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The 3Q/3D Trip - Day Three - Bowmanville


Kane

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Just got back from Bowmanville. A good 6 hours of solid collecting, and we were quite the mob - thankfully the quarry is immense. The weather couldn't be better: just warm enough, sunny. In the past, it was almost tradition that the annual trip to Bowmanville would be cold, rainy, or both. 

 

The sound of rock saws meant some people were really having a good outing. 

 

I'm opening up this thread for everyone who came who wish to post some photos. I'll kick it off with a few now (still so many to take now that the trip buckets are at home). There were so many fossil collectors, and a lot of TFF folks representing. 

 

Before getting this started in earnest, a really big thank-you to @Northern Sharks for organizing this. :dinothumb:

 

This is how it all began for me: at about 7:30 am getting the car ready to go:

 

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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I won't lie: I did not find a full Isotelus :( , but the massive partials were worth keeping (photos of those to come). What was really - to me - the best part of this trip (and the last few days of this huntapalooza) was the people: old friends and new ones made. :) 

 

A group photo of our little crew:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Some quarry shots? coming right up!

 

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My first find of the day was a busted up little Flexi...

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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After that, I found a partial, small Isotelus. A lot of the day was spent scrambling over enormous piles of big rocks. Here are some large partials in the slabs:

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Someone very lucky found and marking taped this large roller. 

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From home, a few of the big partials. Note the scale. These are not by far the largest that can be found there, but they are certainly not tiny critters!

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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That cephalon alone is three inches long. The second picture is a busted up roller missing a few parts. The third picture is from the stuff a unit higher that contains both Isotelus and Pseudogygites. I was able to extract the pseudo without a saw... Sad this one was missing its head.

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I also found one entirely in the rock, prone,, showing nothing but a thin line of its side. That will be a bit tricky to free from tough matrix like this, but once my air scribe comes I'll be able to get at it. Pictures of that one much later.

 

For now, the last pic for the moment before I can get at the trip buckets. I was splitting the Collingwood Member before we left , and found this little and full Pseudogygites:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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I love those isoteluses!  Nice finds!

“...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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Awesome adventure filled weekend!  :wub: 

Looking forward to seeing your finds once they are cleaned and prepped!

Thanks for the vicarious field trip!. 

 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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That is quite the crew in the group photo.  It would be fun to have a "key" to the names, at least of the Fossil Forum members.  I recognize a few folks (Hi Dave/Shamalama!) but most are a mystery to me.

 

I especially like the little Pseudogygites:wub: Hope there is more to the Isotelus roller.  I hate it when there is a "divot" taken out of a great fossil by an unfortunate quarrying accident.  That rock looks fresh, I take it it wasn't around long enough to weather a bit?

 

Any chance the 3-day extravaganza will be an annual thing?  If I knew in advance I might be able to make it up there.

 

Don

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14 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

That is quite the crew in the group photo.  It would be fun to have a "key" to the names, at least of the Fossil Forum members.  I recognize a few folks (Hi Dave/Shamalama!) but most are a mystery to me.

 

I especially like the little Pseudogygites:wub: Hope there is more to the Isotelus roller.  I hate it when there is a "divot" taken out of a great fossil by an unfortunate quarrying accident.  That rock looks fresh, I take it it wasn't around long enough to weather a bit?

 

Any chance the 3-day extravaganza will be an annual thing?  If I knew in advance I might be able to make it up there.

 

Don

I'm kneeling in the front with the envelope. Malcolm is kneeling second from the right. Kane is just left of center in the camo pants. HoJoon is standing farthest left. Shamalama is standing to my left with his hands crossed. Quarryman Dave is looking over Shamalama's left shoulder and Crinus is hiding in the back -the floating yellow hat 2nd from the left.

Since 2 of the 3 sites are basically accessible anytime, and Bowmanville twice/year, this could become a regular scenario.

I didn't have much luck today, unless you count the bad kind. All I brought home was a so-so-raurus

There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you're supposed to be doing something else

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9 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

 

Any chance the 3-day extravaganza will be an annual thing?  If I knew in advance I might be able to make it up there.

 

Don

I think that would be an excellent idea. We'd, of course, have to come up with a cooler name than "huntapalooza." :D 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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12 hours ago, Kane said:

Some quarry shots? coming right up!

 

 

 

Fabulous field trip! It is nice your local quarries allow groups to fossil hunt yet. It is not the norm. My hope is that my next comments will help us to continue quarry hunts:

 

Kane, your photography is enjoyable to see at but I want to point out something that anyone who photographs in a quarry should look at BEFORE POSTING a picture. In a quarry, rule of thumb is stay away from a high wall as far back as the wall is high. Look at the two people and the car on the right. It is very likely that these individuals are following safety guidelines. But optical illusions make it seem as if they are parked next to the wall. If a quarry manager sees this picture online, it may make the difference whether groups are allowed in again or not. So for anyone posting quarry pictures think about this before releasing any photos publicly. It happened to a local fossil club when such a picture was posted. Now access is refused.

 

Again, great trip reports. Sorry to sour it with my comments. They are meant to be helpful. 

 

Mike

 

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6 minutes ago, minnbuckeye said:

 

Good advice! I've since removed that particular image. Yes, it was an illusion of depth of field, but I wouldn't want to give the impression that people were not abiding by safety rules. As much as I can caption a photo, captions don't always follow the photo when they are spread online. :) There are certainly not many quarries that allow collecting anymore, and so we want to ensure that we keep good relations with the quarry owners/operators - particularly in observing safety first! 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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This was my find of the day.  Actually the only find.  It is a plate of Pseudogygites from the Lindsay Fm.  These are not the Collingwood Mb layer but the same layers that the Isotelus come from.  These actually have shell preserved rather than impression as in the Collingwood.  The plate has 9 specimens on it.  There was plenty of blast damage to the plate, but it looked like three of the specimen would be fine.  Getting the three out was my primary objective.  To get those three out meant cutting right through two of the specimen.  Fortunately they were the poorest specimens.  After I got those three out I tried for the others .  Two additional specimen came out just fine.  The last piece had two specimen on it and I was trying to get it out in one piece.  That was a BIG mistake.  I made the proper cuts, but the rock was so hard and brittle that after several minutes of pounding, the thing shattered into many pieces.  I am still very happy with the three I have. I gave the other two away to other individuals. 

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It cannot be overstated how uncommon it is to find a full Pseudogygites, let alone nine(!) rather than the thousands of tail moults one has to wade through. Not only do they come with the nice chocolate brown exoskeleton in that layer @crinus found these, but they are more inflated than the ones found flattened in the black shale of the Collingwood mbr. Definitely a prize find. :dinothumb::trilo:

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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14 hours ago, crinus said:

This was my find of the day.  Actually the only find.  It is a plate of Pseudogygites from the Lindsay Fm.  These are not the Collingwood Mb layer but the same layers that the Isotelus come from.  These actually have shell preserved rather than impression as in the Collingwood.  The plate has 9 specimens on it.  There was plenty of blast damage to the plate, but it looked like three of the specimen would be fine.  Getting the three out was my primary objective.  To get those three out meant cutting right through two of the specimen.  Fortunately they were the poorest specimens.  After I got those three out I tried for the others .  Two additional specimen came out just fine.  The last piece had two specimen on it and I was trying to get it out in one piece.  That was a BIG mistake.  I made the proper cuts, but the rock was so hard and brittle that after several minutes of pounding, the thing shattered into many pieces.  I am still very happy with the three I have. I gave the other two away to other individuals. 

 

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  I'm very :envy:

 

Congratulations on the amazing find!!!

 

Monica

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I can see how that can be a ton of fun.  Gotta be super nice to get a rare and complete bug.  i still say to this day when i go on a fossil hunting trip that if you find the right rock, it can make your intire trip.   Also, what is the rock used for from that quarry?

 

RB

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On 10/24/2017 at 7:19 AM, RJB said:

I can see how that can be a ton of fun.  Gotta be super nice to get a rare and complete bug.  i still say to this day when i go on a fossil hunting trip that if you find the right rock, it can make your intire trip.   Also, what is the rock used for from that quarry?

 

RB

The rock is converted into cement. I've heard that the workers watch as nice trilobites go into the crusher. :( 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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2 hours ago, RJB said:

That would be very very painfull having to stand there and watch nice fossils about to be destroyed! 

 

RB

Perhaps, but not as painful as falling into the crusher while trying to retrieve that nice fossil. Still, if I worked there I might be tempted to invest in one of those grabber pole things with the claw on the end.

Don

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Actually it is used to make cement.

 

I tried to tell Crinus that there was an new Canadian exporting of fossils rule that applied to Americans from Michigan that drive Ford trucks but he was not believing me......

 

For me it was not my best day at Bowmanvile, I got 3 ceraurus none of which appear to be more than about 90% there  and a damaged flexi. I also got a curled Pseudogygites that is maybe 50% but it is from the Lindsey and a decent size so I did take the time to cut it out. I left two iso's that were about 80% complete and Shamalama left an iso that was about 70% complete along with a couple of crinoids, All would have been way too much work late in the day. Spent the final minutes in the quarry cutting out a ceraurus for QuarrymanDave's wife. Very large and inflated but unfortunately probably not all there....

 

Did not cut out as many fossils for others as last year nor did I hear as many saws running over the day. (except for Crinus and his monster slab) I suspect oveall this year the productivity was a bit down. From what I heard the bottom of the pit was pretty much unproductive. There were a few crinoids and iso's found on level three as well as quite a few ceraurus. I think I saw more people showing ceraurus than anything else, I know I cut out a few. Crinus found his monster plate on level 2 which was great if you wanted some nice  pygidiums but not so productive for complete specimens for anyone but Crinus.

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4 hours ago, Malcolmt said:

 

 

I tried to tell Crinus that there was an new Canadian exporting of fossils rule that applied to Americans from Michigan that drive Ford trucks but he was not believing me......

 

 

Good thing I do not drive a Ford truck.  Made it across the border without a hitch and lots of fossils.

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