32nd MAPS Expo Starts SOON!

In honor of the Mid-America Paleontology Society (MAPS) Expo taking place March 26-28, 2010 starting this Friday and it being an Ordovician Period themed show, here is a freshly found conodont.  This conodont (magnified 100x) was found in material from Lexington, Kentucky and thanks to Herb for that.  As he reminded me, if you have not spent at least 2 hours with your micro material cleaning/decanting then you just have dirty material.

Let's talk about MAPS Expo.  The expo is being held at the Western Hall, University Drive, Western Illinois University campus.  FREE ADMISSION!!! Billed as the "world's largest all-fossils show" with lots and lots of exhibitors and dealers.  This year featuring a 33 foot (10 meters) duckbill dinosaur skeleton.  Silent auctions throughout the show and a 100 specimen live one at 7:30 PM March 27.

Experts will be on hand to help identify visitor fossils.

Dr. Robert Frey of Ohio will give the talk The Age of Nautiloids in the American Midwest: The Platteville Fauna in Illinois and Wisconsin on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 7 PM.

Don "The Fossil Guy" Johnson will discuss Laura the Hypacrosaurus and Other Duck-billed Dinosaurs on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 10 AM.

 MAPS member Bill Desmarais on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 11 AM will present a program about dinosaur research expeditions in Alberta, Canada.

John A Catalani, and Ordovician cephalopod expert whose talk is titled "Life and Times in the Ordovician" presents at 1 PM on Saturday, March 27, 2010. He is a KYANA Geological Society member and I think I may have met him on a field trip.  Should be a nice talk.

University of Iowa professor Charles Newsom will help visitors with their fossil identification at 2 PM on Saturday, March 27, 2010.

Curator of University of Iowa Geoscience Repository will talk about storing, organizing, protecting, and documenting a fossil collection at 3 PM on Saturday, March 27, 2010.

See the available workshops here: http://www.midamericapaleo.org/content/expo32.php#workshops

Lodging info: http://www.midamericapaleo.org/content/expo32.php#Lodging

Restaurant/Meals info: http://www.midamericapaleo.org/content/expo32.php#meals

WOW, this looks like a great show.  So if you can attend this weekend, enjoy the fossils!

Waldron Shale Trilobites: Hadromeros and Bumastus

Finding trilobites is not an easy thing unless you live in Utah or Morocco near a trilobite quarry. The two trilobite fragments I present in today's post may not seem like much but they are the first pieces of species I have never found before. Both fossils were found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana. This layer is also known as the Niagara Group and formed during the Silurian Period.

The first piece made me wonder when it was found, is it part of a trilobite pygidium or some other creature? Not seeing any remnant of three lobes made me doubt it was a trilobite until my friend Herb identified it as a trilobite glabella. After consulting the Fossils of Ohio book's Silurian trilobite section, I found a match as a Cheirurus niagarensis (Hall).  After more research, it was determined it can be found in the Rochester shale of New York and in Indiana,Wisconsin, & Illinois. Note this fossil has not been prepared.

The image from the book I use for reference purposes below is of a Cheirurus welleri because the picture showed more of the cephalon.  The article states the two species can be confused by the C. welleri has longer glabellar furrows.  It also says this species is found in the Niagaran of Wauwotosa, Wisconsin, Clinton of New York, Waldron of Indiana, Silurian of Tennessee, and Guelph of Ontario.

UPDATE (May 2020): According at post on Fossil Forum by a user named piranha, this trilobite was renamed to Hadromeros niagarensis in Holloway, D.J. 1980 Middle Silurian Trilobites from Arkansas and Oklahoma, U.S.A. Palaeontographica Abt.A, 170:1-85.

Image from Plate 4, Figure 7 - photo by George Nelson

New and Old Silurian Trilobites from Southeastern Wisconsin, with

Notes on the Genera of the Illaenidae

by Percy E. Raymond

Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College

Volume LX No. 1 - January 1916

This next fossil I was unsure of as well because of the cephalon was so rounded (convex) and smooth.  The fossil has an eye exposed.
Bumastus niagarensis (Whitefield) (Illaenus niagarensis Whitefield) described on page 17 of the article sited under the included images:

The specific characteristics are: -cephalon rather convex, with long dorsal furrows, no lip or concave border on the cephalon. Eyes of medium size, situated nearly their own length from the posterior margin, thorax short, pygidium long, rather pointed behind, with narrow concave border.

I am calling it Bumastus niagarensis (Whitefield) since it was found in the Waldron Shale but its eye area tends to match Bumastus dayi Raymond in my opinion.  Note from article on page 18 about differences:

 It will be once noted that this species is much like B. niagarensis, but has large eyes far back, and the pygidium is shorter and with less depressed margin.

Fossil is unprepared.  Thanks to Herb for help with identification.

Image from Plate 1, Figure 3 - by E.N. Fischer, Del.

New and Old Silurian Trilobites from Southeastern Wisconsin, with

Notes on the Genera of the Illaenidae

by Percy E. Raymond

Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College

Volume LX No. 1 - January 1916

German Fossils of Kobrow

Kobrow, Germany fossils as observed under a magnifier. This first fossil is a segment of an unknown fish vertebrate. All fossils shown are from the Oligocene (33.9 to 23.0 million years ago).

This next fossil is no stranger to this blog being the Palmula obliqua foraminifera.

Last fossil is an unidentified shell fossil.

All images courtesy of my cousin Kenny,  Nice hunting with the microscope!