I've only been out a handful of times this month. I could blame some teaching duties stealing me away from the field, but it has been mostly an issue of time and opportunity not quite matching up; I might have one and not the other. With much of my local areas tapped out, any gainful sites are at least 3+ hour drives away. So, in terms of this fossil season, I would say things have hit a bit of an ebb, and I'm hopeful that some trips in the future will turn the season around. I have been able to get some minor prep in, as well as make some acquisitions. There are four exciting packages coming my way in the next month or so. I tidied up this Eldredgeops crassituberculata. Finally. This small and thin-skinned Dysplanus acutigenia could use a bit more work, but I am happy with it for now. It popped right out of the host rock, but can be parked in the spot. This one is so thin-skinned that the apodemes can be seen. This one looked to be a roller, and uncertain if the right cheek would be present... ...And it popped right out of the rock. Both eyes and cheeks for this semi-enrolled encrinurid. This one turned out ok, although missing its cheeks. Cleanup in the Wheeeler shale aisle. This was another years-long neglected specimen of the ridiculously common Elrathia kingii. This prep took me an eternity, as in ten minutes. If only all trilobites prepared this quickly! And finally this small pliomerid from Nevada. Although initially assigned as Pseudocybele nasuta, that has since been restricted to the type locality (which I believe is in Iowa if I recall correctly), and all the others need to be revised.
The two papers relevant here would be: McAdams, N.E.B., Adrain, J.M. 2009 New Pliomerid Trilobite Genus Lemureops from the Lower Ordovician (Ibexian; Tulean, Blackhillsian) of Western Utah, USA. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, 37:491-540 McAdams, N.E.B., Adrain, J.M. 2010 A New Species of the Lower Ordovician Pliomerid Trilobite Pseudocybele and its Biostratigraphic Significance. Zootaxa, 2550:21-38 So that about wraps up the month of May around here. The only other trilobitic work I've been doing as of late is very gradually refurbishing the online gallery. About 77 of 172 species appear in the gallery (the blue rectangle button to the upper right), and it is a slow process -- made ever more so by having to hunt down the photos in a looooong photo roll. This was a project I've been promising to get on with since March of 2020, and given the influx of finer specimens in the last year, I should do them a bit of justice. For now, I really need to get back out there and feel the swing of the hammer against the rocks. Since it is looking ever more likely that I'll be teaching in-person this fall, every day until then counts. Tick-tock, got to break some rock before the spring and summer takes all the time and opportunity away. |
Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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