Hello from Ontario Canada!

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Greetings to All from Ontario Canada! I found your thread from the TheFossilForum.com....posted by our distinguish moderator Solis symbiosus.

I am located in Ontario surrounded mainly by Ordovician rock.... within a 200 km radius I also encounter Silurian and Devonian Rock. I am a hobbyist and started collecting fossils 5 yrs ago .... found a weathered 9" long isotelus trilobite,6" wide from a local quarry and never looked back... I was hooked on fossils a wonderful hobby. I hope I can learn lots from this group of Ordovician fossil experts/hunters. ...so quiet on this board I can hear a pin drop... this forum appears to be in a semi-coma state.... knock knock any body home? ;D
Best Regards to All,
PL.

[Joe Botting]

Hi PL, and welcome!

You're right, it is a bit quiet around here, but that's really because there are so few active members... and our fieldwork tends to stop in the winter, as I imagine is the same with you! We're always glad to have new things thrown our way, though, and you'll find a few of us crawling out of the woodwork at any sign of activity! The more people who join, the livelier it will get, of course, and eventually we'll start getting a critical mass...

It is a brilliant hobby, fossiling. It's so rare to find a science where a complete amateur can make a real scientific difference, just by going out and looking, and thinking about what they see.
So what sort of rocks do you have in the Ordovician over there? Limestones, mostly? Always find them a bit disappointing, but maybe that's because we barely have any here... ;D

Cheers,
Joe

[hallucygenia]

CLANG CLATTER CRASH BIDOING WALLOP...

TINKLE

sorry

Welcome to the forums, PL. It can get a bit quiet here, but I do look in occasionally! I'd be interested in knowing more about what you're finding.

At the moment I'm surrounded by Carboniferous, which does have the advantage that I can get other things done! I suspect that if I was lucky enough to live surounded by Ordovcian I'd be out fossilhunting every weekend, and there is quite enough rock in the house already! Actually, let me rephrase that - there is enough rock in the house that we are having difficulties storing it all, and we really need to get some papers written so that some of it can go into museums!

I'll go and find that pin now.

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Hello Joe and Hello Hallucygenia: thank you for the welcome... glad to see your postings. I started fossil hunting about 5 yrs ago and visited a local quarry for some garden rock.... on that day I saw a wonderful creature frozen in rock... wow I did not know creatures like this existed! It was a 9" Isotelus trilobite... I did not know what a trilobite was so started my hobby to collect fossil... what a wonderful hobby.... I am in my late 40's approaching 50 and reliving my second childhood. Hope to learn lots from you pros as I am a novice, beginner. I do not have a lot of spare time and get out maybe a dozen times max per year. A good part of Southern Ontario was once and sea teaming with life. Within 200 km radius I encounter Silurian rock near Fort Erie ON , home of Eurypterids in the Williamsville/Fiddlers Green/ Bertie formation .. I do have a few eurypterids in my collection... along with some of the earliest terrestrial plants such as Cooksonia and even have a baby seed pod... the newest location that I visited is the well known Devonian rock of Arkona/ Hungry Hollow ON... the fossils are plentiful ... you can hear the crunching of fossils under your feet. I have no formal training in geology nor paeleontology... I do have a technical background in Biology/Biochemistry / Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton ON Canada.... most of the collecting is done in various limestone quarries in fresh blast zones.... Here in Ontario access to quarries is extremely limited due to liability concerns... but I still have fun collecting, studying the subject of Invertebrates ( Ordovician to Devonian), also annelids, fish , plants of that era. I currently belong to a number of local rock /fossil clubs ... if your are interested I have posted a lot of my fossil material on www.thefossilforum.com with the same user id of pleecan.
Best Regards to All.
PL

[solius]

Hi, pieecan. You should share some photos of your Bobcaygeon material with the folks, here. Truly stunning!

I had been planning to make a trip to that area this year, but since the quarry no longer allows collecting...

[pleecan (Peter Lee)]

Thank you Solius.... I am kind of kicking myself as the bulk of the Bobcaygeon collecting was in 2005, where I met Crinus chipping rock as well as some well known Canadian Fossil hunters all said that this quarry was the best in Ontario for Ordovician. I did some collecting 2006( 2 trips), got busy doing other things ... from 2007-present maybe another 3 times and that is it... now closed to collectors.... really sad as I never thought that this quarry would close. I will share with the group in the coming days more photos.... Peter