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Searching for Fossil Trilobites in Ohio - Devonian and Silurian Trilobites

Getting ready to fossil hunt at the Paulding Quarry in Ohio - PLease note, the quarry is no longer available to fossil hunt at.

Amy, Roy, and I traveled to western Ohio in search of Trilobites. We traveled 100's of miles and hopped from quarry to quarry in search of these elusive critters. For those of you not familiar with the mid-west, it is very flat and full of farm fields and not much else. Most roads are straight as an arrow. It's actually kind of boring, and even more boring to drive through; hours and hours go by and all one sees is farm fields from horizon to horizon. Cornfields, Soy fields, Plowed fields... it all looks the same. To fight this boredom throughout the trip, Roy and I pondered deep philosophical questions that have intense meanings and life-altering implications... while Amy slept. Below are some example questions we pondered for hours upon hours, even days.

1: Ohio is flat; therefore they actually need to build large hills in order to make bridges for overpasses. Where does Ohio get the dirt to make these hills? Is it imported from other states?

2: Why does Wrong Way Rob always get a sore throat prior to a fossil hunt?

3: When looking at any vast farm field, there is usually a lonely tree, standing acres away from any other tree. The poor tree looks awfully misplaced. What is the purpose of this lonely tree?

Roy was keen on the first question proposed. He noticed these large ponds on the side of the road. After viewing 100's of such ponds for 100's of miles, we realized there was a correlation between an overpass and a pond. Every pond was near an overpass. Question solved. They dig a hole next to the bridge to be built; the hole eventually turns into a pond.

The second question is still a great mystery. We have teams of paleontologists working on this question as you read.

The third one is also a mystery. We have various hypotheses, but no clear-cut solutions. Obviously, the tree is in the way. Farmers must harvest and plant around this tree every season, which would become a nuisance. Therefore the tree must serve a purpose. Is it superstitions that keep the tree there? Is it a place to rest while on break? Does it mark some underground object? Buried treasure perhaps? Is it a place to pile up rocks and other debris from the farm field?

Anyhow, this is a fossil website, so onto the fossil trip report!

On Saturday we met up with Dave. Dave is the incredibly nice person who led us on a tour of the western Ohio Fossil areas. Make sure you check out his Bedrock Bugs website, it has amazing trilobites from Ohio! Thanks Dave! Anyhow, our first stop was a quarry in Miami County run by Western Ohio Cut Stone.

This quarry has rocks blasted from the Silurian era, which means Calymene celebra trilobites (aka Gravicalymene celebra). Rocks were full of them, many were found! Plus the mine operators were incredibly nice, they gave us coffee, offered us food, and even helped chip the trilobites out of the rocks. Thanks!

After departing Western Ohio Cut Stone, we headed to a quarry in Paulding for some Devonian Trilobites. The fauna here is just like 18-mile creek, but the Phacops are, on average, larger here. Dave, his wife Connie, and Roy all found some fairly large enrolled ones. Amy and I didn't fare as well.

The next day he hit a few other Devonian spots in the Silica formation in search for more Phacops trilobites. A few were found, again, none by Amy and I. After that, we checked in at Fossil Park to see how the park was doing. They just had fresh material delivered, and people were eagerly searching through it.

After the jaunt to Fossil Park, we said our goodbyes and headed back east, pondering life's greatest mysteries the entire way home...