Photos by Jim Cox, Ron Fine, and Bill Heimbrock
Words by Bill Heimbrock
Fossils Found That Day
Trilobites
Perhaps the best finds that day were two uncommon trilobites.
The first good find was a Greenops found by Jim Cox.
The next great trilobite find was this Dechonella. This was found by NYPS member Bill Reppert.
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Phacops rana
Here are some of the Phacops rana trilobites that were found that day.
This first one is a nice enrolled specimen found by Jim Cox.
This next phacops was found by Jim Cox. Picture before removal from slab:
After removal from slab:
Here are some of the Phacops found by Bill Heimbrock.
Bill Heimbrock spent time rummaging in the reject piles. There were some good finds there. Among them was this complete Phacops, preserved as a negative mould. Often, these negatives are discarded if it's believed that the positive portion of the fossil has all of the shell material with it. In this case, the negative had no shell material, so the finder had no interest in it. But Bill could see that the preservation of detail was remarkable. He claimed it to take home and produce his own positive.
Here are two shots of the negative impression of a Phacops trilobite found by
Bill Heimbrock.
Bill used Sculpey clay to create a basin in which to pour fast-setting resin.
After 20 minutes, he lifted out a resin positive (shown below) that can be used
to make rubber moulds for replication of more positives in plaster.
Remarkably, the original negative in shale survived the harsh resin casting
process.
NOTE: ONLY CAST SHALE NEGATIVE TRILOBITES IN RESIN
IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE THE ORIGINAL SHALE. MOST ATTEMPTS TO LIFT RESIN
FROM A SHALE RESULT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL.
Here are some Phacops rana found by Ron Fine.
Now lets see the brachiopods found that day at Penn Dixie.
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