The late blog and an early spring

It's been a busy start to the year with managing Stormbed, dig trips and of course, mountains of prep work! I'm writing today from a cottage up in Northern Ontario, close to the Silurian Stormbed quarry and before my next dig. The ice on the lake still hasn't melted but the quarry is thawed and ready to give up the goods (hopefully). I'm happy to report that I've been very active getting out digging as often as possible as well as putting in as much lab-time as I can. In South-Western Ontario, particularly in the banana belt where I live, we had an incredibly mild winter. I didn't even have to shovel snow once! Winter is the fossil hunter's natural enemy so it was nice to get an opportunity to get outside and into the field a few months early.

In January, I travelled down to near Rochester New York to finally check out the Erie Canal. The canal was completed in 1825 and was built/excavated to help move people and goods around more quickly inland. During its excavation, many interesting fossils were discovered including the first reporting of Arctinurus (the famously large NY lichid trilobite). Late in the year, the canal gets drained for maintenance and usually doesn't get filled again until the late spring. This gives collectors access to layers of the Rochester Shale that would normally be sitting under the waterline. The Rochester Shale has all of the qualities you want in a dig site- it's secluded, accessible with tools, it splits easily in big horizons and you can cover a lot of surface area quickly compared to other NY sites. The problem with it is twofold; firstly it's fairly barren, VERY barren actually. An easier dig physically but mentally, there's only so many blank splits you can look at in an eight to ten hour day! Secondly, if you're lucky enough to find a trilobite or other fossil, it will likely have some fairly advanced shell-rot. Small pockets of dolomite have been weathered out as the formation sits under water for over half of the year. The skin of most trilobites found here have a 'Swiss cheese-like' appearance. That said, it's a classic site and a spot to look for Silurian (450 - 415 million years) fauna like Dalmanites limulurus and Trimerus delphinocephalus. Despite being first reported in the canal excavation, even the pieces of Arctinurus boltoni are criminally rare. This species is much more prevalent at a nearby privately owned quarry that commercially extracts, prepares and restores the species for the fossil market. Also found here are brachiopods and the occasional rare crinoid.

I spent around 5 days on the canal, split between two trips and did not come away with an exceptional amount of material. The fun was mostly being at a classic locality with two different groups of friends and like-minded fossil enthusiasts. My best find (by far) was a complete, 32cm long Decadocrinus celsus which had it's holdfast. When I found it, I had already assumed it was incomplete but followed the stem anyways. The neighbouring piece of shale had the calyx nicely buried with limited shell rot. Another interesting thing about the crinoid was the parasitic gall present near the calyx. A gall is a swollen section of the crinoid that has been damaged by parasites, this often includes round holes where parasites bored into the living skeleton of the animal. It is interesting pathology and a window into the interactions of several paleozoic creatures. I also found a Trimerus which is a puzzle for a rainy day and a couple nice Dalmanites trilobites. My personal thoughts on the canal are that it's not a bad place to spend a couple days and get some exercise and maybe get lucky- but no more than once a year. Something epic could come out at any split of the hammer but I don't always get excited about pieces that require such extensive restoration. My field joy is often tempered by the cynical preparator in me.

Decadocrinus celsus, Rochester Shale, Erie Canal, Silurian

Calyx closeup - the anal sac is clearly visible between the arms

parasitic gall. - This separated at time of collection and was a temporary source of confusion due to it's comparative thickness.

Denodrocrinus holdfast with a Dalmanites spine visible.

In early February the weather was clear and warm enough to hit Western New York. The Buffalo area is usually under a considerable amount of snow in February but this year was somewhat dry and unseasonably warm. Usually on two and three-day trips, I made it out to the Middle-Devonian of New York about 12-15 times between February and March. The weather wasn't always great but it was always workable with the right clothing. I mostly focused my efforts on the creeks and small outcroppings rather than using my Penn Dixie membership (PD allows members to access the quarry nearly year-round). I was also invited to dig a few new localities with friends I've made over the last couple years in the area. Digging with New York locals is always a good time, it's hard to beat local knowledge and experience. The state is incredibly rich with middle Devonian deposits and despite many being shut to collectors and/or on private land, there are always options for the committed. One creek in particular has a unit of the smoke creek that preserves trilobites in much greater inflation and detail than other well-known sites. It's a site that I stumbled across by accident really. The finely grained, almost dark black rock is mostly barren and mostly devoid of the horn corals that crowd every split at other localities. My money, for what it's worth, is on a deeper water environment and a less violent deposition resulting in fewer fossils but better preserved material. Similar to Arkona's Widder formation, the Greenops barberi trilobites are exquisite. Complete, prone examples are rare but have their eyes preserved beautifully (typically, they are crushed flat in other spots). A slight bronze tinge sets these bugs apart from sites like Penn Dixie where the bugs are dark brown to black in color. Perfect enrolled Eldredgeops rana trilobites are also possible here though prone examples have eluded me so far with the exception of one or two tiny specimens. Lower units in this creek have produced pieces of Dipluera, a large Homalonotidae trilobite similar to the older, Silurian-aged Trimerus. Also on the lower lens, a plate of two undescribed Bellacartwrightia with an associated Eldredgeops roller.

Greenops barberi

Bellacartwrightia sp. x 2 Eldredgeops rana roller

Bellacartwrightia sp.

Speaking of Western New York, I'll be volunteering as an 'expert' this summer at Penn Dixie for their annual 'Dig With The Experts' event on June 8th & 9th, 2024. What really sets this event apart from regular admission or membership dig days are the piles. Penn Dixie spends a considerable amount of money to bring in excavators to 'rip' the Smoke Creek and Bayview formations up specifically for DWTE. The rock is then dumped into the 75 to 100 piles that will serve as the primary source of rock for the attendees. Normally, accessing these layers is an intense physical challenge involving shovels, prybars, wedges and a whole lot of time and sweat (for the record, I rather like this mode of excavation). For DWTE, you just walk up to a pile and select a block. Since this rock will weather for two months before the event, it should split beautifully into thin horizons which is the best way to find prone trilobites. I was invited down to watch the excavation this year and the material looks great with huge blocks of Smoke Creek dominating every pile. Speaking to Director, Phil Stokes, it sounds like the DWTE is about 80 percent sold out already.

Eldredgeops rana - enrolled specimen found at Penn Dixie

Between all of my Ontario and New York trips I also made it down to the fossil-rich Lowcountry in South Carolina in March. My friends at Palmetto Fossil Excursions run an incredible dig experience with legal collecting in creeks, forests and a 100 acre sand pit packed with fossils. I'm making a huge jump here in terms of geologic time, Oligocene (28-22 million years) and Miocene (10-2 million years) make up a lot of the deposits here. As far as the fossils go, there's a huge range of shark teeth, whale & dolphin bones, fish, stingray and even an array of land animal teeth that can be found. The type of collecting can range from surface hunting, creek hunting, SCUBA diving into full on digs with excavators clearing up to 8ft of overburden off the productive layers. One of their owned sites, called 'Lightening Site' has great potential for finding large Megalodon teeth. Dig deeper and hit the Chandler Bridge formation which can contain the bones and skulls of whales and dolphins as well as teeth from Megalodons grandaddy', Angustidens. These are lag deposits meaning that they were deposited out of situ as the oceans and rivers slowly receded over time. On this trip I attended another dolphin skull excavation with the plaster of Paris and the whole nine yards. Also on this trip I managed to get out for a couple of dives with my buddy Captain Dean. He took me to one of his best secret spots, which I will never reveal even under pain of death. This particular spot is in deeper water and we experienced some fairly dramatic current. Dolphins (the extant variety) surfaced and dove around the port side of the boat as we geared up. Once I was loaded up with lead to help me stick to the bottom in strong current (around 40lbs), I flipped over the side and made a slow descent on the anchor-line. It took me about ten minutes to adjust my search image in the cold, dark murky water but before long I was stuffing my dive-bag with fossils. I found quite a few different species of shark including Megalodon, Angustidens, Great White, Short-finned Mako (Desori), Tiger, Bull and Hemipristis. While I was on the bottom I also came across a range of interesting wildlife like small Toadfish, giant shrimp and stone crabs. Dean found a 20” Horseshoe crab on his dive and about 3x the fossils I had found, always trust a pro to get it done right. As I write this a month later, a story is getting picked up all over the world about an alligator attack on the Cooper river in South Carolina involving an experienced diver looking for teeth. Dean phoned me the other night before the story hit the news. A buddy of his was diving on a well-known site on the Cooper river when he was attacked by a 10-12 foot gator as he attempted to surface from a dive. Low on air and not expecting an attack of such ferocity he was dragged down to the 50 foot depth of the river and nearly killed. He miraculously survived with a badly broken and dislocated arm. A quick Google search will turn up a few dozen articles on this for more information on William's story and links to donate to his recovery. One of the reasons that river teeth are so expensive is that it is an extremely hazardous job recovering them. In the rivers the risk is gators- especially in the mating season which occurs in the Spring, in other areas with brackish water, you get to deal with living sharks, typically Bull sharks. Dean has been bumped, prodded and otherwise checked out by sharks while hunting teeth on the bottoms of ocean sites. Disconcerting to say the least!

In normal circumstances I love diving with sharks. I've been lucky enough to be in the water with Great Whites, Bulls, Whale sharks, Spinners and a slew of Reef sharks (day and night). My one rule is that I need to see where they are at and what they are doing. Diving with sharks in zero visibility is something that keeps me up at night.

A Megalodon River tooth recovered by Dean Rogers.

After saying goodbye to my friends down South and the long drive home, I jumped right back into preparation, website specimen updates and collecting trips. My main hunting ground in SW Ontario was very good to me early in the season with some absolutely stunning Greenops widderensis specimens. One of these had a solid pyrite head and eyes!

Greenops widderensis - enrolled, pyrite

Greenops widderensis - prone/perfection

Finally, in April the snow had melted enough up North in the Stormbed Quarry for a 5 day outing. I made a lot of great finds but the conditions were windy, rainy, cold and with the occasional sleet and snowstorms blasting through. This area, roughly 8-9 hours North of my house, is Silurian in age and is an extremely high energy deposit. Articulated trilobites are quite rare and crinoids are often in partials and heavily damaged. On the second day in the quarry I split on my target species, one of the rarest Encrinurid trilobites in the country, Distyrax. It's been three years of continuous digs searching for another one since a 2021 find. Distyrax is a relatively large trilobite with a highly pustulose cephalon, general spines and a forked tail. Due to its size and thin shell, these are often badly damaged and even pieces of them are rare. Other finds included Rielaspis and a pair of badly weathered Stelckaspis and Diacalymene trilobites. None of these Northern Ontario species have been described yet. If anyone ever takes on the job, I'd be happy to work with them. Also possible to find up there are Scutellids, Odontopluerids and even a Lichid or two. Most of the rock up there is inaccessible or on private property which is the case with the Stormbed Quarry.

Rielaspis sp.

In summary, it's been a busy start to the year with an incredibly early dig season! I think this blog has gone on long enough at this point and I've got to pack for my next South Carolina outing. Thanks for reading, please check the website for my newest available specimens and feel free to reach out with any questions (Provided they are not "where do you dig exactly" and "can I come with you on digs"). I'm off to the prep lab to visit a Distyrax...

Mike Meacher - April 25th, 2024