Dry Dredgers Field Trip
April 28, 2012
Southwestern Indiana
Waynesville, Liberty and Arnheim Formations

Our 70th anniversary field trip was to our favorite Richmondian site, just over the Indiana border from Cincinnati. Rain threatened but did not come for the first hour we were out there. Normally, all field trips are rain or shine and we don't cancel a field trip in the middle because it begins to rain. But in this case a thunderstorm moved in with dangerous lightning. So we asked everyone to go to their cars and the field trip was officially ended.

Here are some photos of us collecting, in case anyone who didn't come because they knew it was going to rain, doubts us. 

Fossils Found That Day

In the hour we were there, we still had good pickings. At the top of the road cut, a few horn coral can be found. One of our youngest members found this nice example of Grewingkia canadensis.

Trilobites

The "usual suspects" on trilobites were found.

At least one whole enrolled Flexicalymene retrorsa was found. (2 pics below)

Fragments of the large trilobite Isotelus were found. In these next 2 pics, you can see both sides of one lobe of the hypostome (mouth plate).

Here are some more fragments of Isotelus that are less identifiable

Crinoids

No whole calyxes (heads) of crinoids were found as far as I know, but here's a nice fragment of a calyx of Glyptocrinus fornschelli.

A less identifiable calyx fragment was found (shown below).

Lots of stem fragments were found. Here is sitting waiting to be picked up. No it was not picked up. So get out there and get it.

Gastropods (Snails)

Mostly internal molds of gastropods were found. This next one is pyritized. Probably a Paupospira.

Most snail internal molds are filled in with the same shale in which they were entombed.

Brachiopods

The Richmondian series of formations is known for their numerous varieties of brachiopods. This trip demonstrated that.

Here's an example of Plaesiomys subquadratus that was found.

 

This next picture is small and blurry, but I think it's of another Plaesiomys subquadratus and a fragment of some other brachiopod.
 

This next picture shows a rock surface covered with the impressions of what are either brachiopods or clams. I would conjecture that most are the impressions of the sowerbyellid brachiopod Eochonetes. I base this on the fact that in the lower left corner of the slab are examples of this brach still resting in their indentations.

Trace Fossils

Trace fossils abound on this sites as they do on most type-Cincinnatian sites. In the picture below, burrows can be seen filled in with shale throughout this hard limestone slab. I'm not going to guess at the animal(s) that made these tracks. He or she knows who they are.

Now let's see our May 2012 field trip to the famous Mt. Orab Trilobite Farm.

See photos of previous field trips to this Southeast Indiana fossil Mecca.

May 2011
March 2010

September 2008

September 2007
September 2006
March 2006

March 2004

October 2003

April 2002


 

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