David L. Bruton
Paleontologisk Museum, University of Oslo

As I write, the money rates around the world fluctuate and there is panic on the market. Panic ruled here in the spring of 1973 as the US dollar was devalued three times against the Norwegian crown and air prices across the Atlantic increased by 6-10% since the beginning of the year when I was in the enviable position of being able to offer all 60 participants at the first International Trilobite Meeting fully paid air fares and accommodation. Luckily, the NATO grant to cover the expenses was adjusted and when the accounts were submitted in October not only had we made a profit, but we had enough money to fully finance publication of the weighty proceedings (Fossils & Strata No 4, 1975).

NATO and trilobites sound like strange bedfellows. Certainly the Soviet authorities thought so as they refused exit visas to three Russian colleagues. One from East Germany was likewise prevented from attending. Not so with the liberal Czechs and Poles who sent representatives together with food and drink! All participants were accommodated in the gorgeous surroundings of Voksenåsen high on the hill and overlooking the Oslofjord. Many will remember my young sons and their kite and how Rube Ross tried his hand and without looking ran into the swimming pool. The same pool was immensely popular and my wife, Anne, likes to think she might have saved the life of Sir James Stubblefield when, without glasses, he was about to dive at the shallow end before she stopped him!

Many trilobite problems were solved, new aquaintences were made and wild night parties, fuelled by drink brought by Halszka Osmolska, often ended with skinny dips in the pool. Laughter and good humour flowed throughout the meeting. After all it was

all free and the sumptious contents of a Scandinavian open table was still something of a novelty for most. The enjoyable cocktail party held in the grounds of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences with Professor Gunnar Randers (NATO science director) as host, was also a memorable affair. The sun shone for the entire week save for the thunder storm on the last day which came just as we left the fjord excursion boat and made our way up to the suburban railway station from the town hall quay. Imagine the look

on the faces of the public as a motley crowd of drenched foreigners walked to the head of the queue to board a special booked non-stop tram for the ride home. Dinner that night was the banquet and goodness knows how all those young and attractive wives managed to take their seats with hairdos right out of the salon. Anne reminds me that in 1973 the permanent was not what it is today. All participants were invited and those chosen to lecture had ample time to deliver their thoughts. Others were encouraged to contribute to the discussions and came with slides and diagrams in support. If I remember correctly, this was the time before the "overhead" and people drew on the

blackboard. There was much new to be told about eyes, legs, cuticle and moulting. For those of us working on the Burgess Shale arthropods, it was good to be able to meet the avian specialist Alberto Simonetta who, out of curiosity, had revised many Burgess fossils just before our work started.

The classification of trilobites was very much on the agenda following the work of Jan Bergström published in April and the young Fortey and Owens partnership presented what was then the germ of the present Treatise classification. Many junior participants had the unique chance to meet at a very personal level those whom they held in high esteem: Harry Whittington, the late Leif Størmer, Valdar Jaanusson and the late Gunnar Henningsmoen. The last three assisted with the organisation and Leif Størmer, his wife Tutti and Anne struggled with the accounts. Both wives became excellent money brokers as the dollar changed and their accounting prowess was accomplished at a time before the mpocket calculator. I can still see Anne working with her slide rule.

The idea of holding a "closed" meeting at an attractive out-of- town conference centre has its advantages, not the least of which is the social aspect. Friendships are forged and the club feeling is a secure one. Not everything was absolutely perfect, one participant was badly stung by a wasp, an accompanying lady friend of another suffered sunburn and someone left me with a huge unpaid telephone bill to the US. That the food was not kosher is to be expected in Scandinavia but this was the only complaint I received.

For those interested in reading more about the meeting I recommend the excellent account by Niles Eldredge in Journal of Paleontology Vol. 49, No. 1, January 1975, pp 227-228.

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A Trilobite Fake in the Flesh

Christian Gronau
Cortes Island, British Columbia

This attractive tableau of fake Moroccan trilobites was offered for sale as "the real thing" at the Star Valley Gift & Rock Shop, near Thayne Wyoming. Asking price -- US $400. An almost identical piece composed of the same casts, somewhat rearranged, was for sale at the Ocean Image Gift Shop in Rock Creek, south-central B.C. for Can $450. The piece measures 25 cm across and consists of eight casts of Paralejurus, Crotalocephalina, and Phacops arranged around a central cast of Dicranurus monstrosus. the Lower Devonian of Oulmes, Morocco was given as the stratigraphic location. The piece is rendered in a heavy casting compound containing limestone dust. So it feels about right, smells right, and even fizzes with HCl. The "cuticle" seems to be flaking off the trilobites here and there, giving the piece an even more realistic look. Its true nature as a fake is unmistakable under strong magnification when tiny air bubbles become apparent.

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Remembering A.A. Opik

Harry Whittington
University of Cambridge

When I visited the U.S. National Museum for the first time early in 1939 as a post-doctoral research worker at Yale University’s Peabody Museum, I met Dr. G. Arthur Cooper. He had long been interested in trilobites, and showed me the great collection of silicified trilobites he had amassed from etching Ordovician limestones in Virginia. In his kindness and friendship, he offered me the material of Trenton age to study. Cooper, of course, knew and admired Opik’s work on brachiopods from Estonia, and among the publications he had sent to Cooper was his "Trilobiten aus Estland" (1938). I devoured this work with admiration, with its splendid large photographs of superbly preserved material. Here was an author who thought of trilobites as living animals, not only as aids in stratigraphy or as species differing from others. He noted features on the inside of the exoskeleton, possibly muscle scars, and speculated on how the hypostome was attached, and did it move? This was just the inspiration I needed in tackling the then little-known material of silicified trilobites.

I next heard of Opik from Professor Marshall Kay, of how he had been found in a displaced persons camp. Marshall had hoped to bring him to Columbia University, but Opik had already gone, in 1948, to Australia. It didn’t take Opik many years to emerge as the great student of Cambrian rocks and trilobites, and to revolutionize, among other things, our understanding of Agnostus and its allies.

In the late 1950s Opik visited the United States and I had the great pleasure of meeting him at last. We enjoyed discussing the collection of trilobites at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, but we also took time to look at the material from the Burgess Shale that had been collected by P.E. Raymond. I well recall, as we puzzled over some specimen, Opik’s remark that "these fossils ought to be studied again". I had already photographed many of Walcott’s figured specimens, and knew how true Opik’s comment was. This turned out to be the spark that sent me to see my friends in the Geological Survey of Canada and, in the mid-60s, to start on many years of work on the Burgess Shale.

In 1970 I met Opik again, and spent many pleasant hours with him discussing the Cambrian and its trilobites. Among many we talked about was Redlichia, and in his 1970 publication Opik drew attention to the thorax -- to the rarer kind in which the pleurae curve downward and outward, as opposed to the more usual type with the fulcrum. This insight drew my attention again to the thorax, that rather neglected part of the trilobite anatomy which gave it mobility and the facility of enrolment, and which has featured in much of my research in recent years.

If you want to know more of Armin A. Opik (1898-1983) and his remarkable career, consult the fine appreciation by John Shergold, J.N. Casey and N. Romot (1985, Burerau of Mineral Resources, Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, vol. 9, p. 69-81). His major publications are given in the references in the revised Treatise volume, where you may also see how strongly he had influenced the systematics of Agnostida.

I have been fortunate in having an international circle of colleagues, and these reminiscences are but one instance of how such friendships have influenced the direction and nature of my research.