Monday, September 29, 2014

Poking Around in the Waldron Shale

Recently, I got a rare opportunity hunt for fossils in the Waldron Shale and a number of fossils were found. Nothing earth shattering but it was fun to get out after a long absence to poke around and see some familiar fossil friends.

This first image is of a fragment of a Trimerus trilobite pygidium. Not sure if it is all there in at least one lobe is and probably also the middle section as well. The next image is of a very flattened Dawsonoceras cephalopod that is about 10 cm long.
No trip to the Silurian Period Waldron Shale fossil layer would be complete without seeing the index fossil. The crinoid Eucalyptocrinus must have been prolific on the seabed as the calyx cups can be spotted in just a short search time.
The last two fossils are a trilobite cephalons. I am not sure which trilobites they belong to (Dalmanites?).
UPDATE: Kenny informs the next image is of a flattened Trimerus trilobite. I agree with that ID.