Georgia Cambrian Trilobites

[Wrangellian]

Fun stuff... I'm tempted again to ask someone to send me a chunk or two to try my luck. Seems like everyone's doing it!

You may have mentioned it somewhere already, but how much rock did you go through to get this many bugs? Or should I ask, how much would you have to go thru to have a good chance of getting one decent complete bug?

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Bet you were pleased with that agnostid, though. 

I know it's a partial, but I think that species is pretty darned rare there? 

Your first one of those, as far as I recall. 

Nice. 

Correct and I have found some very small examples of Agnostid’s there, but nothing even close to half the size of this one.

[Nimravis]

5 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Fun stuff... I'm tempted again to ask someone to send me a chunk or two to try my luck. Seems like everyone's doing it!

You may have mentioned it somewhere already, but how much rock did you go through to get this many bugs? Or should I ask, how much would you have to go thru to have a good chance of getting one decent complete bug?

There are layer that are on an angle, and a mist of the time nothing is present. The pieces that are layered flat have a high possibility of finding things. As stated earlier, I find a lot of portions, but only post picks of the complete or near complete ones. I will post some pics today of some partial ones.

[Wrangellian]

So you've gone thru quite a bit of rock is what you're saying? 5-gallon buckets like your Mazon nodules, or something like that?

[Nimravis]

4 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

So you've gone thru quite a bit of rock is what you're saying? 5-gallon buckets like your Mazon nodules, or something like that?

I have some matrix, but nothing anywhere near the MC concretions.

 

 

[Nimravis]

@Wrangellian I don't have to go thru a lot of matrix to find trilobites, and as I have mentioned in previous posts about this matrix I like to hit it with a hammer to reveal a fossil versus soaking it to reveal the. The reason being is that a strike with the hammer will split the matrix and if a nice trilobite is found, it is very easy to cut the piece down to size with a hacksaw. Once the piece gets to small to hold in my hand and split it with a hammer, I then soak them to see if something else is found inside. Soaking will allow you to split the matrix with your fingers to reveal any type of trilobite, but it also may split it in a very thin layer that may be unstable when I try to cut it down.

 

This matrix is preserved in two ways, flat or angled. Trilobites are found in both, but again I find it easier to work with the flat pieces, but I will collect either. The below pics are some pieces that I had soaking for about 30 minutes, it usually does not take much time to have them ready for finger splitting. The first piece shows the matrix preserved in a flat plane, though there is a portion that is on an angle on the right side.

 

This piece split very easily to reveal 3 almost complete specimens of Aphelaspis brachyphasis.

 

 

 

These are part / counterpart and if you look at the right hand portion below, you will see 2 larger and 1 smaller trilobite sitting next to each other.

 

 

The angled pieces are more difficult to split with a hammer, but it can be done, and soaking also works well. The piece below shows that they also contain trilobites.

 

 

A small, complete trilobite is located near the tip of the matrix.

 

 

Here is another example of angled matrix with trilobites.

 

 

You always need to use a loupe on pieces so that you do not miss the smaller trilobites or trilo-bits, as seen in the pics below with a a couple Agnostid portions.

 

 

Counterpart-

 

 

Here is another piece from soaking-

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple other angled pieces of matrix with some nice trilobites. The first pic is a part / counterpart and contains great examples of exoskeletons from two trilobites.

 

 

Here is another nice angled piece.

 

 

This next piece is a nice little piece with multiple trilobites.

 

[Wrangellian]

Thanks, you've given a good sense of what the material is like to work with. I would be tempted to split everything as far as it will go in the hopes of finding more bugs, and not worry about trimming it down if it's thin. (I don't mean splitting a piece that already has a nice bug on it, you wouldn't want to take that risk! I just mean the stuff without). Do you have a Dremel? There is a small diamond blade attachment you can get for it that might be better for trimming small, finer pieces that the hacksaw would be too rough on.

[Nimravis]

The matrix at this location comes in four different colors- two shades of grey, that can contain some really nice preservation and two shades of tan. Though a picture does not really tell the true colors, the lighter shades are on the left side of the below picture.

 

 

Here are a couple more things that came from soaking.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some lovely pieces. 

A do I do remember there being different coloured bits of matrix and some that split in slightly different ways.

After a while, you start to get a 'feel' for the rocks and know how they're likely to react and split, I also started to be able to tell which ones were more likely to contain trilos, though that was not 100% reliable! 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple pieces that I just soaked. I really love the first piece, has a little bit of everything-

 

 

I also like the tiny pygidium's-

 

 

Here are a couple more pieces-

 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

On 11/30/2018 at 10:48 PM, Nimravis said:

Here are a few finds from “soaking” tonight. I try to only show near complete specimens, but the amount of partial trilobites is +10 fold that of complete ones.

 

I found my largest Agnostid trilobite tonight, I just wish that it was complete. This piece is about 15 times larger than any other Agnostid trilobites that I have found. I believe that this is Aspidagnostus rugosus.

 

 

Now that's a nice agnostid trilobite. That's as big as the one I posted in the FOTM except mine is complete  Keep on splitting that rock maybe we'll see a complete one that size eventually! 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple pieces that I came across this evening.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice! 

I particularly like the beautifully detailed glabella on the first one. 

[Nimravis]

I have not had much time to go through matrix, but I did come across these tonight.

 

[Nimravis]

Tonight I was cutting down some matrix on partial trilobites and I noticed this little Agnostid  trilobite and though it does not have the greatest detail, I am happy with it.

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple trilobites from today, the first one is a partial that has an extremely large cephalon for this area.

 

 

This next piece has a nice size Aphelaspis brachyphasis and a complete Agnostid.

 

 

Here are a couple more finds that I split today, I have some other pieces that are soaking.

 

[KimTexan]

On 11/3/2018 at 10:38 PM, Nimravis said:

Well I did not have much luck opening Mazon Creek concretions today, so I figured that I would try something about 190 Million years older, so tonight I was whacking Conasauga shale matrix from Murray County, Georgia, looking for Cambrian Aphelaspis brachyphasis trilobites. I did not go through much matrix tonight, but I did find a few trilobites, but the ones that I found do not represent the quality of trilobites that come from that location. As I continue to go through this matrix, I guarantee that I will find some pretty specimens and I will post my finds.

 

 

I keep saying Ralph, that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Some of those look very nice! Now I need to go read the rest of the posts in this thread of yours.

[KimTexan]

On 11/4/2018 at 6:50 PM, Nimravis said:

Here are a couple finds from this process- the first one has the classic halo that surrounds some of them.

These look amazing! 

Kind of almost too good. Like it’s manufactured. Hum, you might give the Moroccans a run for their money. 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple pieces that I soaked and finger split.

 

[Nimravis]

Here are a couple pieces from today, I used a hammer and also soaking.

 

First hammer splitting-

 

 

 

Soaking-

 

 

 

These next pieces also contain a partial Agnostids.

 

 

[Nimravis]

When I go through my Georgia matrix I separate it into the following pieces and this is by order of most common-

 

Partial Trilobites-

 

 

 

Complete or Near Complete Trilobites-

 

 

 

Glabella-

 

 

 

Free Cheeks-

 

 

 

Pygidium-

 

 

 

Agnostids-

 

 

 

 

Cephalon- This is by far the least common piece of Aphelaspis brachyphasis that I find, I have only found 9 pieces.

 

 

But as as far as trilobites that I have found at the Murray County location, this is rare to me, I have only found a partial Eugonocare.

 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

On 12/5/2018 at 10:43 PM, Nimravis said:

Tonight I was cutting down some matrix on partial trilobites and I noticed this little Agnostid  trilobite and though it does not have the greatest detail, I am happy with it.

 

 

 

Hey, there’s your decent size agnostid! Good splitting!

[Nimravis]

Here are some Aphelaspis brachyphasis trilobites and a couple Agnostids that I split open tonight.

 

 

Part and counterpart-

 

 

 

Part and counterpart-

 

 

[Nimravis]

Here are some trilobites from tonight- I always like the quality of the ones that are hammer split versus soaking.

 

Hammer Split-

 

 

Soaked and finger split-