As the fourth of the bugs is set to arrive over a month from now, this will have been my final prep of the winter season as I transition to the collecting phase this coming week. This still needs a lot of love, but my Pferd scribe stylus shattered. With a shipping date of six weeks for a replacement, I'll put this aside for now. It was initially sold as a Hollardops, but I could tell it wasn't on account of the long, pointy pygidial lappets. I reasoned it might be a Metacanthina initially. Like I said, still needs a bit more love, but I'll put it aside for now as a work in progress because I freely admit that it looks like trash in its current state. I've already done some very light resto in the cracks that were missing pieces of shell. As my friend SM pointed out, it is not a Metacanthina. I could tell that the genal spines were too big and broad relative to the rest of the body, and the pygidial lappets in their more splayed attitude strongly suggest this is a better fit with Mrakibina cattoi. At 5 cm on the nose (2") it is a pretty good size for the species. It is actually a bit more relieving that it turned out to be this taxon rather than Metacanthina, as that genus among the Moroccan asteropygids is a hot mess with way too many undescribed species.
Likely starting Tuesday, I'll be out in the field. My early season focus will be on Devonian deposits at a number of undisclosed locations, including a prospect here and there. It is time to put down the prep tools and replenish my stock while doing my usual chasing after trilobite taxa that have been underreported, or not reported at all. I continue to do my scientific duty by collecting all examples, which sit in numerous flats, in the off-chance that someone may decide to work on revising some of our Devonian bugs. If any formal descriptions are in the offing, no one will bother erecting a new taxon without having numerous examples to draw on, so it behooves me to do my part -- not that anyone is working on Ontario's Devonian trilobites at the moment since it isn't quite sexy enough to secure research funding. So goes the vicissitudes of research! My next update may show a few finds, but obviously location information will be withheld. Some of the finds may have to wait until the end of the season. Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
Archives
February 2024
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