Saturday, March 4, 2017

Fossil Olenellus' first-found trilobite site of Dr. Atreus Wanner rediscovered after 115 years in York County Pa.!!!

At the May, 2014 meeting of our new Lancaster County Fossil and Mineral Club it was disclosed by a York County member, that there existed a few pockets in the Kinzers shale on a private property about 30 miles west of Lancaster in west York. In addition, lying on the property off in a field were about 20 tons of excavated Kinzers material which had been dumped there. After only one expedition into this field we discovered the most prolific Olenellus trilobite shale ever seen in either York or Lancaster County. Over a period of just 7 months now many complete Olenellus trilobites have been dug up, and, about  complete Wannerias; rarest of the lower-Kinzers phyllopods. In addition many Salterella colonies, Gogia, Tuzoias and Camptostromas were found. I, myself, found lots of these creatures preserved in the rock! Now, after extensive research it has been determined through Smithsonian Institute records that this site is probably the same  Q(8) site that Dr. Atreus Wanner first found the "Wanneria" trilobite in the 1890s. This was accomplished by coming into possession of his July 13, 1901 submission to the Washington Academy of Sciences presenting the "Wanneria" for the first time. Its designation included a description of locality marked as 3 miles west by north-west of where he lived in the the center of York City.I followed his directions precisely in the way that he once went by horseback - no doubt pulling a 'fossil cart behind - and ended up on the very slopes where the Olenellus, Kinzers formation was where we were finding what undisputedly is the best site ever found!  Other nearby localities of Emigsville and Locust Lane are too far and too north, and slightly east. Some scholars once believed in them but they had done no retracing of Wanner's steps. No doubt he hunted them all but the hillside localities where we were speak best to where he was and there is surface material here where he easily tracked them down To have a free specimen from Wanner's site is historically significant!

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