Grabauphyllum johnstoni Coral Fossil

 

This picture is of a Grabauphyllum johnstoni (Foerste, 1917) coral fossil of the Silurian Period. This image is of the lost holotype published in 1917. It dates to the Silurian Period and was found outside of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

This fossil was first described and imaged in "Notes on Silurian Fossils From Ohio and Other Central States" by August F. Foerste (1862-1936) pages 187-204 in The Ohio Journal of Science Volume XVII No. 6 April 1917. The holotype fossil was lost. Fossil coral researcher Erwin C. Stumm (1908-1969) revisited this fossil in the November 15, 1968 publication Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology The University of Michigan, "A Redescription of the Middle Silurian Compound Rugose Coral Grabauphyllum johnstoni Foerste (Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 71-73, 1 pl.).

Foerste wrote, "Found in the Niagaran dolomite near McCook, 5 miles west of Chicago, Illinois, by William Johnston. Genus named in honor of Prof. Amadeus Grabau, of Columbia University in recognition of his valuable contributions to our knowledge of corals." I have written about Dr. Amadeus Grabau (1870-1946) in an earlier blog posting.

Bumastus harrisi Trilobite

 

Above is an image of a prone trilobite fossil called Bumastus harrisi. A trilobite fossil dates to the Silurian Period. It was found Chicago, Illinois, USA and appears to be made of dolomite. 

The fossil was on display in the Evolving Planet section of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago Illinois, USA as of August 2020. Accession number is P11447. Learn more at the Virtual Silurian Reef Project web site.

More about this type of trilobite can be seen here:

https://silurian-reef.fieldmuseum.org/narrative/430

Kentucky Fossil Shells - Henry Nettelroth & Brachiospongia Fossil

Recently, I acquired a book entitled Kentucky Fossil Shells A Monograph of the Fossil Shells of the Silurian and Devonian Rocks of Kentucky by Henry Nettelroth 1889. I like to collect the old reference books to see the fossil plates even if I already have a digital copy. The copy I bought was discarded from the Adelbert College of Case Western Reserve University Library in Cleveland Ohio. It does not appear the school teaches paleontology classes anymore so no need for this book.

It just so happened that I got to see an Ordovician Period poriferan (sponge) fossil at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, USA last week. The museum display list it as Brachiospongia  sp. (490-443 million years old) and found Bridgeport, Kentucky. That same type of fossil is shown in the book. It is described as Brachiospongia digitata (Owen, 1857) on pages 29-30 and image listed in Plate XXXV figure 3 (image below). The fossil was first described by David Dale Owen in First Kentucky Geological Report Volume 2 page 111 as Seyphia digitata. The genus was later named by Marsh in 1867 in American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d series, Volume  44.

Next are two more figures from Plate XXXVI figures 1 and 2.

More images of another specimen at the museum.

It was a treat to see this fossil as I had only read about it before. They are very rare finds and only found in a few localities. The Peabody Museum at Yale have specimens can be seen here: https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-IP-030074 and https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-IP-030063

Dan Phelps the president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society (KPS) gave a talk about these glass sponges to the Dry Dredgers fossil group in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA in 2008. I did not realize how many he had found and the large number of specimens that The Peabody Museum have in their collection.

Also it is brought up that a sponge fossil was found in Tennessee in the 1830s. It turns out that it was documented by Dr. Gerard Troost who I have written about before on this blog in 2009. The Field Museum of Natural History published Annotated Bibliography of Lower Paleozoic Sponges of North America by J. Keith Rigby and Matthew H. Nitecki in Fieldiana: Geology Volume 18, Number 1 on October 25, 1968 which lists references on sponge fossils. Find at this link.

The bibliography reports that Gerard Troost probably described the first fossil sponge from North America in 1838 but did not name it in Description d'un noveau genre de fossiles. Mem. Soc. Geol. France, 3, pt. 1, Mem. 4: pp. 87-96, pis. 9-11.

Natural History Tiles at Roosevelt Station

While visiting Chicago, Illinois, USA, I traveled from Midway Airport to the Roosevelt station via the Orange "L" line. The "L" stands for elevated as in the tracks are high above the street. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The address of the station is 1167 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

The Roosevelt Station is the closest to the Museum Campus where the Field Museum of Natural History can be found. Because of its locality, tile artwork in one of the passenger walk ways are decorated in a natural history theme.

The first image depicts a trilobite, if I had to guess it is a Silurian Period Calymene. Chicago is built on a 420 million year old Silurian Period seabed so this would be a good choice to show. The border tile in yelllow, black and gray show animals as well. The one on the left appears to show a Permian Period tetrapod Discosauriscus. While the one on the right shows a crinoid calyx with part of its stem.

On the opposite wall is tile shows what I think to be is a brachiopod.

The next image shows a Permian Period Dimetrodon (the fossil of one can be seen at the Field Museum of Natural History in the Evolving Planet exhibit). The smaller tiles from left to right show a straight conical shelled cephalopod, a Silurian Period sea scorpion Eurypterid, and maybe a crinoid column section.

At one end of the walkway is an image representing a human in a form similar to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man artwork from 1490. The smaller tiles represent on the left a snail (reminds be of a Turritella or Loxoplocus fossil) and the right a standing bird (reminds me of a Dodo). The human figure seems to represent current time of where our natural world is at.

At the opposite end of the walkway, the tile shows the Big Bang or the beginning of our known natural world.

Fossils In A Museum Floor

Just recently, I have returned for a small vacation to Chicago, Illinois, USA. In these troubled times of a world-wide epidemic, I did not think a trip would happen in 2020. As it turns out, some museums in Chicago opened for limited visitation and Kentucky was not put on a quarantine list by Illinois. So I was able to visit.

So we visited the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) this week. The building was built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was known as the Palace of Fine Arts. After the Exposition it housed the Field Museum of Natural History until that museum moved in 1920.

After watching a Brain Scoop YouTube video on the fossils in the floor tile at the Field Museum I wondered if they were at MSI. As it turned out, they were and they appear very similar to the ones found that Field Museum. According the video the tile were quarried at Carthage, Missouri, USA (Carthage Marble Corporation?).

The fossils in the pictures above are Mississippian Period Archimedes sp. bryozoan. The first image is a quite nice cross section showing the screw section plus the net like structure that helped capture food for the colony. The tile can be found in front of the Red Stairs entrance way.

Fossil Meteorite Video

An interesting video produced by The Field Museum of Chicago, Illinois, USA is on YouTube about Fossil Meteorites. These objects fell to Earth and landed in an ancient sea. Over time like organic fossils there composition changed as the original material was replaced with minerals. The meteorite shown in this video was L chondrite and the chromite composition was measured to identify it.

They dated it by looking at cosmogenic nuclides. As the material traveled through space it was impacted by cosmic rays. This interaction caused the composition to change. By measuring the amounts of certain elements, the approximate age can be determined of the specimen.

The video states the meteorite was found in the Ordovician layer of a quarry in Sweden. I wonder if meteorites that fell during that period can be found in the Louisville area? Maybe the ocean dissolved the material before it could fossilize. It gives me something else to keep an eye at for when looking for Ordovician fossils.

 Learn more at their web site:
https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/blog/fossil-meteorites-arrive-field-museum

Silurian Reef Database Project

Silurian Reef Database from Field Museum on Vimeo.

Here is an interesting video from the Fossil Invertebrate Department of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. A summer 2011 intern named Alex Lang(?) is the narrator and describes his task of cataloging Silurian fossils into a computer database. He states in the video that only 278 invertebrate fossil specimens are on display of over the 2 million in the collection. The collection is cataloged on books that began with the 1893 Columbian World Exposition in Chicago. Hopefully, they have transcribed the handwritten volumes and keep a copy in a fireproof safe. Better would be to photograph the volumes and store them digitally in various places around the world.

Louisville, Kentucky and Chicago, Illinois both sit on top of the remains of ancient Silurian reefs. The Field Museum also has links to this area in its relationship between local mining tycoon and geologist/paleontologist William Borden. His approximately 30,000 piece fossil collection was transferred from New Providence (Borden), Indiana to the Field Museum in 1923. William Borden and Marshall Field were partners in mining interests in Leadville, Colorado as well. See my post about Mr. Borden for more info: http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2009/11/borden-institute.html.

Learn more about the Field Museum at their web site: http://fieldmuseum.org/

Check out the Fossil Invertebrates Diversity picture gallery (147 images): http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/multimedia/fossil-invertebrates-diversity

Specimens they show of local interest:

Image 16 (UC 14016): Polypora (Fenestella) cultellata bryozoan Falls of the Ohio, Indiana
Image 17 (UC 17494): Constellaria florida bryozoa Covington, Kentucky
Image 21 (UC 28227): Archimedes symmetricus bryozoa Princeton, Kentucky
Image 23 (PE 16568): Hiscobeccus capax brachiopod Abington, Indiana
Image 27 (UC 12329): Kirkidium (Conchidium) laqueatum brachiopod Delphi, Indiana
Image 28 (UC 13212): Pentameus oblongus brachiopod Indiana
Image 29 (UC 13520): Anthracospirifer (Spirifer) bifurcatus brachiopod New Providence, Indiana (Borden collection?)
Image 41 (UC 16542): Onniella meeki brachiopods Brookfield, Indiana
Image 63 (PE 40269): Triangulotarbus terrehautensis  spider? Terre Haute, Indiana
Image 72-74 (UC 12900-1): Carcinosoma (Eusarcus) newlini eurypterid Kokomo, Indiana
Image 90 (UC 2465): Petraster americanus starfish Cincinnati, Ohio
Image 91 (UC 6020): Triamara tumida (Holocystites adipatusas) cystoid Jefferson County, Indiana
Image 92 (UC 6028): Caryocrinites indianensis cystoid Jefferson County, Indiana
Image 94 (UC 6419): Agelacrinites pulaskensis endrioasteroid Pulaski County, Kentucky
Image 95 (UC 6623): Oligoporus sulcatus echinoid? Harding County, Kentucky
Image 96 (UC 8825): Carneyella pilea endrioasteroid Cincinnati, Ohio
Image 97 (UC 9956): Elaeacrinus verneuili blastoid Falls of the Ohio, Indiana
Image 98 (UC 18061): Holocystites alternatus cystoid Jefferson County, Indiana
Image 103 (UC 54070): Carneyella pilea endrioasteroid Cincinnati, Ohio
Image 104 (P 20623): Platystoma Shumardi gastropod Falls of the Ohio, Indiana