jgcox Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 The Dry Dredgers made our June trip to Penn-Dixie for trilobites and Ridgemont Quarry for Euryriptides. One disarticulated but complete, two very small complete ones about 3/4 of an inch were found by other club members. I found my first complete Euryriptide and it is my find of a lifetime. A specimen that measured 9" from head to the curve where the tail curves. I am going to try to post some pics emailed to me. Thanks to Malcolm for collecting with me, giving me searching tips and to John for helping Malcolm and me extract my Euryriptide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Congratulations on your wonderful find! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolmt Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 (edited) Jim, I was so pleased that you managed to find one and a nice one at that. Of all the people there on Friday , you were the one that I was hoping would take one home. You worked extremely hard all day and never gave up. If you had not found one there was no way you were going home empty handed. I just had a good feeling about that spot you were in even though you were not finding that many fragments. The rock just looked promising and I had found 2 specimens within about 4 feet of that spot. That large pit we were working has now produced (with yours) 7 complete eurypterids. What Jim is not telling anyone is that he found it on what he told himself was going to be his last split of the day. He found it about 20 minutes before we had to be out the front gate so the lady could lock up. You do not normally attempt to remove a complete eurypterid in only 20 minutes. Unfortunately for Jim it was in what I would call nasty rock that did not want to split nicely (read this that it came out in multiple pieces, which actually is the norm for this site). Since he was from Ohio , John and I did our best to make sure he got to take it home with him. John (FossiCrazy on the forum here) did an awesome job at pedestalling around the eurypterid with his rock saw. John spent a good portion of the day cutting out anything that was asked of him. Thanks to some flats that Jim was able to borrow from other Dry Dredgers he now has two jig saw puzzles to work on , the upper plate and the lower plate. Because of the natural fractures in the rock each plate has perhaps 3 major pieces and a lot of ancillary pieces with no actual fossil on them. I suspect if Jim takes his time he will end up with two nice plates. The only part we are unsure about is the telson which looks like it is there but is still totally buried in matrix. And yes we got to the front gate just as the lady was getting ready to lock up!!!!!! I must say that I spent a fair amount of time chatting with Jim on Friday and he is a very interesting man. I hope that get a chance to hunt with him again maybe even down on his turf. As for me I never really hunted on Friday, just went around helping people. In the previous weeks I had left 5 nice eurypterid heads in the bottom of my pit floor for some of the visitors to take out. Proved to be kind of fun as my pit was mostly under water. Learned a new technique of using a leaf blower to keep a spot at the bottom of the pit free of water so that someone else can pedestal it and split it out. In the end five relatively novice dry dredgers went home with nice heads that they had to work real hard in unusual circumstances to get out. I must say I really enjoyed myself with the group , in total we had 25 to 30 in the quarry (Dry Dredgers , NYPS and 4 of us regulars) which is most likely a record turnout. I can hardly wait to do it all again next year. Hopefully there will be some more pictures coming shortly. , unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I got no pictures at all on Friday . Edited June 12, 2013 by Malcolmt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squalicorax Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Awesome Jim! My Flickr Page of My Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79424101@N00/sets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Wow, looks like the fossil gods were smiling on you that day (though not without making you work for it of course) - I'm familiar with nasty rock and having jigsaw puzzles to do... Hope to see it when it's completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Congratulations on your find, Jim! Malcolm, I never cease to be amazed by your friendly and helpful neighborliness! Hope to see you again in August! Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryman Dave Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Super find Jim and it was nice meeting you at Penn Dixie last sunday Quarrycomber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgcox Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Malcolm, Thanks for the kind words and I had fun working the slate and chatting with you. The dry dredgers (Bob,Ron,Bill & Don) have convinced me to take the specimen to Dan Cooper for professional restoration. After it is completed I will post before and after pics. Again Thank you Malcolm and John for a great day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgcox Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Thanks Dave it was nice chatting with you Sunday you had some nice rollers. We stayed and collected Monday brought home almost 4 full 5 gallon buckets of slate all with trilobites in them. Will post pics when we sort, clean and catalog them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenchtrilobite Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Nice finds ! My new website : http://www.trilobite.fr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roz Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 What a great trip and fantastic find! Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Wow, fantastic. Thanks for posting those in situ/in process pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakoMeCrazy Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Well, if you couldn't make it out of the quarry in time, you guys could have hunted all night long. seems like quite a deal to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Congrats on the awesome finds! -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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