To all my fossil comrades, near and far, a happy new year. My last post of 2022 ends with this year's most recent doodle.
There hardly needs to be any stronger indication the fossil collecting season is over than an arctic blast of heavy snow and plunging temperatures. It is solidly winter in this part of the world, and even a forecasted thaw late next week won't be long enough to pull back the blanket of the white stuff. So, it is time for the retrospective part of this blog's programming, which will be a bit different this year. Compared to the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the "post-pandemic" year of 2022 has been, by turns, underwhelming and utterly disappointing. There were a few highlights, but the general trend -- like the stock markets of this year -- has been bearish and down. Like most seasons, it began strong with a lot of hope. I actually went out to bust a few rocks as early as January 1st, which was snow-free (didn't find much at all), but then my next opportunity arrived on March 5th as my season's first "official strike." I was restricted to spots in my city until April 22nd, when I was able to visit a fossil comrade in "La Belle Province" for a week. After that, it was back to my local haunts, checking on a few so-so prospects or failed ones. By the end of May, I spent a weekend collecting in Hastings County for some okay finds, and after that it was a few local spots before the summer lull, and nothing much at all until October up north in the Silurian for a few days where I spent more effort and got less of a reward as a result. In terms of trilobites, I bumped into 29 taxa this year, of which 5 were new to my collection: Triarthrus beckii, Gabriceraurus plattinensis, Erratencrinus vigilans, Cyphoproetus wilsonae and Stelckaspis perplexa. So, a drop from 2021's record of 32 taxa and 9 new to the collection, and a further decline from 2020's tally o0f 40 and 12, respectively. Part 1: Collecting As stated, I didn't get out to many good spots this year, and only a few new ones compared to previous years. Triarthrus beckii and a Gabriceraurus The new additions, minus the Erratencrinus, which is just a few fragments. I did encounter more Terataspis parts this year, so I am getting a bit closer to being able to do a reconstruction on paper. Part 2: The Wallet Hammer I made a number of purchases this year, but not as much as previous years. Some of them were for me to prep, which I'll save for the third section. A plump Gabriceraurus, and a large Ceraurinus, both from Ontario Thaleops/Nanillaenus, and a plate of Ceraurus globulobatis with two starfish. A British trinucleid and a Chinese illaenid A lovely lichid from Jorf, Akantharges mellishae, and a nice Russian asaphid. Another Baoshan bug, the harpetid Dubhglasina yunnanensis, followed on the right by a mostly free-standing Crotalocephalina gibbus, with this being a more popular trend in recent years.. There were a few other specimens I'd have to fish out of the photo roll, but this was most of the goodies. Nothing that broke the bank this year. Part 3: Preparation I did some prep this year, taking on a few "lost causes" among what were written off by the pros as "un-preppable." In a rather lean year for finds, I doubled down on these for lack of much more promising projects in the prep queue. Some highlights. An easy Asaphus lepidurus A robust Asaphus punctatus. Out of the batch of Waldron shale calymenids I acquired, only one turned out to be complete. That Hastings County Gabri. The brutal project from hell. A Quebec Isotelus gigas of about 11 inches, with plenty of resto. I'd have to find the before images for these. A plate of Walcott Ceraurus, and a conga line of Quebec Flexicalymene senaria. A significant piece, also deemed to be on the lost cause pile: near complete Ekwanoscutellum ekwanensis, Thornloe Fm, Silurian of Ontario. In my own backyard -- a super local Eldredgeops rana, complete and enrolled (and encased in Moroccan-hard rock). There are likely a few other preps I missed, but I would say these are the highlights. Part 4: The Doodles I did a few illustrations this year, with my last one just yesterday that I will post here. Not as many as prior years, but it seems I only pick up the pencils around the early winter time. I have another few drafted, and hope to do a reconstruction project at some point.
So, that's the old ball game. I am not confident about 2023 being a great season, but I suppose it will be a matter of time and opportunity. There is no doubt that the auction houses can be awash in outright fakes or the bending/breaking the truth over how much of a trilobite is restored or composited. It is always pays to be extra cautious and perform due diligence when buying online. That said, what of intentionally buying the unreal? In this case, I decided to buy two replicas -- both of which were advertised as such, so no hanky-panky. The likelihood of me owning the genuine article of these two in the foreseeable future without breaking the bank is fairly small, so a replica will fill the hole for the time being. This is a replica of the classic Arctinurus boltoni found in 1978. It is fairly well done, and faithful to the original in several ways. Even the tiny pustules are reproduced fairly well. What trilobite collector doesn't want a giant Drotops megalomanicus? Yes, I have an example of a real one, but a nice large prone is still on my bucket list. This one is fairly well done as well. Those lovely, large Drotops are a bit tougher to come by these days, and a lot of them I see for sale are fairly B- or C-grade examples, or otherwise circulating from old collections. On this replica, even the eye lenses are done very well.
In all, pretty good quality replicas. That said, the ability to produce such convincing replicas should give us pause to consider that it may be getting easier to produce actual fakes for the marketplace that pass the purely visual tests buyers may use to purchase specimens online. Caveat emptor is never out of season, and the more coveted (and expensive) the taxon, the more scrutiny buyers should exercise before plunking down a lot of money. I have been prepping a bit as of late, mostly focusing on the long abandoned pieces. At present, I have nothing complete to show and tell. One current prep is going to take an eternity, so it may be a while until that one is ready for public viewing. Let's just say that scribing through hard crystalline chert is about as easy as trying to roll a dump truck up a hill with a twig. Continuing with that lovely labour will have to wait a bit until I can get on top of the mountain of essay grading. |
Kane Faucher
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