Never one to pass up punishment, I made the decision to expand my planned book on Devonian trilobites of southwestern Ontario to include all trilobites of Ontario. Many of us look fondly upon Ludvigsen's famous green trilo-bible published by the ROM in 1979, but much has happened since and it is my Sisyphean task to revise it with the current knowledge, to put another brick atop the masterful foundation and legacy Rolf Ludvigsen left us.
At present, much of the Devonian is complete and stands at 90(!) pages, including lithological descriptions and, of course, featuring the trilobites. I am chasing down photos from premium collectors in Ontario with full attribution. If you are an Ontario collector with complete specimens or even fragments of rare trilobites, do not hesitate to reach out. A work like this is a legacy project, and possibly a capstone to my days in the field. I cannot give a forecast as to its completion, but I will be working steadily on this over the winter. The book will NOT be erecting new species or any other such shenanigans. This will be a workmanlike field guide aggregating our knowledge of Ontario trilobites. It will be a big lift, but fortunately works by William Hessin and Philip Isotalo among others will help move the marker forward, as those are field guide bibles in their own right. It will take a village, so to speak. My plan is to make the book freely available to everyone. I seek no profit from these labours, and consider this my thank you to every intrepid collector and researcher in the field. As stated, if you have premium specimens from Ontario that should be featured, I am but an email away. Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
Archives
February 2024
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