The Last Few Months -- A Tale of (Mostly) Parts in Six Parts

[Kane]

Been a while since I posted any field adventures, and I've certainly been on a few. Not everything can be posted, so this will be a selection of trips spanning April until this past weekend. Overall, a lot of strikeouts and just piddling parts punctuated by some lovely complete fossils, but even some of the fragments were new to the collection. This report will cover six main areas for collecting: four in Ontario and two in Quebec.

 

Mid-April saw me out east facilitating a two day workshop, and after I decided to spend two days in Ottawa with only one of those for any digging. I picked the absolute wrong day. It was pouring rain, cold, and windy. Even my fingers were going numb in my gloves. The area that used to be somewhat productive for me in the past was being as fickle as the weather. The only two consolation prizes were this headless Triarthrus rougensis and a scrappy sponge (Stephanella sancta). 

 

[Kane]

Trip involved a ride-along with a fossil friend who works as a property assessor. As he had work out near the Windsor area, we thought it would be fun to roll in some poking around to see if we could find the type location for the Amherstberg Fm (Devonian). Sadly, there was not much of anything to be had. At an abandoned location, we did encounter a very interesting depositional environment. It may have been a very near-shore one, and devoid of any evaporites. That said, some of the rock felt and crumbled like gypsum plaster, and only a few had some very trace element of corals. What was more common was a pebble conglomerate. 

[Kane]

Third location was very local: a glacial erratic rock dump that contained a higher amount of Bois Blanc Fm (Devonian) than usual, and unlike any of the known exposures (I only find this lithofacies in the rock dump erratics). Sadly, not much to be had save for a scrappy Terataspis grandis fragment, and a very abraded Anchiopsis anchiops cephalon of no mean size. 

[Kane]

Not really finding much more, we checked out a gravel pit, but it was only pea gravel. Still, we did encounter tadpoles. 

[Kane]

In mid-May I took the train just slightly east to inspect an outcrop of Amerherstberg Fm that sat under the much less fossiliferous Lucas Fm. It did not compare favourably to the right facies or stratigraphic column position as another of my outcrops. Still, there were rostroconchs, giant corals, and huge stromatoporoids. 

[Kane]

My time in the Devonian was done, and it was on to ride the rails to Quebec's lovely Ordovician. Meeting my good friend there, we focused first on a variety of locations of the Neuville Fm (roughly equivalent to the Cobourg Fm of Ontario). A good number of specimens were found. By volume, the most common trilobites tend to be Flexicalymene senaria and Ceraurus pleurexanthemus. The former can attain to quite impressive sizes. A few of them here (including a headless one; a triple plate with a dorsal, ventral, and enrolled with who knows what else may lurk after prep; and a "broken back" one listing into the bedding plane). 

[Kane]

Ceraurus-a-plenty, with most of them ventral, a few of them fairly good. The more they are buried, the better they will turn out. The most buried one in this lot with the two eyes showing will likely be the winner. 

[Kane]

Let it not be said that the Neuville is not also known for its crinoids. Ectenocrinus will be the most common, followed by Dendrocrinus and then followed by Cincinnaticrinus. I did not find any of the latter, but we were joined by a new collector who we were showing the ropes, and him and his wife and son did. Everyone came away with big Flexis. Just a few of the crinoids I kept, as the others I handed off. Ah, and that Flexi roller wanted to photobomb this post. 

[Kane]

And then it was off 3-4 hours north to Lac St Jean. This is an interesting, but frustrating! area. Apart from Triarthrus found in the Pointe Bleue Fm shales, the underlying limestones of the Galets, Shipshaw, and Simard formations are sparse and fragmentary. Perhaps maybe only ten or so complete specimens have ever been found there since Desbiens and Lesperance did so much work there in the late 1980s. The trilobite faunal list (from Desbiens' thesis) is impressive though: 

 

 

[Kane]

Suffice it to say, there was nothing complete found. Although we did get permission to visit the quarries, the areas were either barren or not worked in decades. Still, we parked our noses on each rock, flipping, scanning carefully. These are high energy depositional environments mostly dominated by brachiopods and gastropods, rubbly layers or ichnofossils. What is interesting about the area is that it is an outlier much like Timiskaming, surrounded by precambrian shield. In some of the quarries you can see the abrupt transition from anorthosite to Ordovician limestone. There is an argument to be made that the fossils found here are representative of the more "Arctic fauna" that extends northwest to northern Manitoba. 

 

The most common trilobite fragments we encountered were Isotelus sp. cf. gigas, followed by Thaleops (pictured here as parts). I'm also tossing in a few Flexicalymene sp. cf. senaria and Calyptaulax heads.

[Kane]

Ceraurus and Ceraurinus parts can also be found. The busy hash plate has part of the cephalon amidst other usual sea clutter (there is a hypostome in the mix if one looks closely, and a baby gastropod). The first image also contains a Erratencrinurus pygidium. 

[Kane]

Yes, that is how closely one must look even for parts, which in themselves were not common! Among the rarer trilobites to be found in fragmentary form, the glabellar swellings of the diminutive lichid Hemiarges, and the tiny (yet nearly body-length long) hypostome of Hypodicranotus.

[Kane]

Non-trilobitic fossils being the norm, I still have yet to fish out the giant Fisherites photo I took (sitting on an enormous slab), but did pick up a biscuit sized one, and two gastropods for souvenirs. 

[Kane]

Lac St Jean is quite pretty. We managed to find ourselves camping by the side of the lake itself. Nature abounds, but it can be quick. I could not get my camera out fast enough to capture the porcupine crossing the road, nor the little baby brown bat taking shelter under a rock.

[Ludwigia]

Looks like you've been spending a lot of time with your nose to the ground these past weeks, but I bet you nevertheless had a good time. And also a few good finds to boot.

[Kane]

Our default consolation locations were indexed on Pointe Bleue Fm shales to find Triarthrus. Sadly, one of the areas where they are known has been posted... four times, conspicuously around the section where they occur. Very subtle!  So we defaulted to a lake walk, but those areas are now covered in riprap. So we find an entranceway to a construction site that was dumping local gravel and split some erratics. We found very little. This was the only complete T. eatoni, and it is kind of sad looking. 

 

 

[Kane]

In my haste, I did forget my trip maker, and that was back in the Neuville. A very large Meadowtownella n. sp. with one cheek. Usually they do not have their cheeks, or they are flipped. 

[Kane]

And then in overtime, it was back to my friend's place. I had given him some trilobites to prep as my equipment has been a bit dodgy lately, and he performed his usual magic. I also bought a big Illaenus plautini from him that I will finish up with an hour of abrasion. The prepped Ectenaspis is paper thin and the anterior cephalic projection is almost translucent when held up against the light. 

 

And now I am home, resting my weary bones!  

 

[Darktooth]

Great report and pics Kane! I have to admit that I am extremely jealous of those trilobites! Glad you were able to get out for some successful hunting.

[Fossildude19]

Cool report, and great finds, K-man.

 

Thanks for letting us see these wonderful finds!

[trilobites_are_awesome]

 

3 hours ago, Kane said:

Ceraurus-a-plenty, with most of them ventral, a few of them fairly good. The more they are buried, the better they will turn out. The most buried one in this lot with the two eyes showing will likely be the winner. 

Wow those are amazing!

I've always wanted a Ceraurus!

[FossilNerd]

Glad to get a glimpse of what you have been up to lately. Thanks for sharing some of it with us.