It is still rather remarkable that I'm able to get out for fossil adventures this late in the year, although there is no doubt that winter will have its final say in the days to come, possibly as soon as New Year's Eve. On December 27, myself and two other collecting comrades made our way to another part of the Devonian of Ontario for an all-day dig event at an undisclosed location. The focus may have been on crinoids, but other stuff came out, too. Preservation can be a bit iffy on this material, but here is a crinoid terminating at the top with a calyx and its attendant spinplatycerid. It will look a lot nicer once I get it in the prep lab. A collection of calyxes, still dusty from the field. The one near the bottom still has some of its arms showing. These should all prep out nicely. A calyx parked between an interesting plant fragment above, and crinoid arms below. Closeup of the underside of a calyx showing the stem/cup attachment. A real oddball we found. This is plant material, but note the fascinating barbs. Trilobites, too, although they tend to show up rather small in this layer (larger ones are quite flaky and do not preserve well). A trio of Eldredgeops rana rollers on the left, and a mini roller on the right (a few millimetres wide!). In all, a good outing and everyone came away with something. But today (December 28), it is back to my spot for another go at the Amherstburg material in search of more lichids and the dim hope of a complete proetid before the snows be a-blowin'. I'll update this post later with whatever I may find if I don't strike out. UPDATEManaged to spend two more days at my site. No major fireworks to close out the collecting season, which I officially put to bed on December 30th, 2019. I'm mostly left with second- and third-best rocks at this point that tend to be harder and more often blank or small bits. Still somewhat productive, though. An Echinolichas in pretty poor shape. I found another similar one the day before that was in even worse condition. That being said, it pays to split the harder/blanker intervals as this lichid likes to appear alone. Bit of a blurry shot since I was too lazy to bring out the Olympus, but it is likely another tiny Mystrocephala stummi. I picked these up because they were interesting. The first is a completely chert-ified rugose coral slice, and the second is a monster Strophodonta brachiopod.
It is always sad to bid farewell to a collecting season, but there are a few things I won't miss... The brutally tough stone, the bullet-like shards that strike my shins and face, the tedious process of having to unlock rock that stubbornly holds on even if it wiggles, the endless parade of corals and rostroconchs. And I've already dipped into post-season activities in spending a few hours in the prep lab and getting back to drawing and research. This blog will not be left in winter silence! Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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