Chasing a Metallic Chimera?

For some reason I am obsessed with figuring out the name of the fish on the top of David Dale Owen's (1807-1860) last laboratory building located in New Harmony, Indiana USA. I posted about in an earlier December 30, 2018 blog entry, What is this Fish?

My current theory is that is not a fossil fish at all but a metal artist's creation. It appears to be be a cross between a carp (the body) and a herring (the fins) thus some sort chimera.

While researching it some more, I came across some 1934 historic American buildings survey images in the Library of Congress of New Harmony, Indiana, USA. They show the top of the conical roof with just a metal blastoid fossil. The Archimedes bryozoan screw fossil and fish are missing. So maybe the top was added later thus the fish was not significant. See orange arrow in image below.

 

Historic American Buildings Survey, C. & Rapp, G. (1933) Dr. David Dale Owen House, Church Street State Highway 66, New Harmony, Posey County, IN. Indiana New Harmony Posey County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/in0163/. Photographer Homer Fauntleroy April 7, 1934

Also the house has a little trilobite pattern at the top of some outside windows and doors. See the yellow arrows in the picture above and below.

Historic American Buildings Survey, C. & Rapp, G. (1933) Dr. David Dale Owen House, Church Street State Highway 66, New Harmony, Posey County, IN. Indiana New Harmony Posey County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress,https://www.loc.gov/item/in0163/. Photographer Homer Fauntleroy April 7, 1934

The idea that the upper two fossils representations were added later after its 1859 completion was dashed by the entry in a book written by David Dale Owen's granddaughter, Caroline Dale Snedeker née Parke (March 3, 1871 – January 22, 1956). She gained some fame for writing fictional books for young people in the early 1900s.

One non-fiction book she wrote about New Harmony from stories told to her by her grandmother. It was called The Town of the Fearless and published in 1931. On page 348 she writes, "Also here is the New Laboratory, a charming building in English nineteenth-century style, which David Dale Owen built, and upon which he expended his artistic skill and loving fancy. On the spire of its little tower swings a geological fish as weather vane. Over its door is carved a trilobite. All this is in one plot of ground which is now a beautiful grove and a bird sanctuary."

So when the photos were taken in 1934 the weather vane must have been under repair. Of course, maybe the fish was changed out after being there for over 90 years.

The house has also been profiled by the Society of Architectural Historians at this page:

https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/01-129-0004-02

Acanthoscaphites nodosus Ammonoid Fossil

 

The image shown above is ammonoid mollusk fossil called Acanthoscaphites nodosus (Owen, 1852). This animal fossil dates to the  Late Maastrichtian Stage, Cretaceous Period between 144 and 65 million years ago of the Mesozoic Era. It was found Montana, USA. 

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 PE3908.

Species named by David Dale Owen, he collected during geological surveys of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. Published in 1852 and at that time called Scaphites nodosus. The genus was named by Nowak in 1912.

Ammonites opalus nomen oblitum Fossil Video

 

Today while researching a fossil I found, I came across a video from the The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). It was created June 12, 2020 for the Specimen Spotlight Friday presentation. The video was entitled "What's in a Name? David Dale Owens' Ammonites opalus nomen oblitum" by Paul S. Meyer of the The Field Museum. Since I recently returned from a visit to that museum and earlier in the year I was at New Harmony, Indiana USA where David Dale Owen lived I thought this would be a good topic to blog about.

Above is an enhanced image of the original illustration from Table VIII Figure 6 of the Ammonites opalus described in Illustrations to the Geological Report of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota by David Dale Owen Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1852. It is described as from the Cretaceous Formation of Nebraska Great Bend of the Missouri River, associated with Inoceramus Cripsii. Below is pattern on the shell.

Paul talks about the type specimen at The Field Museum (FMNH UC 6377) which is now called Rhaeboceras halli. John Evans a forward guide for the Owens survey expedition collected this specimen in 1849 which Owen described in 1852. The link to this video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7yCm4ue_I

The Equatorial Minnesota blog was helpful in researching this posting.
https://equatorialminnesota.blogspot.com/2017/04/david-dale-owen-first-mn-geological-survey.html

A scan of David Dale Owen's survey report can be found at: https://archive.org/details/reportageologic00owengoog

Archimedes Bryozoan Fossil with Holdfast

Here is a rare example of an Archimedes sp. bryozoan fossil with part of holdfast (root like structures) exposed. It was used to anchor it to the seabed. Another rare feature is the part of the netting or mesh structure that extended out into the water along the edge of the creature's screw shape. The name for water pump screw credited to the Greek engineer Achimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC).

The naming of this genus is credited to Indiana's first state geologist David Dale Owen (1807-1860) to his publication, A Geological Reconnoisance and Survey of the State of Indiana in 1837 and 1838 in 1838. He later wrote an article for The American Journal of Science and Arts, Volumes 43-44 (1842) entitled Regarding Human Foot-Prints in Solid Limestone. He writes "characterized by a very remarkable fossil coralline, resembling the Retepora of Lin., but verticillated spirally like a continuous screw; described by Lesueur under the appropriate name of Archimedes.*" He writes that on page 19 with a foot note listing, "I am not sure that Lesueur ever published his description of this fossil; but I know that while he resided here (at New Harmony) he engraved a plate containing several views of it, with that intention. He considered it, I believe, a new genus; but it may be only a new species of Retepora; if so, most aptly entitled Retepora Archimedes."

Owen is referring to the French naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846). He lived at New Harmony Indiana from 1826-1837. He was good friends with Thomas Say who named the Pentremites blastoid fossil genus and is buried at New Harmony.

The fossil pictured above was part of the James Conkin collection. This bryozoan existed in the Mississippian Period, the genus died out in the Permian Period. No locality was listed with this fossil but I am guessing it was found in Indiana or Kentucky. Thanks to Kenny for the picture.

What is this Fish?

For a long while I have wanted to visit New Harmony, Indiana USA. On my list of things to see is a weather vane on top of a building built for Indiana's first state geologist David Dale Owen. As the it was the last of his buildings completed in his lifetime (1860 year of his death). The top room with a conical roof is a unique weather vane(?) that consists of replicas of three fossils: a fish, bryozoan, and blastoid.

Owen had a great idea with this weather vane. The fossil selection reflects his, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Thomas Say's contributions to paleontology. When I came across images of this in books or on-line I was always intrigued by its symbolism.

The bottom fossil is the re-creation of a stem section and Pentremite blastoid fossil. The Pentremite was name by Thomas Say in November 1820 (Observations on some Species of Zoophytes, Shells, &c., principally Fossil The American Journal of Science and Arts, VOL. II, No. 2, pages 34–45). See scan of this entire journal on Google Books.

The middle section is an Archimedes bryozoan fossil. It was named by David Dale Owen in the report entitled A Geological Reconnoisance and Survey of the State of Indiana in 1837 and 1838. He wrote,
"In the bed of Oil creek, then, on the road from Troy to Fredonia, the coal sandstone may be found resting on a reddish stratum of a somewhat arenaceous limestone, the uppermost member of this sub-carboniferous group, and characterized by a fossil, described by Lesueur under the name of Archimides, on account of its screw-like form. " 

It is interesting that Charles-Alexandre Lesueur named this fossil as it reminded him of a screw Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) is credited with creating. Lesueur was a resident of New Harmony from 1826-1837, before moving back to France. Learn more about this at University of Evansville's Clark Kimberling web page on this subject.

The fish at the top is what caused me quite a bit of research and puzzlement as to what it is. I speculate that it might be Owen's interpretation of Macropetalichthys rapheidolabis. He and Joseph Granville Norwood, M.D, L.L.D. (Woodford County, Kentucky 12/20/1807-5/6/1895 Columbia, Missouri) described a fossil found in northwest Indiana in the American Journal of Science in an 1846 article, Description of a New Fossil Fish from the Paleozoic Rocks of Indiana pages 367-371.
The article describes the fossil specimen being found "fifteen miles N.W. of Madison, Jefferson county, Indiana, in the rock forming the bed of Lewis's creek, a branch of the Muskatatac River."
They also note the quarryman who found the fossil had damaged it as it was being extracted. Below are figures from their article of this fossil.

I have not found a rendering of what this complete fish looks like. The roof of the skull of the fish is at the Smithsonian catalog number USNM PAL 265273. They also have another 24 specimens of this genus listed in their database. The database for the American Museum of Natural History shows 37 specimens in that collection.

The problem is that is a Devonian Period armored fish in either the Order of Petalichthyids or Arthrodires. Neither those types of fish look at all like what is on the weather vane. Of course in the mid-1800s I am not sure there were enough specimens collected to know that the creature looked like. His 1846 article also mentions the fossil is similar to the Pterichthys cornutus and Chondropterygii. Neither of these fish look like what is depicted on the weather vane either.

So what if the fish model is the Devonian Period Cheirolepis trailli named in 1835 by Agassiz. This fossil was found in Scotland where Owen was born in 1807 and migrated from in 1827 [side note]. Owen and Agassiz both associated with paleobotanist Leo Lesquereux who worked with Agassiz in the 1840s on European peat bogs and Owen in the 1850s-1860s on fossil plants found in coal deposits. So they could have known of each other's work through him. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was also familiar with Lesueur from New Harmony as they were both fish experts. So it could be assumed that Owen was familiar with his work through that connection or that Agassiz knew of the geological work going on at New Harmony. In addition, Agassiz moved to the United States in 1846 so they were at least in the same country and possibly in the same academic circles.

Below are images of the Cheirolepis trailli fossil and its label at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It has similarities to the one on the weather vane. It and the Macropetalichthy both Devonian and the Cheirolepis is found more intact. Maybe it was used as a model for this fossil fish or I am just barking up the wrong weather vane with my guess. If anyone reading these knows the name of that fish please let me know...

Megalonyx Sloth Bone

This Megalonyx jeffersonii claw is on display at the Science on the Edge: Radical Innovation in New Harmony display at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. This specimen once belonged to Indiana State Geologist David Dale Owen. It was found around 1850 by Walter Alves near Henderson, Kentucky on the Ohio River shore line. If I understand correctly part of the specimen was destroyed in a fire later at a museum. The specimen shown in the picture belongs to the Indiana State Museum and is known as the Henderson Sloth. Learn more about its history on Professor Clark Kimberling's web page at the University of Evansville.

Learn more about this exhibit at my earlier post from April 2012.