Lichas boltoni Fossil

 Here is an image of a Silurian Period of a Lichas boltoni (Bigsby, 1825) [it is now known by genus Arctinurus (Castelnau, 1843)].  This illustration was originally in an 1852 James Hall publication of a fossil found in the Rochester Shale of New York.

This image was scanned from plate 17 of Guide to the Geology and Paleontology of Niagara Falls and Vicinity by Amadeus W. Grabau April 1901.

Dactyloidites asteroides Fossil

 

While researching a mystery fossil that looks like flower petal indentations, I came across jellyfish imprints described as medusa. The image above is of a Cambrian aged Dactyloidites asteroides (Fitch, 1850). Image is from Charles D. Walcott (1850-1927) and was re-published as figure 1012 on page 228 A Textbook of Geology Part II Historical Geology by Amadeus W. Grabau (1870-1946).

PDF of book can be found:

https://archive.org/details/textbookofgeolog02grabrich/page/n5/mode/2up

Pinus Plant Fossil

 

This image shows a Pinus pine needle fossil found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Chadronian Stage (37.2-33.9 million years ago) of the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Doug for the image. Field of view 21 mm.

Fagopsis longifolia Fossil with Insect Predation

This image shows a Fagopsis longifolia (Hollick, 1909) leaf fossil that was skeletolized by insects found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Chadronian Stage (37.2-33.9 million years ago) of the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Doug for the image.

 

Learn more about this plant:

https://www.nps.gov/flfo/learn/nature/fagopsis-longifolia-reconstruction.htm

Cladochonus Coral Fossil on Crinoid Column

 

 

These pictures are of a Cladochonus crassus? (McCoy, 1847) coral fossil on crinoid column. Specimen is about 2 cm in length. Fossil found in the New Providence Formation of Clark County, Indiana USA. It dates to the Mississippian Period. Thanks to Kenny for the images.

Spinocrioceras polyspinosum Ammonite Fossil

This picture is of a Spinocrioceras polyspinosum (Kemper, 1973) [Crioceratites sp.] fossil. It was found at Ville de Leyva (Leiva) Columbia. The fossil dates to the Barremian age of the Lower Cretaceous Period.

It was displayed at Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France. Image taken August 2009.

Paraconularia Fossil

 

Here is a fossil found near the end of 2022 in Carwood Formation of Floyd County, Indiana USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. It appears to be a Paraconularia missouriensis? (Swallow, 1860) and is about 2 cm in length.

 Thanks to Kenny for images.

Nettelroth's Fossil Snail Images

 

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number:  USNM PAL 51268 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3cffa9b15-4a41-4c0b-8664-be0c46084ecc Photographer Holly Little. Specimens housed in the collections of the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 

Recently, I gave a presentation about the 1889 book entitled Kentucky Fossil Shells by Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887) to a local geology group. During my presentation I brought up one of the snail fossils found called Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840). They are found from time to time in Clark County, Indiana USA and Jefferson County, Kentucky USA. I consider them to be the porcupines of the Devonian sea with their array of long spines covering the whorled shell. Nettelroth had one illustrated plate XXIII just for these snail fossils. You can learn more about Henry Nettelroth in my December 3, 2022 posting about him.

 

In 1907, his two sons Herman and Alexander Nettelroth sold his prized fossil collection of about 8,000 specimens to the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. National Museum. This collection was documented by Ray S. Bassler (1878-1961) in the 1908 publication of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Vol. V Quarterly Issue Part 2 in an article "The Nettelroth Collection of Invertebrate Fossils". 

Almost always the spines are broken off on these fossils and I wondered if the ones still at Smithsonian were still intact as shown in the plate illustration. So on December 21, 2020 I sent an e-mail to them asking if the fossil USNM PAL 51268 could be imaged. As it turns out 15 specimens were assigned to that number. To my surprise Mark Florence, Deputy Collections Manager Invertebrate Paleontology responded that they could image those fossils but the facility was on COVID-19 lockdown.

Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number:  USNM PAL 51268 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3cffa9b15-4a41-4c0b-8664-be0c46084ecc Photographer Holly Little. Specimens housed in the collections of the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 

 

COVID lasted a lot longer they I anticipated but they did not forget my request and on October 13, 2022 when they returned to the facility I was asked if the images were still needed. Later on December 22, 2022 I received a message from Mark Florence that a Smithsonian Institution's photographer Holly Little had imaged the fossils. Happily, images of those fossils have now been added to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Paleobiology Collections database at this link: https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/paleo/?ark=ark:/65665/3cffa9b154a414c0b8664be0c46084ecc

 At our next geology group meeting, I hope to give an update to my group and show the images they took in comparison to the ones illustrated on the plate. I think the top image matches figure 3 in the original plate illustrated by Chas Starck of Louisville Lithographic Company. As pointed out in the recent e-mail from the Smithsonian, some of the spines had been broken off the original fossils.

A question I do have is why some of the fossils have green diamond shapes attached to them. I assume the ones attached to wooden boards where put on display at one time. It is nice to see fossils that were collected from the Louisville area 137-152 years ago and sent to Washington D.C. 116 years ago.