PREPARATORS

These four preparators are among the best in the trade. They are an integral part of our team. They are accomplished artists who bring their own individual styles to their work. They are the masters of their trade. Countless hours have been spent pioneering new techniques in modern preparation, and these four pioneers are at the forefront of the preparation revolution. It is because of these pioneers that we are able to observe many of these incredible animals in their life-like state. Their work should be applauded.

Dave Comfort

Dave Comfort was born in Alberta, Canada and grew up in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. He has fond memories of visitiing the McKay Trilobite beds near Cranbrook at age twelve. The next several decades were involved with the education system. Taking Art and Biology at the University of Victoria led to a rewarding career teaching Art and Biology to High School Students. During that time Dave also pursued a career as a professional artist, creating watercolor paintings of the Northern landscape.
> And then the “epiphany”... One day while trying to describe trilobites to a group of blank-faced high school students Dave did an internet search in order to provide “visuals”. “Re”discovering the trilobite world proved much more astonishing and motivating for Dave than it did for his students. That led to a concerted effort to collect some of those extraodinary, exotic beasts, which in turn led to an even more concerted effort to prepare them. And then the internet tipped the balance one more time. About five years ago Dave started to collaborate with Jake Skabelund - Jake provided an unlimited supply of North American “bugs” and knowledge and support. All of our “trilobite friends” have been supportive, helpful, and instructive and deserve many thanks. And, as they say, “the rest has been stimulating and exciting and a whole lot of fun.”

Scott Vergiels

Scott Vergiels was born in 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up a few miles over the state line in southern Michigan. Both his parents were talented artists and enthusiastic naturalists and hunters, so the end result was in a way inevitable. His first recollection of picking up fossils was around age three and involved material in the glacial drift. By age 8 or so he went through the obligatory "dinosaur phase" but at about the same time that the absence of dinos in the midwest became clear, the Medusa quarries at Sylvania entered his awareness (another Silica brat is born). Growing up less than 20 minutes from Silica provided many advantages to a budding fossil bum, including the fact that you were liable to meet EVERYONE over time. Fossil preparation was strictly trial-and-error for amateurs and over 15 years or so Scott gained continually in experience until many friends and acquaintances were of the opinion that he was basically doing better work on his fossils than they were doing on theirs. It was a short step therefore, to "sure, I'll have a go at that for you" Before long there wasn't time to look back. The past 25 or 30 years have been a remarkable kaleidoscope of fossils that never would have been imagined in previous decades and things just seem to keep getting neater for Scott.

Ben Cooper

Born in Fairfield, OH in 1977, Ben began his life traveling with his father, Dan Cooper searching for fossils, particularly trilobites.  Ben spent two years at the University of Cincinnati in the Design Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) Program in the late 1990’s.  He began doing freelance Graphic Design and commissioned art work in 2002 and continues to create and sell art today.  Ben has evolved his talent into preparing fossils in between raising his two sons Sam and Noah, passing his interest on to them.

Bob Carroll

Bob Carroll started black cat mountain in August of 1986. Bob has discovered three new species that have been published. As Bob heads in to his 6th decade he would like to pursue his musical interest.
After Bob’s service in the military he went to community college, where he encountered Riccardo Levi-Setti's famous trilobite atlas. By good fortune, throughout these years he has been blessed to be a close friend of Riccardo's. Riccardo featured his work in his second edition, "Trilobites" and has also endorsed George P. Hansen's, Ph.D., book "Trilobites of Black Cat Mountain" (release expected by the end of this year).
Bob would like to acknowledge the three people he considers to have given him his foundations for entry into the commercial aspects of this industry, Scott Vergiels, Zarko Ljuboja and Dan Cooper. And always, great thanks to the late Fred Wessman who showed him Black Cat Mountain.

Paul Jamison

Paul Jamison was born in 1956 in Santa Monica, California and was raised in the nearby town of Glendale. With the San Fernando mountains in his back yard and parents who gave him a long leash, Paul spent all of his free time in the outdoors chasing snakes and looking under rocks. It was here that he developed his love of zoology and natural history. Moving to Logan, Utah in his early twenties to attend Utah State University and study biology, Paul met his first mentor, Steve Lucas, who was studying geology. On a hike one day in Logan Canyon, Steve showed Paul his first fossil, a brachiopod, and that was pretty much "it" for Paul. He changed his major to Geology and never looked back. Since then, Paul has spent most of his time looking inside rocks instead of under them, and this passion has led to the discovery of many new fossil species.

In the 30+ years since that fateful day, one of Paul’s careers was as a high school science teacher and one of his students was Jake Skabelund, who would become a founding partner in the American Trilobite Suppliers. Paul and Jake spent countless days collecting the middle Cambrian Spence shale together, fossils from which were long thought to be un-preparable. But as fate would have it, Jake found Dave Comfort who would go on to pioneer preparation in the Spence. Jake introduced Paul to Dave, Dave taught Paul, and the rest is history. One of the highlights of Paul’s career as a fossil preparator was the day he found himself sitting at a bar in Tucson with two of his personal heroes, Dave Comfort and Bob Carroll, both real-life legends in the fossil preparation world. Paul’s other heroes include his wife, Michelle and his daughter Johanna who have encouraged and supported him in his life as a digger and preparator.

Besides prepping for the American Trilobite Suppliers, Paul runs his own business, Jamison Paleontological Services (JPS, Inc.), which includes making home décor from the beautiful fish fossils of Wyoming’s Green River formation, as well as digging and preparing the amazing trilobite fauna of northern Utah’s Spence shale. "It’s all about the possibilities" says Paul of his life as a digger. Shut up and dig, Paul.