What an adventure it has been. Me and a great field comrade made our way to Quebec City to collect the Neuville Formation. Mostly living out of a car, camping out, and tons of rock saw action, we covered about 2,000 km while bringing back some winning finds. The weather was a bit unsettled, with some serious storm systems passing through, but no day was a complete washout. I came back with a lot of fossils, and a lot of preparation to do. The Neuville Formation is age-equivalent to the Cobourg/Lindsay Formation of Ontario, but the faunal composition is different. With enough time and dedication, one can be rewarded with fantastic trilobites, crinoids, and other Ordovician goodies. On to the finds, or at least a few of them... A collection of Ceraurus pleurexanthemus. It is hard to say if they are all complete, and that generally can only be determined when brought into the lab. Some of them I know are missing parts, but I suspect I'll have 2-4 nice ones in the mix. These are the odds and ends. Click/tap through the slideshow. So what of the trip-makers? Coming right up... Flexicalymene senaria may be common trilobites, but not often do they come out this size. This pair hover around 5 cm (2 inches) with the one on the left just under, and the one of the right a bit over (if considering what it will look like prepared). These are giants for this formation. I found the left one, and my comrade found the right one a few hours later. I will enjoy preparing these! It's a bit tough to make out in these photos, but this is a giant Isotelus gigas semi-enrolled and encased in the rock. I wager it may be about 7 inches long around the curvature. Sadly, it is missing a bit of the right side, but to find such a massive example that isn't just a pygidium or a thoracic segment in the Neuville is a real treat. The preparation is going to be a challenge. I will do what I can, but may need to hand it off to someone else. I picked up these two classics for a great price. Having the PDFs is not the same as being able to leaf through these volumes. New to the trilobite family is this Oklahoma (Arbuckle Mountains) Lonchodomas mcgheheei. All spines in place. And even the postal formation came through. Pictured here from left to right are Ptychopyge lesnikovae, Asaphus lamanskii, and Asaphus expansus deltifrons. The first one is a rare one. My Russian asaphid collection is growing.
So that wraps up the week in fossils. What an incredible trip. It may be a few weeks until I can get out again, which I'm fine with since I could use some recuperation time and to manage the preparation backlog. But I'll be sure to update the old blog once I have a few pieces prepared, if not also to show any other postal acquisitions as they arrive. Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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