This page will document fossils found on our field trips that defy identification. As time goes on, the fossils tend to find an identity. As that happens, the web master will update this page with what we've learned about these strange ones. Send your thoughts and identifications to Bill Heimbrock at admin@drydredgers.org.
Enjoy.
Here is a very unusual item found on the March
2002 field trip to our favorite northern Kentucky road cut that
exposes the Southgate member of the Kope formation. I have no idea what it is,
but it may be a rare Echinoderm and must be very uncommon. It might be a carpoid!
Or it could be a new variety of an algae similar to Receptaculites
that has recently been found at a neighboring site. Note the trail or groove in
the shale beside it that looks like a pair of spines or stems were dragging
through the mud?
This next Mystery Fossil was found on our May
2006 field trip the same Northern Kentucky Kope site that the previous
mystery fossil was found. We think it's most likely a very rare type of
Cephalopod. It was found by the Janssen family, visiting from Wisconsin. We
later saw an identified
specimen at a Dry Dredgers meeting for which
the similarity was dead on.
This next Mystery Fossil is a tiny pyritized animal, just 12
mm long. It has fine details that should make it easy to identify. It
was found on our September 2007 field trip
to our Southeast Indiana road cut that exposes the Waynesville through the
Whitewater formations of the Richmondian. So far, the knowledgeable individuals
have guessed that it's a Cephalopod.
Here's one from our March 2002 field
trip to a Northern Kentucky Kope site. This limestone and shale mixture was
pulled out of one of the several mollusc layers on the site. Note first the
great variety of gastropods (snail shells) on this rock. Closer examination of
the surface revealed a structure with ridged plates (shown in the black box, but
not clear in the photo). This structure could be a number of things and requires
a professional to correctly identify. It could be a Conularia (jellyfish shell)
or a Machaeridian (a problematic fossil), among others. Whatever it is. It's
probably rare and special.
Send your thoughts, guesses and identifications to Bill Heimbrock at admin@drydredgers.org.
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