NEW LONDON, OHIO–The Wooster paleontologists spent a pleasant afternoon with our favorite amateur fossil collector Brian Bade. Brian has been mentioned in this blog previously for the many important fossils he has found and donated. He is a spectacular citizen scientist with a deep love (some would say obsession) with fossils of all kinds. He has a tremendous collection of fossils from the region and elsewhere carefully cataloged as to formations and localities. He knows what specimens may have scientific importance, and he has always been most generous with his time and fossils.
Today Steph Bosch (’14), Lizzie Reinthal (’14) and I visited Brian to examine specimens he recently collected from the Waldron Shale (Silurian) exposed in the St. Paul Stone Quarry in St. Paul, Indiana. My colleagues and I need to examine Silurian microconchids from North America and, sure enough, Brian came to the rescue with his collections and eagle eyes. Not only did he have his cleaned and sorted Waldron material laid out for us, he also had segregated specimens that had encrusting microconchids on them. The fossils were fantastic. Check out this webpage to get an idea of the paleontological diversity at this site.
Brian also brought out other trays and boxes of fossils from the Silurian and Early Devonian that had encrusters. Lizzie and Steph proved adept at picking out the tiny microconchids with their bare, young eyes as I struggled with my usual handlens. (This was the typical situation during our fieldwork in Israel this summer as well.) We accumulated several excellent specimens for later study under a Scanning Electron Microscope. Brian once again came through with critical fossils collected with all the right information for scientific analysis.
And the other rescue by Brian? You can see the situation in the image below. After all the driving I did in exotic places this summer, I managed to burrow into deep mud in Brian’s front yard. My little car was completely mired. (Note the smirking students in the background getting ready to tweet photos.) Brian has a tractor, fortunately enough, and a long chain. I left behind two deep trenches in his grass, and a little bit of my pride.
Yeah, you know, wasn’t there some English guy who collected those things from Peggy Halleck’s hardground in Indiana back round the time of the Great Bicentennial? Of course he called them Spirorbis. Such an idiot! Wonder what happened to him.
Well I’m impressed, Old Limey, that you have such long memories. That English guy is still around, although he apparently converted to Welsh.