Return to Boler
April 15-16, 2015
The ski season is definitely over at Boler Mountain, and all that remains are a few receding patches of snow and a lot of muck. I took my walk through the grounds on a very warm and lovely day, intent on checking on my favourite and most productive pit. Seeing as it has been largely exhausted by last year's almost daily visits, and a lot of talus that has obscured the sides, I started poking around the piles around the pit in search of something interesting for Deb. It was then that I came across a small pile of scree containing transition blue-grey shale with several glinting semi-articulated brachiopods, some of which had some fairly substantial calcite crystals in their cavities (about 2-4 mm). As these stones did not have many of the spirifers, nor much in the way of corals, I gave it a closer look and discovered that this was the same type of rock in which I found trilobites last year in the pit. Last year I searched in vain for more of that particular type of rock, having exhausted the two large ones I found, and so it was pretty lucky for me to find more examples.
I hadn't planned on any extensive fossil hunt, so was armed only with very rudimentary tools to split open some of the rocks (i.e., a hand-sized igneous stone!). It was only later that evening that I returned with Deb, prepared with a hammer and chisel. My initial scan of the stones confirmed that, apart from the chunky brachiopods, I discovered the presence of trilobites as evidenced by a few genal spines and the odd orphaned glabella. So, where there are fragments, there might be full specimens lurking in there.
The ski season is definitely over at Boler Mountain, and all that remains are a few receding patches of snow and a lot of muck. I took my walk through the grounds on a very warm and lovely day, intent on checking on my favourite and most productive pit. Seeing as it has been largely exhausted by last year's almost daily visits, and a lot of talus that has obscured the sides, I started poking around the piles around the pit in search of something interesting for Deb. It was then that I came across a small pile of scree containing transition blue-grey shale with several glinting semi-articulated brachiopods, some of which had some fairly substantial calcite crystals in their cavities (about 2-4 mm). As these stones did not have many of the spirifers, nor much in the way of corals, I gave it a closer look and discovered that this was the same type of rock in which I found trilobites last year in the pit. Last year I searched in vain for more of that particular type of rock, having exhausted the two large ones I found, and so it was pretty lucky for me to find more examples.
I hadn't planned on any extensive fossil hunt, so was armed only with very rudimentary tools to split open some of the rocks (i.e., a hand-sized igneous stone!). It was only later that evening that I returned with Deb, prepared with a hammer and chisel. My initial scan of the stones confirmed that, apart from the chunky brachiopods, I discovered the presence of trilobites as evidenced by a few genal spines and the odd orphaned glabella. So, where there are fragments, there might be full specimens lurking in there.
Pictured here was the first tip-off of something different in the area. Note the blue-grey colour of the stone, but also the bulky brachiopods. This is not the easiest rock to work with. Although it may appear to break apart in layers or beds, those beds do not always break where you want them to, which then leads to some breakage of specimens. Also, the density changes throughout the layer, which means some sections require a bit more force with the hammer and chisel (and thus a higher probability of specimen breakage). At times, the rock would break vertically.
Not pictured here would be a few small (2-4 inches) nautiloids. There were only very few crinoid stems, plenty of big brachs, and an assortment of mussels studding these stones.
Not pictured here would be a few small (2-4 inches) nautiloids. There were only very few crinoid stems, plenty of big brachs, and an assortment of mussels studding these stones.
Here is first solid proof of the presence of trilobites. Sadly, much of it is worn away. It's Eldredgeops.
There were some very pretty examples of brachiopod cavities with calcite crystals.
Without any doubt, another example of a trilobite. Clearly pictured would be part of the cephalon with the textured / dimpled and flaring glabella, and some of the thorax. This is evidently a Eldredgeops trilobite. You can tell by the inflated and textured glabella. Interesting tidbit: what we might take for a nose was, in the trilobite, a major part of its digestive system. I've read elsewhere that these critters were benthic and predatory, as the schizocroal eyes are better suited for hunting than just passive bottom-feeding.
Another trilobite fragment; this time, about half the pygidium showing.
A before and after picture of one of those calcite-bearing brachiopod cut-aways.
This is a fossilized mussel that popped right out of the rock. Other examples see them opened up like butterfly wings.
An assortment of trilobite fragments. It was nearly impossible to find a full specimen.
Saving the very best for last, this is the closest I got to finding a full specimen. Pictured here is the trilobite and on the right the cast.
UPDATE (April 24): I returned to the site to extract a few more specimens from the litter of shale I had given some cursory attention to. It was rather profitable. Below I have gathered a few pelycopods (bottom right), shiny brachiopods (upper left), and some faded cephalopods (bottom left).
And here another assortment of calcite encrusted brachiopods.
Trilobites are rather challenging to extract from this shale as they are fragile, and the shale tends to break at awkward angles. Not pictured are the several pieces of cephalon and pygidia that littered the shale. It is far more common to find fragments than whole specimens.
This was not the case for a new and exciting find. I decided to return to the pit behind the ski hill just for fun (and to warm up - that wind is chilly!). Much to my surprise, I found a roller! Pictured here is an enrolled Eldregeops rana still partially covered by matrix.
This was not the case for a new and exciting find. I decided to return to the pit behind the ski hill just for fun (and to warm up - that wind is chilly!). Much to my surprise, I found a roller! Pictured here is an enrolled Eldregeops rana still partially covered by matrix.
And from a different angle:
Here is a less impressive, smaller, and less complete roller pulled from the shale pile:
Two typical pygidia of E. rana:
Here are the usual suspects from the pit behind Boler: a spirifer and a piece of weathered out rugose coral. Pictured on the left is just a piece of stone that looked interesting.
This is just a scale picture showing my new roller (top) with the one I found in Arkona, and a dime.
While I had the camera out, I figured I'd snap a few pictures of older finds. The first is a Triarthrus eatoni I found in Ottawa more than a decade ago, and the second is just a closeup of a hash plate I found in Arkona - incidentally an area I am planning to visit on the weekend after I do some volunteer work at a tree farm / sustainable planting area near Ailsa Craig.