There's been snow on the ground fairly consistently since the beginning of the month, but I did manage an encore visit to my local spot on November 4, and may have another opportunity for the same this week when the temperature "soars" to about 6 Celsius. When we've seen a few days of arctic blasts that make it feel more like January, you take what you can get! I've been scratching the fossil itch in a number of ways. I'm reading a few fascinating dissertations and journal articles on isotopic analysis of the Hungry Hollow Member, another on the deposition conditions of the Kettle Point Formation shale, and one on measuring coral ridges as paleoenvironmental indicators of the Widder Formation. And at least one classic by Brett and Landing on the Givetian disconformity in Southwestern Ontario. Some ask why I don't just go and earn an earth sciences degree as (as one postdoc told me) I seem to be far more capable and knowledgeable than most recent BSc grads. Flattering, yes, but I suppose I haven't been presented with that option being a true crime of opportunity. Besides, the one advantage I have in being a well-versed amateur is that I don't have to split my time between the field and the lab (+teaching and grant-chasing); it can be all field fun for me! Besides, if I wanted to pursue a degree in everything I am interested in, I'd need a few lifetimes. The happy medium is to read voraciously and talk shop with the professionals. This past weekend I went to the annual London Rock/Mineral show. It was great to talk shop with diggers, knowledgeable vendors, and some geo-scholars. It was more a social visit of several hours, as there are not that many fossils at shows like these -- mostly minerals and jewellery. Most of the fossils on offer were the usual common stuff, like polished Madagascar ammonites, Utah trilobites (i.e., endless Elrathia kingii), etc. But I did buy something from a French vendor who was a geology teacher in Morocco and knows all the big paleo names that have done research there. Fairly common Moroccan bugs that I got as a package deal. Not the best prep, either, but passable (and not butchered). The vendor was up front about some areas that have light restoration, although I could pretty much tell upon having the specimens in hand. To my collecting shame, I didn't yet have a complete Reedops cephalotes, which is fairly common. My first one is missing half of its back end, so it was nice to have one complete and prone. It is about 80 mm. The one at the top of the picture is the classic Paralejurus rehamnanus and measures about 70 mm.
The other fossil-y thing I did this weekend was get back to some drawing that had been put on hold due to teaching/grading duties (and so is again back on hold as I navigate what remains of the semester!). Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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