COUNTY MEN HONORE emory john of clear lake ands a rare fossil hichi results in ilai ing it rained at ter him and another one after I 1 rank becam ith one of its kind ever eier sent from here to smithsonian deiv ev creature a THIS ANIMAL FROM MORNING OF A FAR PAR DISTANT PAST A 1 I 1 I 1 k i q ai i za I 1 4 I 1 ir al TIPA with five brachiopods on it new now species photo by dr chas E hesser resser washington D C last summer 1931 emory john of clear lake found a peculiar look ing fossil remains of a creature and it so interested him that he studied it intently without being able to de termine terni ine what kind of an animal it was he borrowed books and stud led the records with especial refer ence elice to this area but without avail he ile then brought the fossil up to this office and we decided to send it in to the united states national mu seum of the smithsonian Smiths onlan institution tor for determination publication no 2899 from the proceedings of the U S national museum vol 79 art 33 of the smithsonian institution Is entitled A new middle cambino crustacean dinosaurs came into being from the triassic and continued down the ages to the cretaceous and the dates of say 35 to say 85 years ago Is not uncommon ly given as the period during which they lived the middle cambrian period in which this newly found lived may be from five to eight timea times as ancient say the latest es of scientists quoting from the aforementioned volume we print the following by dr charles elmer resser curator of the division of pal united states national museum frank beckwith of delta utah recently sent to the united states national museum for identification a photograph of a fossil collected by continued on 4 COUNTI MEN HONORED CONTINUED emory J john of clear lake utah in the banded argillaceous li meston es of the marjam formation in weeks canyon house range utah stating that if the animal represent ed was not a trilobite or it it was rare he would be pleased to present it to the national museum since this is the first example of 0 a mero from either the horizon or geographic region it is naturally a rare form and mr beckwith s gen erous offer was accepted at once in order to check my interpret inter pre lations I 1 sent photographs of this interesting fossil to dr rudolph Rue dermann at albany new york and to gilbert 0 at madison wis the only geologists known to me who are specializing in this group it is interesting to note that their opinions quite closely confirm ed my interpretations the first known cambrian mero was discovered many years ago in wisconsin and described in by hall as b anndel A second cond species from the same gen 4 tra eral region was described by whit afield in 1882 at A cotoni sine sinne that time upper cambrian beds of wisconsin have produced many of these crustaceans descriptions of which by are about to ap pear in addition to these and the eurypterid beech er from the upper cambrian from missouri we have meros tomes from middle cambrian beds at several places particulars from the burgess shale in canada the great num ber her of silurian eurypterid species be longing to highly varied genera in dicatos that their ancestry extended tar far back now that we know mero ton es among the oldest recorded fossils we are beginning to compre hend some of the details of this an bestry named the Meio tp new species md and the stuck to its back the mine nime johni new species mr john and I 1 are very greatly elated on this honor it is a distinct ion to have a fossil scientifically named after one and recognizes the work done by the person to have the fossil bear his name in the works jot of science I 1 am very grateful to mr john and especially so to doctor resser delmans will remember that he and dr R endow were guests oi ol the lions club during their stay over here last summer Teelin icil description some long al ot 01 Is used I 1 TIPA new species bod general form ovate in out line being nearly twice as long as broad with the greatest width aero acro s the genal angles in life the animal must have been fairly highly arched le especially transversely at least the wrinkling of the and the shape of the thoracic segments indi cate a moderate degree of compress ion suffered by the fossil then the following loving fol features are de tall abdomen surface measurements comparison As these are technical I 1 will spare you more than to say the photo is about natural size the animal had eyes eight abdominal segments one median spine on the dimly outlined axis and a spine like projection out and up from the tail called a strong spin forin telson the surface of the animal is fairly coarsey pus little elevations all over it like minute sharply elevated pirn pies and that it is closely related to aal bitoni mr john john gets five brachiopods named after him JOHNI new species five are attached to the dorsal surface of Beckwi thia TV pa and about a dozen other chiefly fragmentary specimens occur in the matrix this association is likely from the tact fact that these efface the surface tea fea tures it would seem that they lived tor for a long time on this particular test and were not merely compress compres 0 ed td on the shell during fossilization comparison compe risen this species of AW compares very closely with mcconnel mc connelll fit pellas walcott from the Ae Neo lenns zone of the mar jum formation in wheeler ampel theatre which Is a few miles north of weeks canyon the new species differs in its broader shape which results in a somewhat rounder out line it is also considerably small er its posterior outline is also more circular lacking the flattening of the described species the specific name is given in recognition of the work of emory J john who gives much time to col cot electing in the desert ranges of utah 1 I should think emory would be very proud of that last sentence distinct recognition of his work pad and by the highest scientific body in our nation congratulations em ory FB A picture of the find taken by dr resser and sent me with his compliments will shortly be put on the walls of the chronicle under a glass so that whoever is interested may examine it mr charles N strevell of salt lake bought some of mr john s intes eting specimens last year the purchases being made by the late dr earl douglas a short time be fore his death dr douglas is in ter nationally known tor for his skill in tl it e field of dinosaurs and had writ ten several volumes for the carne gie museum of pittsburg mr veil vell got the cream of what mr john had thus securing them for his own collection in salt lake city I 1 thank mr john very kindly tor for making possible my connection in this honor it stimulates to a more intense effort and benefits both of us it will make further study aas ler thanks frank beckwith sr