Fern Fossil Imprints

Fern fossil imprints from the Pennsylvanian Period found in eastern Kentucky.

Dendrites - A Pretty Pseudofossil

The black plant looking shapes in these pictures are dendrites. Sometimes referred to as pseudofossils or ferns, they are mineral formations created by water making its way into rock fissures. The water evaporates or flows off and leaves these black (manganese oxide) shapes behind.

The shapes remind me of images I have seen from graphed fractals in mathematics. This rock was found in Louisville, Kentucky (Jefferson County) while looking for fossils in the Silurian and Devonian rock layers. The rock layer is sometimes referred to as the Louisville or Jeffersonville limestone layer.

Conularia

Here is an ancient sea creature I am trying to draw. It is called a Conularia and existed in the Mississippian Period. It is not known what it actually looked like some thought it might be some sort of jellyfish that floated around. Specimens have been found where the tip or apex had a stem on it. So it might have been like a crinoid with tentacles.

Check out this link at Harvard for more information about this creature.

The Louisville Fossils site also has an entry.




These creatures can might also be referred to as Paraconularia. You can find some more images of the Conularia on the KYANA Geological Society website:

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/other/Conularid_Coral_Ridge1.jpg

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/other/Conularid_in_nodule_Coral_Ridge.jpg

http://www.kyanageo.org/Fossils/mississippian/Corals/conularia.jpg

This link shows a nice specimen from Missouri.

Fossilized Fern

Here is an image of an ancient fern. I am not sure if it is stored in coal or shale.

Fossil Festival at Falls of the Ohio State Park

Every year the Falls of the Ohio state park in Clarksville, Indiana has a fossil festival. This year I got to volunteer there for the KYANA Geological Society and it was a great time. I think over 300 people participated in our educational activity and hopefully learned some things about geology and paleontology.

Fossils from Hodgenville

Here are some fossils from Hodgenville, Kentucky famous for being the birthplace of United States president Abraham Lincoln.

These fossils for the most part are of bryzoan fenestella. It looks like a net pattern on the rock. There are also a few brachiopod imprints as well.

These creatures existed in the Mississippian (known in the United States) or elsewhere as early Carboniferous during the Paleozoic era. Timeline wise it was about 320-360 million years ago.

The rocks are reddish with white chalk like material and some rocks have a black almost burnt section to them. After consulting with a long time member of KYANA (Kentuckiana Geological Society), he told me that probably the red was iron, white silicon, and the black magnesium.







This is not a fossil but I thought it looked pretty neat so I took its picture.

Large Crinoid Pieces

Here are some more items I found on my watermelon planting trip.

These are some large discs almost the size of an American quarter.

Still Finding Trilobites

Here is another trilobite tail I found with an picture of something I am not sure about.

Fossil Hunting After Watermelon Planting

Last Friday, I finally got my watermelons planted in a field in Hodgenville, Kentucky. It is really late but our growing season has been messed up due to cooler weather in April and May.

On my way back to Louisville, I stopped off at Joe Prather highway and looked for fossils.

I found 4 trilobite tails embedded in a some rocks. So I keep my trend alive at find trilobite pieces on my last 6 outings. I thought this trip would end it since the area is not known for trilobites.

Here is a small shell I found but have not identified yet. It might be some type of Athyris brachiopod but I am not sure Devonian fossils are in this area. It would seem to be maybe from the Mississippian Period (Lower Carboniferous) so maybe it is a Beecheria brachiopod.

Here is a pea sized blastoid head which I was surprised to find. It might be a Pentremites from the Mississippian time period.

Another surprising thing about it is that is black in color.

Geology Field Trip to Bedford, Kentucky

Recently, I got to go on a geology field trip to Bedford, Kentucky to collect snails or gastropods. It was fun though it was hot and sunny. Also the weeds were making my allergies flare up. Found lots of neat fossils and here are some pictures of some.

Keeping my streak alive of finding some trilobite piece on my last 5 outings. This trip was extra nice in the the upside down flexicalymene trilobite that is about 50% there. Also found at least 5 other trilobite pieces.

On the way back home, the fire department of Bedford was collecting money at the stop light for the WHAS Crusade for Children so I gave the firefighter some money. His face was really red I assumed from being out in the sun for hours and hours so I gave him the rest of my 50 level sunblock. I hope he was able to use it because that looked like quite a sunburn. The sunblock packet came from the Louisville Mayor's ride so it was good I could pay it forward with them giving it to me and I able to give to someone else.

Other Fossils in KYANA case at Louisville Nature Center

Keeping with yesterday's post, I finish with the photos I took at the last KYANA meeting at the Louisville Nature Center (www.kyanageo.org).

These are some other minerals and fossils besides crinoids. The 3 photos show quartz geodes, rugosa solitary coral, and brachiopods.

KYANA Fossil Display at Louisville Nature Center

Today's post are pictures of the display case at the Louisville Nature Center that has fossil specimens provided by the KYANA Geological Society (www.kyanageo.org). I think most of the fossils shown in these pictures are crinoids and they were found at Cumberland Lake, Kentucky. Some of the stems look like they could be the size of small trees today. Since the rock is brown I wonder if they are from the Devonian period?

Trilobite Segment and Gastropod from Bardstown Roadcut

The opportunity arose for me to search for fossils last week for about 30 minutes and I found some nice specimens.

The first is a large gastropod (or snail) that is pretty much intact. It has a nice spiral and is 2.5 cm in diameter and about 2 cm high.

The site I visited in Mt. Washington, Kentucky is Ordovician time period known for gastropods, brachiopods, and cephalopods. I was trying to find cephalopods and picked up a rock that looked the shape but was very muddy and caked with limestone debris. After cleaning it later, I was surprised to find the back segment of a trilobite about 1 cm in length and 0.75 cm in width.

Pine Cone Looking Fossil

REVISED (06/2008): After consulting several members of KYANA Geological Society it appears that the cone pattern is a trace fossil. This means that some creature was moving along in the mud and made this pattern and it later became a rock.

I thought maybe it could be a hydrozoan of some sort that belonged to the branching structure to the side of it. Oh well.

Conularia

After watching some of the Dry Dredgers (geology group in Cincinnati, Ohio), they seem to be excited to find the fossil of something called the Conularia.

My cousin had found a number of them so I took some pictures to post here.

See this entry from January 2009 for more information about Conularia.

Also the Louisville Fossils blog has an entry about Conularia.

Brachiopod Feeding Tubes

My cousin found a very nice brachiopod that revealed the lophophore which is a feeding organ that is spiral in shape. Thus giving this creature the order name of spiriferida.

More Trilobites

My cousin was on the April 19th KYANA field trip to the Speed Indiana Quarry as well and really went after trilobites. He found about 9-11 trilobite parts. Here are some pictures I took of some of this finds.

More fossil pictures

These fossils have been posted before or at least two of them. The pictures are new and I was using a tripod with sunlight and an incandescent bulb to take pictures.

The images are of a dawsonoceras cephalopod, crinoid calyx, and blastoid head.