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Yukon Phyllocarids


YukonTrilobite

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Anyone intimately familiar with Phyllocarid morphology?  This slab is from a lower Devonian formation in the northern Yukon Territory. These things were giants ... The well preserved Telson (tail-spike) piece is 10" long, the feeler/antennae assembly alone is 18" long ... In life the critter was likely a good meter in length. What I'm not certain about is the 8" long arm-like appendage at top, as well as a small armor like plate nearby.

 

59d57d75e0e4e_PhyllocaridSlab.jpg.aac007e20166857dfb599db247ac2137.jpg 

 

Over the years have found many  complete trident shaped telsons and antennae but not much in the way of other body parts.

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Never heard of a Phyllocarid before, but searching it up, this fossil would actually scare someone out hard. I mean, modern ones are usually small, but a one-meter one would be absolutely awesome. I also believe I see a fish vertebrate on the bottom right corner, but it might just be an illusion caused by the shadow.

If you're a fossil nut from Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Redondo Beach, or Torrance, feel free to shoot me a PM!

 

 

Mosasaurus_hoffmannii_skull_schematic.png

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I don't know much about them, but I think they are mighty cool, nice find! Those must've been HUGE for tail spikes like those, the only one ive seen for sale was an inch long and poorly preserved.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Thanks for the comments ... Been trying to respond to some but having some difficulty using this website...

The Phyllocarids I've found up there are, apparently, the world's largest. The most famous and complete specimens, from Germany's Hunsruck shale, are only an inch or two in length.

Definitely no fish remains at this site. The second most common fossil at that place is Plumaria Plumalina, which used to be called feather coral, but is now generally considered to a hydroid type of creature. These are also unusually large with ind. fronds over a foot in length. Here's a pic of one.  There are also more complex and varied forms of what appears to be basically the same thing.

Medusa's Tentacle.JPG

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Very... actually, more than interesting! If you'd like to find out more about, for example, the Phyllocarids of NY and Ontario, then just put that name into the search bar at the top right of the home page and click on the magnifying glass.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Very interesting, indeed.

 

What is the size of the carapace in the picture? 

Makes you wonder if there is anything to the association with Plumalina.   :headscratch:

 

59d57d75e0e4e_PhyllocaridSlab.jpg.aac007e20166857dfb599db247ac2137.jpg

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Nice to see you here on the Fossil Forum YukonTrilobite.

In Commanche, Iowa there are Phyllocarids reported to be in the Silurian Scotch Grove formation the size of a sledge hammer (meter long). I saw pictures of them. I remember you posted pictures in Flicker about 2008. You featured your Plumalinas and Phylocarids from the Fly Creek Shale you found off the Dempster Highway south of Eagle Plains, NYT  We corresponded but thousands of miles separated our Plumalina localities so no cross collecting would be done. Amazing that two fossil sites so closely related were so far apart. It's not like Plumalina were so cosmopolitan in the Devonian world.

   

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Fascinating specimens. I have some Plumalina from NY that I purchased but they are small specimens only a couple of inches long. Yours are monsters!

-Dave

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Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

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Wow! Missed this until now. If you had no pics, just told us you had Phyllocarids that big, I would not have believed it. This confirms my sense that the north is full of fossil wonders still waiting to be found, being wide open/underpopulated country.

Can you show a larger version of this pic (and any more)?

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