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KimTexan

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Well, I found my very first trilobite!!!  I just had to share my excitement with people who can appreciate hunting for something elusive and then finally finding it. With the family I get a polite “Oh, that’s nice.”

 

I can actually tell it’s a trilobite. I’m pretty sure I’ve found pieces of others in the past, but they were so mangled it’s hard for me to be certain what I have.

Anyway, I’m not sure if it is whole or not. I am still cleaning it up.

Funny thing is I found it in my own home town of Siloam Springs, Arkansas of all places where I lived while in high school. My family still lives there. It was only about 1/2 mile from my parent’s house. Crazy.

I found it on a micro hash plate of sorts next to Bryozoa that I had picked up from a new home construction site.

I don’t know about anyone else, but hunting in the middle of a nice quiet little neighborhood feels a bit like dumpster diving. People watch and give you odd looks.

I was looking at the Bryozoa with 10x magnification when I found the little trilobite. I absolutely was not expecting that. It’s so tiny I can barely see it with the 10x. LOL But hey a first trilobite is a first trilobite even if I can’t take pics of it and show it to anyone.

 

It seems like the counter equivalent of a tall fish tale only it’s a microscopic trilobite tale. “It was this big/tiny . . .”

I think there may be 2 others on the plate as well, but not quite as small.

Not that you can see it, but it is a little white speck inside the red circle below.

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The Bryozoa thing is maybe 1.25 inches long and 7 mm wide. The little trilobite isn’t even 1 mm long. All I can see is the tale end. There are crinoid segments all over this piece too that are also microscopic. Some less than 1 mm.

 

I found it in NW Arkansas in the Pitkin Limestone, St. Joe member possibly, which is Mississippian.

The Bryozoan piece is actually much prettier than the pics portrays it to be. It’s all sparkly. It’s crystalized.

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I’ll see if I can get some type of pic of it tomorrow. It’s the tiniest one I’ve ever seen.

Anyone else have trilos that small?

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Woo hoo!  Congrats!  Time to get out the pin vice!

 

I've found some really tiny ones by sifting unconsolidated matrix through a USGS seive series and searching under the scope (looking for ostracods and conodonts)

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Congratulations, Kim! :)

:yay-smiley-1:

You never forget your first trilobite, was saying so only yesterday. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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I had no idea a trilobite could be that small, but I guess they had to start somewhere.  Congrats Kim.

 

RB

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woohoo!  You're hooked now!  Welcome to the dark side! :)

I found some in Utah that were that small....but they stand out really well in the dark shale so they are easy to spot.  

:yay-smiley-1::trilowalk::trilo:

Everything is generated through your own will power ~ Ray Bradbury
 

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Congrats on your first trilo! A milestone in any fossil hunters career.

“...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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Congratulations on your first 'bug', Kim!  In all my years of fossil work, I've never found one!  My daughter (bless hear heart) found a pygidium in Oklahoma during one of her school's 'camps', but I've never been that fortunate.  By the way...I'm almost through the ordeal of getting her moved back to the Dallas area and finding a place for her to live while she's working on her Ph.D. in math (shudder).  Once that's finished...I might even have a LIFE again!

 

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

Fruitbat's PDF Library

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Congrats, Kim, on your first trilo!!!  I was just saying to @fifbrindacier (who also recently found her first trilobites) how thrilled I was the first time I found evidence of trilobites in the rocks near me - it took many trips out to my regular haunts, but after the discovery was made I felt amazing!!! 

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Hi Kim, congratulations.:yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1:

I'm very glad for you.

 

I, too, found my first ones. It was yesterday and i think they are phacopids among them :

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"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

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5 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

Hi Kim, congratulations.:yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1:

I'm very glad for you.

 

I, too, found my first ones. It was yesterday and i think they are phacopids among them :

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Well, congratulations to you too! :yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1:

What are the odds that we would both find our first trilo on the same day?

I picked up the piece a week ago, but only discovered the trilo last night.

 

These are some of the other pieces I found last Monday which I believe may be mangled or poorly preserved trilo parts. Can’t tell what they are.

 

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25 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

Well, congratulations to you too! :yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1::yay-smiley-1:

What are the odds that we would both find our first trilo on the same day?

I picked up the piece a week ago, but only discovered the trilo last night.

I'd also like to know.:D

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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29 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

 

064A8DF4-B3C0-4E1C-9A1B-B7B1886E1719.jpeg

Looks like an imprint of a cephalon....

Everything is generated through your own will power ~ Ray Bradbury
 

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3 hours ago, Walt said:

Looks like an imprint of a cephalon....

Thank you. That’s some help.

 

All those pics are from one chunk of rock. The other side has some kind of shells in it. They don’t appear to be the standard brachiopods I’m use to seeing though. I need to get them uncovered. 

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@KimTexan Ever been to Chatsworth, GA? If you need the Paleozoic's bug in your life, that's the place you should go! :D

 

Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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hey kim congratulations on finding your first trilobite the Bryozoa also looks good have you thought about placing the 10x over you camera to take a close up picture?

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On 7/25/2018 at 11:06 PM, KimTexan said:

I found it in NW Arkansas in the Pitkin Limestone, St. Joe member possibly, which is Mississippian.

Congrats!  :trilo:

 

The St. Joe is the basal part of the Boone Formation at the base of the Mississipian strata, so it would not be part of the Pitkin limestone, which sits much higher near the top of the Mississippian. However, there is an Imo shale member of the Pitkin that does have trilobites. The only trilobites I have ever found in Arkansas (I grew up there too), were from the Imo, much further east at an old quarry near Greers Ferry Lake. The Imo there is dark red calcareous shale up to 350 ft thick and is sometimes considered a separate formation from the Pitkin, at least in that area. I know it thins to the west, so I'm not sure if the same layers would be present above the Pitkin near Siloam Springs, but that may be a good guess for the source. 

 

But who cares. it's a trilobite! :D

"Don't force it, just use a bigger hammer"

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@Paciphacops

In the area where I found it there are two developments across a street from one another. They are both at the same elevation and maybe 200 yards from each other. However, in the one a bright orange and while limestone type stuff, high in silica though is what is prominent. I found these there.

This below looks like St. Joe’s to me. I’m just learning my formations in the area, so please correct me if I assume wrong. I want to learn all I can. 

I live near Dallas, but am up in that area a few times a year.

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Across the road is where I found the Bryozoa. I also found these:

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This is the site where I found them. You can see there are a few layers present.

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Maybe 10 miles away on 412 near the Illinois River is a roadcut which I believe is the Pitkin Limestone. It is on top of a hill. These are things I’ve found in that area. The road cut is a solid mass of crinoid stalk pieces and not much else. However, one little part of the huge road cut has brachiopods. A couple kinds of spirifers and the little Compositas. I may be spelling that wrong.

Spirifers of some kind?

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Compositas?

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Crinoid stalk

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More crinoid stalk.

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This were in the main wall with the crinoids. I don’t think it looks like a brachiopod fragment. Could it be part of a trilobite?

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Regarding trilobites in NW AR, it isn’t in AR, but close over in Oklahoma off the Grand River is a limestone outcrop with trilobites in it. The 2nd post of pics above is from that area. But someone shared trilobite pics from there. There are 3 formations in the area. One is the Atoka, another the Bloyd and then Pitkin.

 

9FA4C122-EF3A-46C3-9A29-15D85C8AEB8E.jpeg

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Very nice!

 

The second pic looks very similar to some nearly black limestone I have seen in the Pitkin much further east. Those layers have the brachiopods that are very similar to these. Some are silicified with spines and can released from the matrix by soaking in acid.

 

The fossiliferous chert could be from the Boone, which is often loaded with chert. I think much of that area sits on the Boone. 

"Don't force it, just use a bigger hammer"

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No, I have not seen the first one!!! Thank you so much for sharing it!! 

In Texas I have some pretty good resources for at least North Central Texas. I have The Geology of Texas vol. 1 which is almost 1000 pages and gives a pretty good description of the formations and a number of the fossils found in them. I have a number of books on Texas fossils too. Then there is a local armature paleontologist who put up a web page www.northtexasfossils.com and it has the description of local formations with pictures of them and the fossils found in them. Then the Dallas Paleontological Scociety has a Facebook group page where locals post their local finds and you can ask questions. Also, I joined the Dallas Paleontological Scociety and can ask questions and go on hunts with the group and learn from people more knowledgeable than myself. With all of that I have learned a lot, but am still a novice.

I’m a kinesthetic learner. If I can see and touch a Formation, rocks and the geology, it makes me curious and motivated me to go and try to learn what I can about it. The resources mentioned above enable me to learn a lot.

I don’t have any of that for Arkansas. I don’t have any books, web pages or anything. I did join an Arkansas fossil group FB Page, but the traffic there is very little. Often it seems I know more than some of the people who post there. Many of those posting are first time posters trying to find out what they found rather than repeat posters who have knowledge.

I did find the Arkansas geology webpage though. http://www.geology.ar.gov/geology/geology_map.htm It does have some maps on there. Paleontological info is very limited though.

All that said I’m very open to whatever people provide. 

Thanks for sharing the info.

 

Kim

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