Dry Dredgers Field Trip
October 25, 2003
Southeast Indiana

Page 7

Other Fossils and Minerals Found that Day

Brachiopods

This site is loaded with large quantities of Brachiopods, in great variety. They are scattered all over the ground. You can't miss them.
P1011397.jpg

This slab is typical of a particular layer on the site. On this slab has lots of Eochonetes. They look just like Sowerbyella, which are found in the Kope Formation. There are also a few Lepidocyclus and Strophomena.
  P1011408.jpg

There also a number of the interesting Brachiopod, Leptaena.
 
P1011421.jpg

This is a single valve with the distinctive shape of a Plaesiomys subquadratus.

The specimen below is not a Brachiopod at all. It's a fragment of the Pelecypod, Caritodens. Note the growth line pattern. This is an easy way to identify the Caritodens, one of the few clams in the Cincinnati rocks that shows shell material.
P1011396.jpg

Trace Fossils

These trace fossils are harder to identify. This slab (below) is covered with small indentations, that may had been what remains of clams or possibly inarticulate brachiopods. In either case, the shell material on these animals did not survive the test of time, but their impressions did.

P1011457.jpg

This rock (below) has the opposite. Instead of indentations, there are convex shapes. It's anyone's guess what these are, in this case. They are probably the internal molds of clams. The guys got a kick out of their shape and suggested we draw our own conclusion.
P1011466.jpg

Coiled Mollusks

The next fossil is probably the ornate gastropod, Phragmolites. I didn't get a good look at it, so I'm not sure if it has the ornate pattern, characteristic of Phragmolites..
P1011453.jpg

Membership Chairperson, Debby Scheid, found a very nice coiled cephalopod with some shell material left. Here it is.
P1011491.jpg
P1011497.jpg

Minerals and non-fossils

This trace fossil has a really nice set of Pyrite crystals.
P1011449.jpg

This is a nice chunk of Calcite crystal with pointy structures. (Hey, I'm not in the Mineral Society .)
  P1011490.jpg

That's all! (enough?) 
Next field trip: November 2003: Dan Cooper's Open House

October 2003 Field Trip
Table of Contents

Page 1: Introduction and the Search for Trilobites
Page 2: Crinoid Hunting
Page 3: Finding Brachiopods
Page 4: After Collecting
Page 5: Some Fossils Found That Day: Trilobites
Page 6: Some Fossils Found That Day: Crinoids and Corals
Page 7: Other Fossils and Minerals Found That Day


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