Pentremites godoni Blastoid Fossils

 

Picture of a number of blastoid fossils that appear to be Pentremites godoni (Defrance, 1819). They were found by Lucien Beckner (1872-1963) in Meade County, Kentucky USA. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period. This picture was taken last year and since then the fossils have been cleaned. Hopefully will post some new pictures soon.

The Kentucky Geological Survey has a nice web page about blastoid fossils. Go there to learn all kinds of interesting information, for instance, the first blastoid described in 1808 literature was from western Kentucky.

Unknown Spiny Brachiopod in Black Shale

This fossil is quite interesting. It appears to a brachiopod with very long spines. The fossil is from the collection of the late Dr. James Conkin (1924-2017) and had no label with it. The fossil is in a black shale and the only shale found around the Louisville area is the New Albany shale. Fossils are rare in that shale and usually very small and not white colored. 

The brachiopod could be some sort of Productoid where the genus could be Pulchratia or Linoproductus. See University of Nebraska-Lincoln brachiopods of the Grant Shale web page. The Fossils of Parks Township web site shows a brachiopod called Antiquatonia portlockiana (Brew & Beus, 1976) and originally named Producti portlockianus (1855).

If anyone has suggestions of what this might be named or the locality it is from, please let me know. Thanks!

Ectenocrinus (Heterocrinus) simplex Crinoid Fossil

This fossil appears to be an Ectenocrinus (Heterocrinus) simplex (Hall, 1847) crinoid calyx fossil. It was given to  Lucien Beckner (1872-1963) in earlier 1900s by Dr. William H. Shideler (1886-1958) of Miami University of Ohio. The fossil dates to the Ordovician Period.