NOTICE
I returned to this site on April 30, 2007. The North Quarry is now completely fenced off and inaccessible.
The spoil piles, located about 2 miles south on the west side Centennial Road, just north of the creek, are still accessible.
The circled area is accessible. The "X" is the parking lot of a concrete casting company.
I am usually there on weekends, so the business is closed. The spoil piles are directly across the road.
The Now Closed North Quarry
The silica shale in Lucas County, Ohio is a well known locality for Devonian fauna.
I was aware that that nice quality Phacops trilobites are to be found here.
I had the opportunity to poke around in a quarry there in September, 2004.
The locality about 15 miles west of Toledo.
The entrance to the quarry is an easy walk.
I snooped around the piles here for a while, finding lots of brachiopods corals, and traces of trilobite.
Mostly, I hunted on the slopes on the right (east) side. The access to the west side looked a bit precarious.
I'll save those areas for a later date when I have better shoes.
This is pretty much what the surface of the slopes looks like.
The limestone cap rock layers are also fossiliferous with tons of brachiopods.
I found my first phacops
Here he is after I cleaned him up
Within a few minutes, I spotted another one, or should I say he spotted me!
The preservation of this one is remarkable.
Another one..
In all, I found at least a dozen species of brachiopods, two or three byrozoans, corals, some crinoids bits
a sponge? and a number of Phacops specimens.
This shows what I took away from 4 hours of hunting.
Oddly, I have since learned that finding so many Phacops specimens is somewhat rare.
On the way out of town, I noticed this sign! Wow! A real fossil park?
Such as it is, they do have a Fossil Park.
They bring in truck loads of the looser rocks and let people dig through it.
Hmmmm.
Questions? E-Mail me: tngray@nautiloid.net
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