INVITE - Annual pilgrimage through NY

[Fossildude19]

@Fossil-Hound

 

Here is Kane's masterpiece: 

 

[DevonianDigger]

I have not yet had a chance to unload the car, so I have not been able to photograph any of my finds. Plus, I gave a fair number of them away to @Peat Burns on Saturday and then to @JamesAndTheFossilPeach on Sunday in exchange for other awesome gifts. Photos will be coming soon.

[Jeffrey P]

I echo the sediments of others regarding the discomforting conditions, more than made up by the wonderful company. Great seeing everybody, including a number of new faces. Thanks Al for those eurypterid pieces. And thanks to everyone who took from my free box of fossils. I've been to DSR over a dozen times and already have a huge collection from there so I don't pick up too many new specimens. These I've added to the pile: Ptomatis patulus- a Bellerophontoid  gastropod- rare for DSR and the first one I've ever found at this locality. A Rhinocaris columina- a Phyllocarid. I already have a number of these but can't resist picking up more.  And a Loxonematoid gastropod; Palaeozygopleura hamiltoniae- partially wrapped in Leptotrypella amplectens, an encrusting bryozoan.

[Fossildude19]

Just a few finds of mine from this weekend: 

 

Phyllocarrid telson:

 

 

 

Medium sized goniatite :

 

[Jeffrey P]

And this gift from Tim (Fossildude19), a very tiny Paleotaxodont Bivalve, Phestia brevirostra, a brand new addition to my collection of DSR bivalves. Thanks again Tim. 

[Al Tahan]

I was lucky to walk away with 3 awesome trilobites (awesome to me) on the day.  2 from Briggs rd and 1 from DSR. 

 

The first one I found was this monstrous Eldredgeops at Briggs rd around 8am that morning. It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen. Almost 1.5in (4cm) wide and would have been a 3in (8cm) ifnit was complete. 

 

the counterpart has the pygidium. 

 

The eyes on this beast are simply jaw dropping. This is a new record for me as being the largest partial Eldredgeops I’ve ever found. My 2nd Briggs rd trilobite is also a record for me! Next entry!

[Al Tahan]

I found a complete Eldredgeops not too long after the giant partial but it had some serious issues as Briggs rd matrix never likes to play nice. 

The trilobite split poorly and a good deal was still attached to the counterpart. I did see it was somewhat loose cause the water was moving underneath when I tapped the rock. 

 

I was really careful but I was able to free the body and right eye (still in place but now loose in photo) and glue it back together carefully to make a nice recovery! A new personal best for me as this Eldredgeops is just a touch over 2 inches!! Bigger that my largest Buffalo trilobite by a half inch! 

[Al Tahan]

Had issues uploading photos so I’ll add the final product here.

 

Super happy I didn’t mess it up. The cephalon is slightly disarticulated. I was afraid to break down the rock and I will only do so with a saw to create a nice slab for it. 

 

heres a comparison of the 2 trilobites I found at Briggs rd. Crazy how big the left one is! 

 

Ill show my trilobite from DSR after work. Lunch break is over! Figured I’d get some pictures flowing for people to see . 

[Al Tahan]

Also quick shouout to @Darktooth for his gifts and @Jeffrey P for letting me take some freebies with me . 

 

thanks for these Dave!! I’ll be bugging you for IDs on these later haha. 

 

Thanks for the freebies Jeff I couldn’t resist. I now have a piece of plants from st Clair!! First for me  

[Fossildude19]

My gifts from @Al Tahan:

Thank you, once again, Al! You're the man!  

    

 

 

Gift from @Peat Burns: 

(Along with an awesome t-shirt just like Dave's!)

Thanks, Tony!  

 

 

 

Some Rhinocaris columbina  found and gifted to me by Kane: 

 

   

 

Thank you again, sir!

[Kane]

My turn for show & tell / story time...

 

I didn't take any decent site photos this time around, but it was either too awful in terms of the weather or I was too engrossed in the dig. I posted Day 1's Penn Dixie finds earlier in this thread. It was a brutal three hours with horizontal rain, but the more premium trilobites were found that day (Bellacartwrightia sp., Greenops barberi, Dipleura dekayi). @DevonianDigger and I were working the spot started by the big excavator, and then @Malcolmt. 

 

Day 2 was the meet-up at DSR. Deb sat that one out due to the weather, and went US shopping instead until things improved, and she was at PD for a few hours in the afternoon with @JamesAndTheFossilPeach. 

 

As I already pretty much ticked off most of the brachs and bivalves from that site last year, my focus was on Dipleura hunting. Jay and I took out a good number of slabs, but we mostly came up with stormbed deposits, blanks, and bivalves. Anything that wasn't a trilobite I generally gifted to someone else. Suffice it to say, apart from Dipleura partials, I pretty much whiffed. Not sure how those two non-trilos ended up in my bucket, but likely I had planned to gift them. 

 

So, two Dipleura heads, the bottom one is enrolled and has some of the thorax intact. An Eldredgeops cephalon, a hearbreaker Greenops (the shear-off was at a fault line in the rock), and a fairly large sized Greenos pygidium partial. 

[Kane]

My thanks to Tony ( @Peat Burns ) for my very first dinosaur in the Devonian.  This is potentially a triceratops jaw from Hell Creek. This one will need some stabilizing and prep. 

[Kane]

Both Deb and I received some Elrathia kingii from @JamesAndTheFossilPeach who recently came back from Utah (thanks, James!). I also pocketed these two belemnites and a nice high-spired gastropod (I'm suspecting it is Miocene) from @Jeffrey P's box of glorious loot. 

[Kane]

Although I may have been skunked on finding a full Dipleura, @Fossildude19 gifted me this exquisite rarity: a Dipleura hypostome! Next to it is Piochaspis sellata from the Pioche shale that may have more of itself tucked in the matrix. These are amazing, so my big thanks, Tim!

[Kane]

Day 3

Because it is a bit of a process to get over the border and down to NYS, we usually stay a number of consecutive days... and I prefer multi-day trips (and Deb is now hooked on the local Irish pub's pot pie ). So it was back to Penn Dixie. I was ready to go at 6 am, but the missus wanted to have her morning tea, so she dropped me off at the site at 7 am to join me a few hours later. I stayed on with cameo appearances by @DevonianDigger and @JamesAndTheFossilPeach most of the afternoon. Deb was getting a bit pooped breaking rocks and left me when the site closed, but picked me up a few hours later at 7 pm. 

 

As the day wore on, and I slabbed out the rest of the bench, the pickings got slimmer and slimmer until it was mostly just partials and corals and brachs. That spot is now entirely tapped out. A few more Bellacartwrightia partials were found, but not worth keeping. Some potential Eldredgeops prones in the mix, a good number of rollers -- fairly standard PD material. These are farm fresh (to employ Tony's phrase  ), and are in the prep queue. All are complete. Stuff that was maybe / maybe not complete was left in the field.

 

 

[Malcolmt]

Looks like you had a good time regardless of the weather..... wish I could have joined but the stars once again did not align.....

[Kane]

I might sound jaded or spoiled, but the novelty of finding Eldredgeops rana at PD wears off after the first ten trips and the first thousand trilobites.  When that happens, I keep my eyes peeled for interesting preps. Pictured here are two I think will be kind of neat. 

 

After 12 hours of sledge-hammering on Day 3 (6 hours on Day 2, 3 on Day 1), my body is a bit of wreck, with that lovely waking up periodically with numb, tingly hand. In all, it was a good trip. I didn't find everything I hoped to, but did come away with some interesting pieces, fabulous gifts, and fond Forum member memories. When it seems more sites seem to be shuttering, picked over, or sacrificed to urban sprawl, it is great to still have a few spots to call our own.  

[Peat Burns]

I want to do a more formal report with pics of finds after some trimming and prep, which is going to take some time.  So rather than wait for that, I just wanted to chime-in with some thank-yous.  Thank you to @Darktooth for your efforts in organizing the event and for the clam you found. 

 

Thank you to @DevonianDigger for the boxes of goodies and the DSR clams you found that day.  Totally unnecessary (the Dicranurus was a *gift!*), but much appreciated! I haven't opened anything yet, but I'm sure I'll love it all.

 

Thank you to @Fossildude19 for the box of goodies.  I haven't opened it yet, but looking forward to it.  It looks like the Diplomystis took some damage. Sorry about that.  I just grabbed some things laying around in the hours before I left.  I can get you a better specimen (although maybe not as big).  That one came out of *really* soft and weathered material, so getting them undamaged from the field was a challenge.  Also thank you for the DSR find you gave me.

 

Thank you @Kane for the generous quantity of fossils in several containers and for the DSR by-catch.  I haven't opened anything yet, but it looks awesome from what I can see exposed.  Let me know if you want those containers back.  That partial cf. jaw could be any number of dinosaurs.  As you can see, it will need some prep to find out. Based on probability, it is most likely Edmontosaurus or Triceratops. I hope it has some value to you as a small token of my appreciation for your donations, even if only to sell or trade for trilobites.

 

Thank you @Jeffrey P for your conversation, knowledge-sharing, DSR finds, and the beautiful gastropod steinkern from the Glenerie Fm.  Let me know when you make your trip to the Ordovician of the Cincinnati Arch of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, and I'll share some spots.

 

Thank you @Al Tahan, @RandyBand to the other participants who gave me some of their clam and other finds from DSR.

 

I hope I didn't forget anybody.

 

It was really nice meeting everyone and being able to put faces to screen names.  Thank goodness it snowed rather than rained.  It was actually a very enjoyable hunt.  I slept well at the hotel Saturday night, went to mass at a magnificent church in Cortland Sunday morning, and had a beautiful 9-hr drive home under mostly sunny skies Sunday.  I unloaded about 200 lbs of fossils and managed to mow part of the lawn before calling it a weekend.

 

Here is a pic of all my finds (not including the gifts from Tim, Kane, and Jay)

 

 

[Peat Burns]

[Darktooth]

Since I have been Thanked by a couple members for organizing the hunt I would like to point out something. While I may have organized the Early Bird Roundup at Briggs, it was @DevonianDigger who deserves the credit for getting the party started this year. Without him posting this thread, to get the ball rolling, the annual group hunt may have been another month from now. ( Because, Yes it would have happened eventually )  So Thank-you Jay, for organizing this event. Sorry I missed you, Kane, Jeffrey, Tim, Diane and Carl.

[Peat Burns]

Pics from Saturday

 

[Kane]

8 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

Without him posting this thread, to get the ball rolling, the annual group hunt may have been another month from now. ( Because, Yes it would have happened eventually )  So Thank-you Jay, for organizing this event. Sorry I missed you, Kane, Jeffrey, Tim, Diane and Carl.

So what you're saying is that if you had organized it, we wouldn't have been collecting in the snow? 

 

(You still can take credit for being the trip leader to Briggs -- Wish we had stopped over there).

[Peat Burns]

[Darktooth]

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

So what you're saying is that if you had organized it, we wouldn't have been collecting in the snow? 

Well actually @Jeffrey P is the one who usually organizes the the DSR group hunt. But yes, if HE, organized it, the weather would have been much better!

[Peat Burns]