It's been a bit of a fossil famine as of late. The heat has been pretty fiercely oppressive, but it has been more the issue of not having much collecting opportunities on account of sites that are tapped out, temporarily or permanently inaccessible, and the need to prepare for the upcoming school year by pre-recording a monstrous amount of lecture content. But it is also a dry spell I hope to break in the coming days and weeks. For now, a few minor trilobitic items just to keep the blog warm. A fairly sad ensemble, but these were pretty much all that was to be found at my Devonian salad location. Upper left is likely a ventral cephalic fragment of an Anchiopsis anchiops, and the lower left is a busted butt of a Burtonops cristata. I may have effectively drained the site of its riches. These samples above were not worth taking home. A snapshot of a section of my Amherstburg/Lucas Formations fill area near my home. This would be the area I would concentrate on, with understandably low expectations given how hard and often I've hit this place since I bumped into it last August. The productive rocks are scarce at this point. Above we see the typical proetids of the Amherstburg: Pseudechnella sp. and Crassiproetus crassimarginatus. This is culled from two of the productive rocks. Nothing I don't already have numerous examples of. Top row is Crassiproetus crassimarginatus, second row is an unknown, a Trypaulites sp., and a Mystrocephala stummi. Third row is a big Crassi, another Mystro, and some disarticulated Crassi thoracic segments. Bottom row is Mystrocephala stummi, Pseudechenella sp. Acanthopyge contusa. At least I found a lichid bit. This was a purchase from a forum friend. An effectively complete, albeit somewhat roughed up, Odontocephalus aegeria from the Needmore shale of Pennsylvania. Given my excitement over the genus after locating fragmentary specimens here in Ontario, I was hankering for a complete one to function as a kind of lucky charm for when my Moorehouse Member site becomes accessible again, once the water levels drop.
I have two more trilobites coming from the Purchase Formation, so to speak, but right now the operative focus is on getting back out there, and prospecting new sites. Fingers crossed that this blog doesn't go into another prolonged radio silence! Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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