Of Trilobites and Ticks – Hwy. 52 Fountain

Hwy. 52 just south of Fountain.

UPDATE: Finally got all the rocks cleaned and the total for trilobites on this one hunt along Hwy. 52 is now 14 – FOURTEEN TRILOBITES! Eight in One Rock! Yeah! All pygidiums and all Eomonorachus or is that a crus? Hmmm… Pterygometopid trilobites anyways.

After the Cty. 11 hunt, I stopped over at Hwy. 52 just south of Fountain. Wow, I ended up gathering 3 trilobites (So far, as I haven’t washed all the rocks yet.) a really neat little Bryozoan,

Close up of the rock cut.

probably a Praspora, and some Receptaculitids!

Complete Receptaculitids, worn over winter.

Another complete Receptaculitid worn by water in the dry wash.

Such a shame, if I had harvested either of these before winter, they may have been perfect! Shows you what a Minnesota winter and flooding can do to fossils.

Receptaculitid in rock.

Another Receptaculitis caught in a rock, but rather pretty so I dragged it home.

Hash plate with two or three trilobites in it.

I picked up lots of hash plates in the dry wash.

Probably Eomonorachus species.

TRILOBITES

This one may be whole with only the pygidium showing.

Pygidiums = tails.

Probably some species of Eomonorachus.

One for sure and???

And another, check out the arrows, one for sure and???

Bryozoan Praspora? Worn by the dry wash.

Bryozoan yes,
Praspora?

Final haul!

This is my final haul of the day going home. That  big one, I had to roll up the embankment! Barely could lift it onto the tailgate! Most are hash plates that I haven’t had a chance to clean yet.

And of ticks… Yes, I also came home with 5 wood ticks that later crawled out of my hair! And yes I had a hat on.

TICK PREVENTATIVE: I have used a generic dandruff shampoo for years as a tick embedding preventative. I don’t think they like the stuff. 😀  Neither do gnats or mosquitoes. I use it both in my hair and as a body wash and it may not make them jump off you, but they almost never embed before you can feel them crawling around and remove them.

So, I had a very happy day fossil hunting!