I've spent a good number of days taking advantage of the welcome and unseasonable warm and sunny days by getting out in the field, collecting with good comrades. I can't say we found much of anything worth posting, but the camaraderie and doing the real work of reconnaissance is all part of this passion. It was an incredible time involving a lot of very unique events, gorgeous late fall scenery, rough terrain, old farmers, exotic radishes, laughter, and mud. I am hoping to check on a few more spots while the weather lasts, but there will not be any exciting big trips for what remains of 2020. Any of my trips that run out the clock will be local, and mostly prospecting work. I did acquire some lovely new bugs. A lovely example of this species, this is a fairly above average in size Odontocephalus aegeria. This was found and prepared by a very renowned trilobite collector, and measures 90 mm. I've been more drawn to the synphorinae this year given the excitement of finding a potentially new species of this genus in a relatively local spot. The purpose of the cephalic denticles is not entirely known with certainty, but it is an intriguing piece of morphological ornament that many of the synphorinae share. The Illinois classic, Gravicalymene celebra (or some people call them Sthenocalymene). These always come out as steinkerns, and they are harder to come by these days. Although I already have a tiny pair of these, the inflation, size, and detail made this a very worthy addition to the displayable collection. The calymenid body plan doesn't change all that much, being fairly consistent through the Ordovician, Silurian, and early Devonian. The Silurian calymenids (of which this one belongs) seemed to reduced their size from some of the very large ones in the Ordovician (think here of Flexicalymene ouzregui, Colpocoryphe roualti, or Nesereutus tristani), but then reverted to large sizes again in their last hurrah in the early Devonian (Calymene platys). This is not to say that there weren't smaller Ordovician species on par with their Silurian descendants when we consider Flexicalymene senaria, Flexicalymene croneisi, Gravicalymene sp.). Most Gravis need a bit of a taxonomic clean-up. Usually one of the distinguishing characteristics of the different genera is the presence/absence and shape of the cephalic protrusion.
There are more bugs coming soon, but maybe I can hit paydirt at one of my local sites. As long as the weather holds, I may as well make the best of it! Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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