]

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I spent about four hours in the same spot. I had to move about 30-40 cubic feet of overburden and shale to get access to my precious layer. I was on the hunt for Greenops again, but just like last week frustrated with almost-full prones.

 

Pictured here are the results of that time. In included a picture of a cephalon that was of considerable size (I wouldn't otherwise bother with it). Enormously frustrating to come up without a complete one again, but at the very least these should be fine as practice pieces when my air eraser comes in the mail.

[Kane]

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In all, it was a lovely day for a fossil hunt, and great to meet up with some TFF members who may add some of their finds and photos to the mix here. I'll end my own trip report with just one more picture. Although I also picked up a few more platyceras and plenty of spirifers (I always pick them up if they are complete - no idea why  ), there's no sense adding them here. I'll make one brach-exception... here is a very nice spirifer with its long wings intact, measuring over 5 cm, or 2 inches.

 

Thanks for reading.  

[FossilDAWG]

Some of those Greenops look quite good except for some shell sticking to the impression side.  Any chance to glue them together and prep from the top?

 

Don

[Nimravis]

Great trip report- thanks for posting.

[Fossildude19]

Well done, sir!  

I commend you on another greatly productive hunt!

That's a bunch of nice Greenops there! And that Tornoceras is quite magnificent. 

Thanks for the great report, and pictures. 

[ynot]

 Nice finds, even if You don't think so.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Peat Burns]

Nice haul!   Thanks for posting.

[JUAN EMMANUEL]

That Greenops is very nice. It's nice to hear that the Hungry Hollow layer can also carry other animals other than corals. 

[Monica]

Nice finds, Kane!  All of those trilobites are beautiful in my humble opinion - well done! 

[Monica]

12 hours ago, Kane said:

 

 

 

Hi again, Kane!

 

Viola just got out of bed and so I decided to show her your recent HH finds.  When I got to the picture above, she said: "Oh, it's so cute!  It's like a mommy and baby trilobite!"  I then asked her which trilobite is the mommy and which is the baby, and she responded: "This one (she pointed to the big one on the right) is you.  This one (she pointed to the medium-sized one on the left) is me.  And this one (she pointed to the smallest one in the middle) is William (her younger brother)."  How cute is that?!

 

Monica

 

PS - She also said "Wow!" when I got to the photo of the Mucrospirifer (no surprises there!).

[Kane]

Thanks everyone for your kind and encouraging words.  Apart from being lucky enough to live so relatively close to this site, even when I can't find precisely what I am looking for there are other fossils of interest that can be found. The abundance and variety is quite good. Although the site could use a major stir, there are still some treasures to be found by those willing to put some time and effort into it.

 

On 9/17/2017 at 6:51 AM, Monica said:

 

Hi again, Kane!

 

Viola just got out of bed and so I decided to show her your recent HH finds.  When I got to the picture above, she said: "Oh, it's so cute!  It's like a mommy and baby trilobite!"  I then asked her which trilobite is the mommy and which is the baby, and she responded: "This one (she pointed to the big one on the right) is you.  This one (she pointed to the medium-sized one on the left) is me.  And this one (she pointed to the smallest one in the middle) is William (her younger brother)."  How cute is that?!

 

Monica

Aww, that is so adorable! Tell Viola that she can expect a Greenops like one of these at some point in the future.  

[Monica]

10 minutes ago, Kane said:

I think I made two related mistakes in my report: the Basidechenella is a Crassiproetus, and even the name Basidechenella has been changed to Pseudodechenella not too long ago.

Aww, that is so adorable! Tell Viola that she can expect a Greenops like one of these at some point in the future.  

 

I just read Viola your message (she's sitting right next to me) and she's giggling like crazy. 

 

She would also like to know why you like trilobites so much  (I told her that that is the type of fossil that you prefer to collect.).

[Kane]

8 minutes ago, Monica said:

 

I just read Viola your message (she's sitting right next to me) and she's giggling like crazy. 

 

She would also like to know why you like trilobites so much  (I told her that that is the type of fossil that you prefer to collect.).

All fossils are incredibly fascinating, but I have a special place in my heart for trilobites. They were the first fossils I collected when I was Viola's age, and they reminded me of my other favourite activity as a kid: flipping over rocks and looking at bugs!  (And I still find insects and arachnids interesting to this day).

[Monica]

5 minutes ago, Kane said:

All fossils are incredibly fascinating, but I have a special place in my heart for trilobites. They were the first fossils I collected when I was Viola's age, and they reminded me of my other favourite activity as a kid: flipping over rocks and looking at bugs!  (And I still find insects and arachnids interesting to this day).

 

Viola likes some bugs but has an acute fear of spiders (despite my efforts to have her see spiders as cute and helpful creatures).  She does, however, love looking for frogs and worms when we hunt near a river/creek - she likes to pick them up and have them wriggle in her hands. 

[Kane]

1 minute ago, Monica said:

 

Viola likes some bugs but has an acute fear of spiders (despite my efforts to have her see spiders as cute and helpful creatures).  She does, however, love looking for frogs and worms when we hunt near a river/creek - she likes to pick them up and have them wriggle in her hands. 

Frogs and toads are a real delight. Of course, it is best for them to be observed and not picked up as it can hurt and distress them: http://blogaboutfrogs.blogspot.ca/2011/02/handling-frogs.html

 

 

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations Kane on another successful outing. Looks like you found quite a few really nice Greenops. The ones I find are never absolutely perfect. The Tornoceras is my favorite. Would love to visit that site some day. 

[Kane]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Congratulations Kane on another successful outing. Looks like you found quite a few really nice Greenops. The ones I find are never absolutely perfect. The Tornoceras is my favorite. Would love to visit that site some day. 

Thanks, Jeffrey.  If your travels ever take you this far into Ontario, I'd be happy to show you around.

Quick update:

 

Spent a bit of the morning doing some very light prep on this Greenops. It looks to be full. However, without a better scope, I don't dare go any further as it is fairly delicate. It is also quite small for this species at 17 mm. Sadly beyond my abilities to prepare any further, but possibly a silver lining on a whole season of "almosts"!

[Northern Sharks]

It was a pleasure to finally meet "The human backhoe" in person. While it wasn't my best day of collecting, it wasn't the worst either. Along with the usual common brachs and gastropods, I came away with (clockwise from top left) my largest Callipleura nobilis brach by far, a good sized Rhipidomella brach (these are quite thin front to back and more often than not, damaged), my smallest Tornoceras uniangulare (it is Arkona fm. sized, but definitely came from the Widder fm.) and a somewhat crushed but complete blastoid that made my miserable life a bit brighter (inside joke). Everything except the Tornoceras came from the Hungry Hollow formation in the South pit. I was leading a club trip, but due to cancellations, only 2 members showed up. They were absolutely floored by the amount of fossils, especially horn coral, that is still available to collect. I have a feeling they'll be back. The early morning walk into the South pit was highlighted by several spider webs covered in dew. I tried for a couple of pics, but this one was the best I could do. 

[Malcolmt]

Excellent..... not sure that Arkona really is much of a challenge for the human back hoe. He is better put to use excavating at JD or PD.

[Fossil-Hound]

Excellent report! Keep digging there. Your bound to get a complete G. widderensis.

[Kane]

13 minutes ago, Fossil-Hound said:

Excellent report! Keep digging there. Your bound to get a complete G. widderensis.

Well, I've already found one (remember the one Malcolm prepped for me?). Also, look a few posts up: I think I have another complete one.  

[ynot]

Hey @Northern Sharks,

Nice finds!

Also liking that web, neet picture!

[Shamalama]

Nice report @Kane, and some good finds too! I hope to be back up there in October, maybe I'll run into you while I'm there.

@Northern Sharks, you always manage to find something Blastoidy whenever you are at HH. Congrats!