Plant or Animal - Ordivician

[Dimitar]

Please advise what type of animal is this: it could be a trilobite, brachiopod or plant-animal.

 

 

   

N.2

 

N.3

 

N.4 - this is most likely a  small trilobite  ( 1 cm)

 

  

N.5

 

N.6

 

 

N.7 -left side segment

 

N.8 - here I put some oil on this segment for better visibility

[Kane]

Possibly some Isotelus sp. parts. The one piece (I suppose the 4th and 5th ones) looks like a thoroughly abraded Ceraurus sp or possibly Flexicalymene. It would likely take some prep to determine that for certain. There are no evident plants here, and I am unsure what you mean by plant-animal as those are separate taxonomic kingdoms.

[Dimitar]

10 minutes ago, Kane said:

Possibly some Isotelus sp. parts. The one piece (I suppose the 4th and 5th ones) looks like a thoroughly abraded Ceraurus sp or possibly Flexicalymene. It would likely take some prep to determine that for certain. There are no evident plants here, and I am unsure what you mean by plant-animal as those are separate taxonomic kingdoms.

For the big one, I was checking for Amphilichas ottawaensis .

[Kane]

I would expect more pustules for a lichid. Instead I am seeing more fine pitting, which is more suggestive of an asaphid. The prevalent asaphid in your strata would be Isotelus. 

 

It might be worth preparing the potential Ceraurus. It would likely lack the right pygidial spine and a bit of the cephalon, but it would be mostly complete. It would be a simple process of abrasion to discern that. Of all these pieces you've shown us, that one is likely the prize.

[Dimitar]

3 minutes ago, Kane said:

that one is likely the prize.

What do you mean to be the prize?

 

Last night I spent many hours on this, trying to figure out what part is it, if this is a trilobite or bracheopod or else, finally I pretty much gave up on this..  So you think this one is valuable ?

[Kane]

By "prize" I mean your likely best find of the bunch. Isotelus parts are common throughout all the Ordovician in Quebec and Ontario (the "prize" there would be  complete ones!).

 

A full or near complete Ceraurus is always a nice treat. Valuable? Not necessarily scientifically. I have found complete Ceraurus in Quebec a number of times, and in some strata it can be maybe one to three a day for those that are truly complete (with both genals and pygidial spines). Pieces of them are common, as are Flexicalymene pieces. 

 

What will help your identification efforts is to ensure you have the right literature and if you have the means to prepare your finds to reveal the diagnostic details. Your potential Ceraurus I would have picked up as a possible and perform a quick spot preparation to reveal more detail to assist me in proper identification. 

 

A closer look reveals that some of the axial rings have eroded away, so it may be slightly less than complete in this regard. The very best chances of finding them complete is if they are more buried or from a split.

[Dimitar]

37 minutes ago, Kane said:

By "prize" I mean your likely best find of the bunch. Isotelus parts are common throughout all the Ordovician in Quebec and Ontario (the "prize" there would be  complete ones!).

 

A full or near complete Ceraurus is always a nice treat. Valuable? Not necessarily scientifically. I have found complete Ceraurus in Quebec a number of times, and in some strata it can be maybe one to three a day for those that are truly complete (with both genals and pygidial spines). Pieces of them are common, as are Flexicalymene pieces. 

 

What will help your identification efforts is to ensure you have the right literature and if you have the means to prepare your finds to reveal the diagnostic details. Your potential Ceraurus I would have picked up as a possible and perform a quick spot preparation to reveal more detail to assist me in proper identification. 

 

A closer look reveals that some of the axial rings have eroded away, so it may be slightly less than complete in this regard. The very best chances of finding them complete is if they are more buried or from a split.

When I found this one - it was a complete. And I took both parts - from down and top.  I did a mistake on the place to wash the rock in the river - so this eroded most of the soft parts. the top part is generally only mud. I recognized this because of the green-orange color that was around this fossil.  It had the shape of a flat fish. I am glad it is a trilobite.  I was in doubt for some brachiopod or crinoid.

[Kane]

There are no soft parts to an exoskeleton. There may be more fragile portions due to preservation and erosion, and that can fracture or pop off from handling. 

 

I think in future you may wish to avoid washing the rocks in the river. Hopefully you have the means to do some preparation at home, or know someone who has those means.

[Dimitar]

39 minutes ago, Kane said:

There are no soft parts to an exoskeleton. There may be more fragile portions due to preservation and erosion, and that can fracture or pop off from handling. 

 

I think in future you may wish to avoid washing the rocks in the river. Hopefully you have the means to do some preparation at home, or know someone who has those means.

The part, that I show is the top .  There could be still some parts in the bottom side, which are like a mud / brick  - now it is dry and hard. If I it is wet it become softer.  Thanks for your adise and assistance.

[Dimitar]

FYI: this is most likely part of the same colonial animal: Graptolithina .