Bottom of the hill.
As promised, I am posting one of the sites that we went to on the Trilobite Hunt – this is it!
Who doesn’t love a shady fossil hunt on a hot August afternoon? The quiet of a seldom traveled gravel road, you, the birds, and the hunt for…???
THREE! Thaleops laurentiana cephalons!
The very first rock I picked up on this cut had THREE Thaleops laurentiana trilobite cephalons (heads) – as IDed by Caleb (Midwestpaleo.com) on thefossilforum.com Links on sidebar.
Theleops laurentiana cephalon up close.
I needed to be someplace, so I really didn’t “hunt” this road as much as stop, check if it was fossiliferous, and take pictures. According to Caleb, it starts at the bottom in the Cummingsville member of the Galena, is mostly Prosser, and ends at the very top in the Stewartville member of the Galena Formation.
As you go around the corner and into the shade you will find a layer populated by bryozoans, particularily prosapora. This is one of the cuts we went to on the trilobite hunt. We also found cephalopods, crinoid stems and segments, all kinds of bryozoans, and gastropods. Link to that hunt is HERE.
It is highly fossiliferous from what I can tell until you get to the top.
Dry wash coming off the west side of the hill.
About 4/10 of a mile of road that is cut with Prosser, broken Prosser, and dry washes coming off the hill.
Dry wash on east side of the road.
AND there is a dry wash going down the east side of the cut from the top to the bottom of the hill that will also have significant fossils, many will be broken out of the rock by the wash of the water and tumbling over other rocks.
Check the sides of the dry wash as there is a vein of bryozoans going through the bottom part at least.
The only “nasty’s” I encountered were a few burdock and burning nettles and a bit of wild parsnip that can easily be avoided. However, the dry wash has significant swamp nettle, so best left to after the first few hard frosts – October. Not really any mosquito action while I was there, but be prepared, as well as for ticks.
Access is easy, just park beside the road. And the rock is easily accessible as well. Yes, you can sit and split rock if you want. Or you can walk along and pick up fossilized rock and pick and choose what you are searching for!
Sign at the top of the hill.
It doesn’t get much easier, quieter, more fossiliferous, or just plain beautiful than this hunt!
NOTE!
I have over six more hunts to post,
BUT in an effort to build community on the site and increase hunting spots in southeastern Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin,
I will post one site that I find for every site that you send me to put on the blog.
Rules:
It must NOT be on private property! So, no quarries or private land.
Can be information on a fossil collecting park.
Generally a roadsite hunt with ample parking or a close to the road beach hunt.
Do not give me the location of your favorite hunting spot
(you don’t want it over hunted). Just a good spot to collect fossils. 😀
Send me a picture of the spot with good directions
and a write up of what you have found there.
To: bcfossillady at gmail dot com
*** If you absolutely do not want a spot published,
send the location to me and I will put it on the “Not for Publication” list. ***
But if I find it or someone else finds it BEFORE you send me the location, that spot is fair game!
