The trip will include observing and collecting fossils at two well-known locations of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group. Unlike our mud-cast and poorly preserved eastern-New York specimens, the Hamilton fossils of the western portion of the state are beautifully preserved. Both sites often produce complete specimens of the trilobites Phacops rana and Greenops boothi as well as a wide variety of brachiopods, crinoids, clams, corals, etc.

We will begin at the Penn Dixie Quarry in Hamburg, New York, early Saturday morning. The quarry is operated as a nature center by the Hamburg Natural History Society. Sunday morning we will continue with Eighteen Mile Creek. Both sites expose the Middle to early Upper Devonian and have been well studied and documented. These are classic localities that still produce excellent fossils on a regular basis. You can easily spend a full day at each of these locations. But for those of you who will not sit still, other bonus locations will be included in our field guide. If possible we will arrange for some local experts to guide us and offer insight at each location. This tentatively will include a guided tour of the geology of the Niagara Gorge. A good idea of what is in store can be ascertained by visiting Professor Karl Wilson’s New York Paleontology web site. Follow the links: “Examples of Devonian fossil communities and field sites” to “the Wanakah Shale (Ludlowville Fm.) in western New York” to “18 Mile Creek”.

The field trip will include a field guide with maps and driving directions to all of the sites. There will be a fee for the field guides of $6.50. If you wish to attend the full two days of collecting then you will want to do your traveling on Friday, returning Monday. Note that it is an 8-hour drive from NYC. But if you can not make the full two days then the field guide will tell you where and when to find us each day. We will provide a list of accommodations in Hamburg for all interested and as with other field trips we will help coordinate rides and accommodations as best we can. As always, you must be a member of the New York Paleontological Society to attend the field trip with the group.

The final itinerary will follow in the May newsletter. Detailed information will be included in the field guide, which will be sent directly to those who register for the trip or handed out at the May meeting. There will not be a deadline for registering other than the time needed to have a field guide mailed to you. Contact the trip leader for more information. Please let me know if you need information on accommodations and if you are willing to share a room. I need to know if you need a ride or can offer rides as well as what days you would be traveling. This will greatly help in the attempt to hook everyone up. The more the merrier, so I hope to hear from many of you.

To attend this field trip you must be a member of the

New York Paleontological Society

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