The Silurian Experience
The WC collection
Recently a very special mostly trilobite collector decided to make available to the public his high quality specimens some of which are a rare.
This represents many decades of collecting mostly across New York State but also includes the western part of the USA. Most specimens are of the highest quality in both preparation and/or rarity. Specimens are mainly from all across NYS but also western and central US. Most were collected personally by WC. Many specimens are fairly rare like an un-described Greenops from NYS. Please feel free to check out these special specimen pictures.
ID number, names and pricing are located under each specimen. Just email me if you are interested.
Click here to visit collection.
Any questions please Email me at [email protected]
This represents many decades of collecting mostly across New York State but also includes the western part of the USA. Most specimens are of the highest quality in both preparation and/or rarity. Specimens are mainly from all across NYS but also western and central US. Most were collected personally by WC. Many specimens are fairly rare like an un-described Greenops from NYS. Please feel free to check out these special specimen pictures.
ID number, names and pricing are located under each specimen. Just email me if you are interested.
Click here to visit collection.
Any questions please Email me at [email protected]
New spectacular specimen added to classic Cystoid page!
Announcement: The Caleb quarry property and quarry operations have sadly changed hands and the new owners have closed the quarry off to outside visits and digging activities. When I was working on the Silurian Experience book it was very difficult finding updated information on names and background about the specimens being discovered. I hope that this site can continue to assist the fossil community with as much current information as I can be made aware of. If you have any information you feel needs to be displayed here please send me a note and I will create a fitting page for the information.
-Paul
-Paul
The Silurian Experience book is still available in the spiral version only. A big thank you to everyone who purchased the hard copy, it has sold out! The spiral version has a decent but dwindling supply and is selling for $55 each with free shipping.
For over twenty years a small group of dedicated fossil enthusiasts had been operating a fossil recovery project near Middleport, New York. The goal was to promote the science of paleontology and to provide specimens to members of the professional, educational and amateur fossil community.
This western New York location has been important in the understanding of the Rochester Shale, and Silurian paleobiology, for some time. Carlton Brett first explored a nearby local creek, collecting bulk samples for his PhD dissertation in the late 1970's. James Eckert and Denis Tetreault discovered and excavated the echinoderm lagerstatten in 1981 and the Arctinurus beds in 1982 in that same creek during their research on the Rochester Shale. The Smithsonian Institution became involved in 1990 and completed excavation of what was accessible. Several specimens from that project are currently on public display in the Smithsonian's paleontology hall. Following that work, paleontological attention shifted away from the limited natural exposures along the creek, over to what would become the Caleb Quarry.
In 1989, a local industrial company needed a non-porous clay filler. This special clay was located nearby on a twenty acre parcel of land owned by Brent and Rose Caleb. The Calebs agreed to allow the clay to be excavated from their property. In return they would be left with two large ponds.
After excavating soil and clay to a depth of approximately nine feet, solid bedrock was encountered, forcing the excavation project to go wider rather than deeper. In time, over nine acres of the Rochester Shale formation was exposed. Soon after the clay removal project ended, the Calebs allowed excavation of fossils from the bedrock. A local group, Ray Meyer, Gene Thomas, Kent Smith, Paul Chinnici, Fred Barber and Greg Jennings, officially started fossil recovery operations in 1992. That group has recovered over 120 different species from the quarry and has given the scientific community a superb book about the Rochester Shale from the Middleport Quarry.
The Caleb Quarry offered a unique glimpse into the past. For more than 400 million years, fossils from that exotic world have been largely inaccessible. The variety and abundance of fossils found in the quarry is testimony to the vibrant life in that long ago, clear tropical sea.
The Caleb Quarry has become a world famous source of Silurian Age invertebrate fossils from the Rochester Shale. Long before the fossil recovery project started, the fossil beds of the Lewiston Member of the Rochester Shale were made famous by the work done by James Hall from the 1850's to 1860's, Eugene Ringueberg from 1884 to 1888, Frank Springer from 1914 to 1922, and Carlton E. Brett and his students, especially Denis Tetreault, James Eckert, and Wendy Taylor in the 1970's to 1990's. As a result of their work and others, the ancient environmental setting, depositional history and spectacular fauna specimens that have been collected, made the Rochester Shale of western New York and Ontario, Canada widely know.
This western New York location has been important in the understanding of the Rochester Shale, and Silurian paleobiology, for some time. Carlton Brett first explored a nearby local creek, collecting bulk samples for his PhD dissertation in the late 1970's. James Eckert and Denis Tetreault discovered and excavated the echinoderm lagerstatten in 1981 and the Arctinurus beds in 1982 in that same creek during their research on the Rochester Shale. The Smithsonian Institution became involved in 1990 and completed excavation of what was accessible. Several specimens from that project are currently on public display in the Smithsonian's paleontology hall. Following that work, paleontological attention shifted away from the limited natural exposures along the creek, over to what would become the Caleb Quarry.
In 1989, a local industrial company needed a non-porous clay filler. This special clay was located nearby on a twenty acre parcel of land owned by Brent and Rose Caleb. The Calebs agreed to allow the clay to be excavated from their property. In return they would be left with two large ponds.
After excavating soil and clay to a depth of approximately nine feet, solid bedrock was encountered, forcing the excavation project to go wider rather than deeper. In time, over nine acres of the Rochester Shale formation was exposed. Soon after the clay removal project ended, the Calebs allowed excavation of fossils from the bedrock. A local group, Ray Meyer, Gene Thomas, Kent Smith, Paul Chinnici, Fred Barber and Greg Jennings, officially started fossil recovery operations in 1992. That group has recovered over 120 different species from the quarry and has given the scientific community a superb book about the Rochester Shale from the Middleport Quarry.
The Caleb Quarry offered a unique glimpse into the past. For more than 400 million years, fossils from that exotic world have been largely inaccessible. The variety and abundance of fossils found in the quarry is testimony to the vibrant life in that long ago, clear tropical sea.
The Caleb Quarry has become a world famous source of Silurian Age invertebrate fossils from the Rochester Shale. Long before the fossil recovery project started, the fossil beds of the Lewiston Member of the Rochester Shale were made famous by the work done by James Hall from the 1850's to 1860's, Eugene Ringueberg from 1884 to 1888, Frank Springer from 1914 to 1922, and Carlton E. Brett and his students, especially Denis Tetreault, James Eckert, and Wendy Taylor in the 1970's to 1990's. As a result of their work and others, the ancient environmental setting, depositional history and spectacular fauna specimens that have been collected, made the Rochester Shale of western New York and Ontario, Canada widely know.