Not much to report per se, but I have been out collecting mostly at nearby locations. September has seen a slight uptick in collecting behaviour, with nothing too new and exciting to show that I haven't shown on this blog before (all local Devonian material). But I suspect there is a trip in the near future to look forward to, and then maybe a few local digs before downing tools for the winter. I can look forward to a few more lovely pieces coming my way, including some prep stuff (my own collected material plus some from other digger folks). For now, some pictures to break up the text bloc monotony: A serendipitous arrangement, got for cheap. It is nice that the asaphids and trinucleids can play well together after having been recently split up (trinucleids had previously been included under Order Asaphida). An uncommon sight. I was out with a friend of mine prospecting a relatively local mid-Devonian site. The material at this location was very ugly and not very productive, but sometimes surprises happen. This is a complete ventral of Pseudodechenella sp. which may be ridiculously common in terms of fragments, but exceptionally scarce complete. This one weighs in at under 2,5 cm. An update on this lovely slab prepared by my field comrade MT, initial and completed state. At least 15 individuals of Rielaspsis elegantula appear on this slab I collected earlier in the year. If ever there was a worthy museum piece to show off the very best of the fickle Silurian of Ontario, here it is. This would not have been possible without the phenomenal preparation skill of MT. Truly amazing work on a very special, crowded slab of lovely encrinurids. But a few more updates to this post since last I was here. I won a benefit auction and received two free trilobites, both from China: I also managed to get a day out in the field at another Dundee Fm location with a visiting fossil friend from Georgia. Not much was found beyond the usual material, but this was an odd find: Raw image above (including a pleural segment of Coronura), and closeup with greyscale below. I suspect this is possibly a younger Coronura aspectans pygidium, as it is not quite the right match for the Odontocephalus (n. sp., by the way -- any eager trilobite workers out there want to take this on? :D). Of course, there isn't always enough diagnostic detail to be drawn on a fragment alone, but do note the continuation of the pygidium where it becomes more effaced and less incised. Sadly, the fragment terminates at the natural edge of the rock, and the negative was not collected (because, well, with exceptionally dense Devonian Ontario rock of the pre-Hamilton Gp persuasion, they explode and shatter from the need for extreme blunt force using my Devonian Destroyer -- the trusty hand sledge). So, yet another oddity in the under-explored, damnable Devonian of Ontario. ------- I will leave off here with a much larger resolution image of this fantastic plate of Rielaspsis elegantula, perhaps among the very best found in Ontario. Zoom in and enjoy the view! Hash plate (Rielaspis elgantula), Thornloe Fm. Coll. K. Faucher. Prep. M. Thornley [2021] Certainly more to come. At the very least, I expect to have some new specimens coming out of the postal formation, if not also a bit of prep work, and a possible trip.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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