aulacerids

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Daryl Fuller (Jan 26) was wondering about aulacerids.  I am the one who
found "the aulacerid forests" in the Upper Ordovician of southeastern
British Columbia.  I have made large collections of these over the last few
years but have not yet published anything about them.   The preservation at
the newly discovered localities is very good, the specimens being silicified
and easily freed from the limestone with HCl.  Some of the specimens are
very large, exceeding 30cm in diameter.   I suspect that Daryl's specimens
come from the same unit, i.e. the lower part of the Beaverfoot Formation.
Some Beaverfoot aulacerids are currently on exhibit at the Royal Tyrrell
Museum in the "Decade of Discovery" exhibit.  I have about 40 references to
aulacerids from around the world. A good place to start is Barry Webby's
1979 review of Ordovician stromatoporoids (Proceedings of the Linnaean
Society of N.S.W. 103(2): 83-121).   The B.C. aulacerids have never been
formally described but were mentioned in Alice Wilson's 1926 GSC Bulletin 44
on the Beaverfoot fauna (under the old generic name Beatricea).  I believe
there is a graduate student at Laurentian University (?Dianne Cameron) who
is studying aulacerids from Anticosti Island.  A few of the B.C. aualcerids
are the same genera (and species?) as those from Anticosti Island, but most
are new.  Daryl, send me some photos and I will try to I.D. them for you.

Paul Johnston
Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
Box 7500, Drumheller, AB, T0J 0Y0