Aulopora on Protoleptostrophia Brachiopod

This image shows an Aulopora (Goldfuss, 1829) coral growing across the surface of a Protoleptostrophia perplana (Conrad, 1839) brachiopod.  Two other brachiopods shown in the top left are probably a Spinocyrtia or Devonochonetes. The plate was found in the Silver Creek Member of the North Vernon Limestone.  Specimens found in Clark County, Indiana.  Fossil creatures shown existed in the Middle Devonian Period (Eifelian).

Next picture shows the plate before it was sandblasted.  You can see a few Aulopora (Goldfuss, 1829) corals and part of a brachiopod.

This last picture shows the plate after sandblasting.  The cleaning was focused on the Aulopora (Goldfuss, 1829) coral growing on the brachiopod.

Protoleptostrophia perplana Brachiopod

Half of an internal Protoleptostrophia perplana (Conrad, 1839) brachiopod found in the Silver Creek Member of the North Vernon Limestone.  Specimen found in Clark County, Indiana.  Brachiopod existed in the Middle Devonian Period (Eifelian).

While this fossil is not complete, features I like are the muscle scars and exposed hinge teeth. It might be mixed in with other brachiopod fragments of Chonetes and Sprifier. 

The Silver Creek Member ranges 0-9 meters in thickness through out Clark County.  Described by (Campbell & Wickwire, 1955) as "homogeneous, fine-grained, bluish to drab or gray, argillaceous, magnesian limestone". I find it to be a light gray to whitish in color and quarried for cement.  Maybe it is the reason Cementville exists with the Essroc plant in Clark County.  It was named by C.E. Siebenthal in the 1901 Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources Annual Report 25. 

Sources for identification:

Formations of Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian Rocks in the vicinity of Hanover, Indiana Compiled by Guy Campbell and Grant T. Wickwire - January 1955.

Picture on fossilpictures.wordpress.com web site.  Especially picture located lower left corner (click to enlarge).

Jesse Earl Hyde Collection

 Cladoselache Shark Fossil

Cleveland Shale - Upper Devonian Period

Geier Collections Center of Cincinnati Museum

Ohio - United States

While doing research about the Devonian Period Cladoselache shark, I came across images from an Ohio geology professor who taught in the early 1900s.  The collection is called "The Jesse Earl Hyde Lantern Slide Collection" and it is housed at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  It can be seen at this website.  The collection was digitized by a student named Kathy Huwig in maybe 2003-2004.  That looks like quite a bit of work!

The website describes itself this way, " This website contains images and descriptions of over one thousand glass lantern slides used by Prof. Jesse Earl Hyde (1884-1936), a professor who taught geology at Western Reserve University (now part of Case Western Reserve University) from 1915 until his death in 1936. The collection itself contains more than 2000 slides and hundreds of photographs made roughly from 1890 to the mid 1930's. These slides span a massive range of topics such the evolution of man, glaciers, Ohio geology, and the history of science just to name a few"

The images that interested me were of the Cladoselache shark: 675.7, 675.8, and 675.40.  The last link has a picture that I hope will help me identify something I found in the New Albany Shale.  Since I do not have permission to use the pictures from the Jesse Earl Hyde collection, I include in this post images I took while visiting the Cincinnati Museum Geier Collections Center.

 Cladoselache Shark Pectoral Fins Fossil

Cleveland Shale - Upper Devonian Period

Geier Collections Center of Cincinnati Museum

Ohio - United States

Update (March 2020): Elizabeth Hyde Siman, Professor Jesse Hyde's granddaughter contacted me and this collection. I realized the university had moved the images from their geology server to the College of Arts and Sciences one. I have adjusted the links so they work again.

Beargrass Creek Quarries

When looking at old fossil collections stored at museums and universities that contain specimens collected from the Louisville, Kentucky area, one sees localities like "Falls of the Ohio" or "Beargrass Creek".  In previous posts, the Falls of the Ohio have been covered plus they have an excellent website. 

The locality has somewhat faded into history. Beargrass Creek once hosted a number of quarries that I assume harvested Louisville limestone from the Silurian Period.  As you can see from the pictures it has been a while since any rock was harvested from the Beargrass Creek area.  An example of some fossils listed as having been found in the Beargrass Creek quarries: Cystihalysites nexus, Quepora huronensis, Syringopora hisingeri, Diorychopora tenuis, and Aulopora pygmaea.  These species are just a few listed in Erwin Stumm's 1964 book that showed the specimens as being stored at Harvard University.

Today, one can see remnants of these quarries along the Beargrass Creek Greenway.

The actual Beargrass Creek visible from the path.

Rock walls becoming overgrown by vegetation.

Side note here are signs showing Louisville, Kentucky's sister cities: Mainz (Germany), Quito (Ecuador), Leeds (United Kingdom), La Plata (Argentina), Tamale (Ghana), Montpellier (France), Perm (Russia) and Jiujiang (China).  It should be noted that Louisville is also twinned with Bushmills, Northern Ireland.

Fossils of Belknap Bridge

Belknap Memorial Bridge is located in Cherokee Park (Louisville, Kentucky).  It spans over Beargrass Creek which exposes Louisville Limestone and Waldron Shale from the Silurian Period.  As the plaque says, it was built in 1901.

The bridge seems to be constructed of Louisville Limestone to provide a road over Beargrass Creek shown in the picture above.  After finding the index fossil Halysites (chain coral) in the stone blocks used in the construction of this bridge, the stone is most likely Louisville Limestone.  See image below.

The next fossil might be some sort of sponge found in another block on the bridge.

Here is maybe another sponge.

Last, not sure what this fossil is but does appear to be branching.  It is worn but should be after being exposed to the elements for at least 109 years.

Cherokee Park - Louisville, Kentucky
Cherokee Park was designed in the late 1800s by Fredrick Law Olmsted Sr (1822-1903). One can assume the park is named after Native American people known as the Cherokee.  The Cherokee do not appear to have ever lived in the Louisville area though. Other Olmsted parks in Louisville seemed to be named after different Native American groups (e.g. Iroquois, Seneca, Shawnee, Chickasaw).

 Fredrick Law Olmsted Sr.

Oil Painting by John Singer Sargent (1895)

Biltmore Estate - Ashville, North Carolina

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The park covers about 390 acres around the Bluegrass Creek valley and opened in 1892. Of interest is Big Rock in Beargrass Creek that marks an area of Silurian Period rock (Louisville Limestone & Waldron Shale), Hogan's Fountain, and the Nettelroth Bird Sanctuary. The sanctuary was named Herman H. and Mary Buchner Nettelroth Memorial Sanctuary according to a 1958 Courier Journal article. It listed "sanctuary will be a one-acre fenced-in site centering on a three-tier fountain and bird bath... The Nettelroth estate will provide $500 for setting up the sanctuary and about $150 each year to maintain it and buy seed for birds... provided for in the will of Mrs. Nettelroth who died April 24, 1957... The projects will be financed from income from the estate of about $600,000, which as been set up as the Herman H. Nettelroth Fund."

Herman was the son of the Louisville naturalist/geologist Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887).  He compiled an 1889 paleontology monograph entitled: "Kentucky Fossil Shells" that can still be used today. His sons donated his about 8,000 specimens fossil collection to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907.

Belknap Memorial Bridge
The Belknap Memorial Bridge is named for Lily Buckner Belknap (1858-1893). Her husband, Morris Burke Belknap (1856-1910) had it built in her honor. The bridge was completed in 1901. Lily was the daughter of Kentucky Governor and Confederate Civil War General Simon B. Buckner (1823-1914). Her half brother, General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. (1886-1945) who die during World War II's Battle of Okinawa.

Learn more about Louisville's Olmsted parks at Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

UPDATED (11-22-2022): While research Henry Nettelroth and his family I discovered a number of my assumptions were wrong about the bird sanctuary and also who the bridge was named for. I have re-written a number sections of this posting to reflect more accurate information.

Sources:

"Estate Paying at Cherokee Park to Get Bird Haven", The Courier-Journal 17 Jun 1958, Tue Page 1; note article confuses the occupation of Herman H. Nettelroth (1871-1936) who was a attorney. It mistakes him as a Crescent Hill physician which was his brother Alexander Walter Nettelroth (1869-1952). 

Morris B. Belknap - Wikipedia

Image | Belknap Bridge. | ID: 3d95a8ee-ba3a-412f-bdcc-576da0035cf4 | Hyku (louisville.edu)

Mosasaur Fossils

Mosasaur fossils on display at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, France. Learn more at the mosasaur entry at Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Mosasaur fossils on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 2010. The skull fossil is a Clidastes liodontus and the full fossil is Tylosaurus proriger both from Kansas of the Late Cretaceous (80-70 mya).

Cryptoclidus oxoniensis

Pictures taken at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, France.  Doing some research on the new movie that is now showing at the Louisville Science Center IMAX called Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World, I found these marine reptile images I took last year.  The natural history museum building is shown in the film in a re-creation of a historical paleontological event.  I need to see this film again and might have some future comments about some of the historical scenes shown in this movie.

The fossil of the marine reptile shown in these pictures are of the Cryptoclidus oxoniensis found in England.  It is a type of plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period.  See this link on Wikipedia for more information.

Trachypora tuberculata Coral

Trachypora tuberculata coral fossil found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County, Kentucky.  These animals existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Thanks to my cousin for loaning me the specimen to photograph.

Antholites Coral

Antholites coral found in Jefferson County, Kentucky in the Jeffersonville Limestone.  Creatures existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Thank you to my cousin for loaning me this specimen to photograph.

Aulocystis incrustians Coral

Aulocystis incrustians coral fossil found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County, Kentucky.  Coral existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Thanks to my cousin for loaning me the specimen to photograph.

Cylindrophyllum compactum Coral

Cylindrophyllum compactum coral found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County, Kentucky.  Coral existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Thanks to my cousin for loaning me the specimen to photograph.

Drymopora fascicularis Coral

Drymopora fascicularis coral found in Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County Kentucky.  Coral existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Thanks to my cousin for loaning the specimen to me to photograph.

Hexagonaria ovoidea

Hexagonaria ovoidea coral found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County, Kentucky.  Creatures existed in the Middle Devonian Period (397-385 million years ago).  Thanks to my cousin for loaning me this specimen to photograph.

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