Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 With temperatures hitting the 60's in Wisconsin, that can only mean one thing... The hunt is officially on! My Father and I took advantage of the unusually warm weather yesterday to head down to Southwest Wisconsin and collect the Ordovician Platteville and Decorah Formations. While we spent 5hrs collecting, we only visited two sites, but what a couple sites they were! Our first stop was in the Platteville formation(Mid-Ordovician). While I didn't find any complete trilobites, I did find some nice parts and a couple of Clathrospira gastropods worth collecting. I also found a rare undescribed Thaleops cephalon that is refered to as Thaleops(Illaenus) sp. ind. (Cephalon B in the paper "Platteville and Decorah Trilobites From Illinois and Wisconsin" (DeMott, 1963). Now here are some photos of that stop, non trilobites first: Cephalopod with negative Clathrospira gastropod in situ Above Clathrospira in my hand Second Clathrospira Lingula brachiopod with nice "growth" lines Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 And now for the trilobite stuff from the first stop. Basilicus barrandi free-cheek Basilicus barrandi cephalon Calyptaulax plattinensis cephalon Undiscribed Thaleops cephalon A very poor excuse of an enrolled Isotelus simplex Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Our second spot was to an old quarry that exposes the Decorah Formation on top and the Plattville Formation below. This is the site where the fun really began! We started up on top in the Decorah Fm looking at the scraped bedrock trilobites being our main focus. We didn't find much for complete specimens, but again I came away with some decent parts. Again, I found a cephalon of yet another Thaleops sp. that we have never came across. Gabriceraurus dentatus hypostome Hash plate with a Gabriceraurus dentatus pygidium in the middle Eomonorachus intermedius cephalon Eomonorachus intermedius group of cephalons with genal spines Raymondites spiniger cephalon Mystery Thaleops sp. cephalon Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squalicorax Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Nice stuff caleb. I really like the lingula inarticulate brachiopod. The ordovician of wisconsin has such excellent preservation. We should plan a hunt together some time. My Flickr Page of My Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79424101@N00/sets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boneman007 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 (edited) Beautiful stuff. Since my mom lives in Rockford, IL, I get up that way occasionally, but have only hunted the IL/WI border area. I would love to hunt the older, non-vertebrate material more. By the way, for those of you who have never hunted Wisconsin, the folks are some of the nicest that live on our planet! They never mind a stranger knocking at the door asking to go play in their mud! Edited March 7, 2012 by Boneman007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 And now for the really exciting stuff. When we were done on top of the quarry, we went down below to look at some Decorah Fm rock that had falled down. On the way we were passing some very large rocks that were from the Platteville Fm and decided to stop and look at a few. I spotted a Dolichoharpes cephalon in the corner of one of the massive slabs and got excited to look over the rest of the rock. In the middle I was shocked to find a very nicely preserved Oklahomacystis sp. While this may not be a big deal to the Oklahoma folks, this will probably be my find of the year. Not only is this not described out of the Platteville formation, I have only seen one other specimen which was collected by a friend of ours. I have never personally found even a part or evidence of these in the 15 years I have been heavily collecting the Platteville Fm. Oklahomacystis sp. A bit later I found what should turn out to be a nice Eomonorachus intermedius in some of the Decorah Fm rocks that fell down from the top. We also found a pygidium of an Ectanaspis sp., another trilobite we have never encountered in the Decorah Fm. This was a very exciting day and a great start to the season! Eomonorachus intermedius Ectanaspis sp. Large cephalopod in a bigger slab, hammer head is 5inches long Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Here is the rest of the slab the Oklahomacystis came off of. In total it had 10 Dolichoharpes shields, a very rare Ceraurinella templetoni cephalon, a few other cystoid plates that are very rarely seen in that area, and numerous corals and bryozoans. A very cool slab! Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squalicorax Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Yes the cystoid takes the cake!!!1 My Flickr Page of My Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79424101@N00/sets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Evidently global warming has an upside? So much for winter in the Midwest :coldb: Congrats Caleb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolmt Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Awesome day in the field. If the weather holds out up here in Canada I might try to go out this weekend. It is 13 celcius here today (53 farenheight) Crazy weather this winter.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 I did some more digging and found that the mystery Thaleops is listed in "Platteville and Decorah Trilobites From Illinois and Wisconsin" (DeMott, 1963) as "Thaleops sp. A" Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Evidently global warming has an upside? So much for winter in the Midwest :coldb: Congrats Caleb Awesome day in the field. If the weather holds out up here in Canada I might try to go out this weekend. It is 13 celcius here today (53 farenheight) Crazy weather this winter.... I am certainly loving this warm winter, not only is it saving me a small fortune heating my house, but I have been able to go collecting in both January and Feb. Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Nice specimens, especially the cystoid. Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Jim Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Really cool stuff from the ordovician. Thanks for posting...the cystoid and cephalopod were my favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobWill Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Fairly fine fossil foraging with fantastic photos featuring faint remains of fallen flakes in the fissures...sorry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudeman Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Great hunt, Caleb! Thanks for the top notch report with great info. Troy Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nandomas Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Love the first Eomonorachus intermedius cephalon picture Erosion... will be my epitaph! http://www.paleonature.org/ https://fossilnews.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taffie Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Fairly fine fossil foraging with fantastic photos featuring faint remains of fallen flakes in the fissures...sorry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Fairly fine fossil foraging with fantastic photos featuring faint remains of fallen flakes in the fissures...sorry... Fine form! Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Thanks everyone! I've been doing a little more looking into on the Oklahomacystis and it belongs to a group called Paracrinoids. According to Paleodb.org the only instance of Oklahomacystis is from Oklahoma and Missouri. Actually(according to Paleodb) there are no Paracrinoids recorded from Wisconsin and only one genus(Amygdalocystites) recorded in the Upper Ordovician Galena formation of MN, IA, and IL. Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roz Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Congratulations, Caleb! What a productive hunt you had.. I have never seen a Oklahomacystis sp and it's in excellent shape.. So many cool trilobites too.. Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Great report, great pictures and a great day in the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fengw03 Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Many congrats, Caleb! The Oklahomacystis sp is really beautiful. And the trilobites are amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 (edited) Well the hunt just got a little sweeter!! I headed over to my Father's place to continue the quest of preparing for MAPS and noticed he had washed some stuff off. While looking at a piece that had a "mystery" item on it I noticed something in the lower corner of the rock. At first I thought "just a crinoid stem", but as I got closer I started seeing another feature... I took it over to the scope and sure enough it was a trilobite! And not just any trilobite, a Ceraurinella scofieldi... one of the more rare trilobites! Reason for picking up the piece, looks like a cephalopod chamber(not too exciting) The surprise, a mostly covered Ceraurinella scofieldi The bug with a scale(in mm) And the Thaleops type A cephalon from earlier in the post mostly prepped out. Edited March 14, 2012 by Caleb Caleb Midwestpaleo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossiladdict Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Very cool finds indeed! Fossils are simply one of the coolest things on earth--discovering them is just marvelous! Makes you all giddy inside! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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