Platycrinites Crinoid

Here is a crinoid calyx plate found in Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. It is phylum Platycrinites and usually is not found intact but plates like this one.

Eretmocrinus Crinoid

Here is an embedded Eretmocrinus crinoid calyx found at Lake Cumberland, Kentucky.

Eretmocrinus Crinoid

Here is a crinoid calyx found at Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. It is of the phylum Eretmocrinus.

Bryozoan Graveyard

Here is a bryozoan graveyard of many different branches. It looks to be from the Ordovician period.

Loxoplocus Snail Graveyard

This rock represents a Loxoplocus gastropod graveyard. This creature existed in the Ordovician period. The rock is part of a wall where KYANA holds its fossil study.

Update: The Loxoplocus is now known as the Paupospira.

Petrified Wood

Here is a large piece of petrified wood that is now part of a stone wall were we have our fossil study for KYANA.

Branching Bryozoans

Here is a cluster of bryozoans in a rock seen at the last KYANA fossil study.

Paracyclas elliptica Devonian Clam

Here is a Devonian period clam found in the Silver Creek formation. This formation can be found in Clark County, Indiana. The clam is known as Paracyclas elliptica (Hall).

The Smithsonian has a collection for a geologist named Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887) and they have some reports I found on-line. I think they are from the mid to late 1800s when a lot of the fossils in the Louisville area were named. Nettelroth refers to the Silver Creek formation as "hydraulic limestone". Also he refers to Clark County as Clarke County. I have also seen Speed, Indiana USA referred to as Speeds, Indiana in older texts.


UPDATE: This entry has been modified with a picture of another clam fossil. As of August 2010, this fossil was on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It list it was found in Kentucky.

Kentucky Agate

Here is a polished Kentucky agate. It a great mineral found here in the state and while it does not quite fit fossil theme of this blog maybe it contains some fossilized moss.


UPDATE: A fellow KYANA Geological Society member looked over this entry and pointed out some issues. She pointed out this agate formed inside a brachiopod. Remnants of the shell can be seen around the edge. So this really is somewhat of a fossil. Also it should be classified as a rock instead of a mineral.

The Paracyclas elliptica Clam

Here is a clam called Paracyclas elliptica from the Devonian period. It was found in Clark County, Indiana in the Silver Creek formation.

Archimedes Bryozoans and Blastoids

Here is a large rock with at least two Archimedes bryozoan spirals showing. The rock also contains maybe 3 blastoids and maybe 1-2 stem pieces.

The fossils are from the Mississippian period.

Loxoplocus Gastropod

I was testing the Canon Powershot Pro1 camera's Super Macro mode by taking some pictures of this gastropod. It looks like the light was bright enough for my images but the camera let me get within 2 inches of the specimen.

NOTE: It was pointed out that this gastropod lived in the Ordovician Period not Mississippian as the picture lists. Also apparently this genus is now referred to as Paupospira.

UPDATE: (2020-08-22) I removed one of the images and updated another to remove the time period reference. Sorry about listing this and I hope the old images eventually disappear from the Internet's image databases.

Paracyclas elliptica Clam

This bivalve came from the Devonian period and was found in the Silver Creek formation in Clark County, Indiana. It was called Paracyclas elliptica.

Halysites or Chain Coral

Here is a piece of halysite or chain coral from the Silurian period. I saw this it the last KYANA fossil study group.

Silurian Cephalopod

Here is another Dawsonoceras annulatum imprint in a rock that is part of stone wall. I wish I had a ruler to measure it but I think it might have been about 24 cm long. It appears to have 19 sections.

Found at KYANA fossil study.

Multi-Stem Crinoid

At the last KYANA fossil study, I found this multi-stem Mississippian period crinoid. That is one condensed group of crinoid arms in one place!

This one was found in the Lake Cumberland, Kentucky area.