This picture is of a Dallinella occidentalis (Dall, 1871) modern brachiopod. It was found in Minnesota USA. I cannot find this specimen in their database. USNM PAL 95850 listed as Terebratalia occidentalis (Dall, 1871) is there as a holotype though.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This brachiopod looks very similar to the Terebratalia transversa (Sowerby, 1846) that I posted about in September 2009.
Tylocidaris clavigera (Mantell, 1822) cast of a sea urchin fossil found in
the Coniacian of the White Chalk subgroup in England. The creature existed in the Cretaceous Period (Late Turonian to Santonian). Cast is on
display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as of June 2023.
The genus was named by Pomel in 1883.
I photographed this same specimen in 2010 and posted about it. It is interesting how camera technology as changed. My cell phone picture taken in 2023 is far from perfect. I might start letting it save the RAW images and see how they compare.
This picture is of a Prismatophyllum (Simpson, 1900) coral fossil. It was found in Alpena County, Michigan, USA. It
dates to the Middle Devonian Period.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This picture is of a Mawsonites spriggi(Glaessner & Wade, 1966) jellyfish? fossil cast. It was found in south Australia. It
dates to the late Neoproterozoic Era.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This picture is of an Agaricocrinus splendens (Miller & Gurley) crinoid fossil. It was found in the Edwardsville Formation of Montgomery County, Indiana USA. It
dates to the Mississippian Period.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This picture is of a Latzelia primordialis (Scudder, 1890) centipede fossil cast. It was found in Carbondale Formation of Grundy County, Illinois USA. It
dates to the Pennsylvanian Period. Its U.S. National Museum catalog number is 38003. The specimen on display is the holotype.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
Fossil was named by Samuel Hubbard Scudder (1837-1911) in the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois.
This picture is of an Euproops danae (Meek & Worthen, 1868) horseshoe crab fossil. It was found in Carbondale Formation of Grundy County, Illinois USA. It
dates to the Pennsylvanian Period. Its U.S. National Museum catalog number is 38854.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 38854 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m3f4bd1c88-6763-4b98-8641-93abc743175d Photographer Bruce Martin. Specimens housed in the collections of the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution.
This picture is of an Eoscorpius carbonarius (Meek & Worthen, 1868) scorpion fossil cast. It was found in Carbondale Formation of Illinois USA. It
dates to the Pennsylvanian Period. Its U.S. National Museum catalog number is 618348. The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
Photoshop enhanced and colored from copy of photograph in Miss Emma Carleton scrapbook no. 1, page 11. Date unknown but probably early 1900s. Original plate should be at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library archives
Early Life
George Kennard Greene was born November 18, 1833 in Columbus, Indiana to Captain George Greene (1802-1877) and Eunice R. Parker Greene (1808-1893). His parents lived in Hancock County, Kentucky and George K. went to public schools there. He was also tutored in Latin and science privately. As a boy, his family was visited by the German paleontologist and showman/entrepreneur Albert C. Koch (1804-1867) who was collecting fossil specimens for a French college. Probably around 1847, he joined Mr. Koch on his geological journeys where he learned more about becoming a geologist and fossil dealer.
Koch was famous for finding the Missouri Leviathan (a mis-assembled mastodon) that he excavated in 1840 and later sold to the Museum of Natural History in London England for $2,000 plus a $1,000 a year for as long as he was alive. Read its interesting story at the museum web site. Later in 1845, he found a whale like creature now known as a Basilosaurus in Alabama. The specimen was sold to a museum in Prussia in 1848. Whether George Greene helped him with this last sale, it is not documented.
Greene moved to Hardinsburg, Kentucky and married Mary "Mollie" Jane Lewis in 1859. They had 8 children including Newton A. "Gus" Greene (1866-1938), who would later become mayor of New Albany. The other children were William Alexander Greene (1860-1942), Eunice M. Greene (1864-1933), George C. Greene (1868-1882), Daisy Boyd Greene (1871-1948), Sidney S. Greene (1873-1875), Alma Belle Greene (1876-1958), and Robert Greene (1881-1887).
The 1860 U.S. Census lists him in Hawesville, Kentucky with his wife and son William. His occupation is listed as deputy sheriff and worth at $600. He enlisted in the Confederate army Company H, 10th (Colonel A. R. Johnson) Regiment Kentucky Cavalry on November 15, 1862. He was captured in Louisville on September 1, 1863 and shipped to Camp Douglas, Illinois prisoner of war camp. On February, 24, 1865 he was exchanged at Point Lookout, Maryland and swore is oath of alligence to the United States on May 12, 1865.
In 1870, they moved to Jeffersonville, Indiana to be closer to the Falls of the Ohio and it's fossil beds where he collected his specimens to sell. He made another move in 1878 to New Albany where he setup his fossil shop. Indiana University employed him to arrange Dr. Dale Owen's (1807-1860) fossil collection. Afterwards, he worked for five years as Assistant State Geologist and made several state geological surveys. His wife died in 1882. In 1885, he became one of the founding members of the Indiana Academy of Sciences.
Scientific Work
In 1886, he financially sponsored and provided the Falls of the Ohio fossil specimens for E.O. Ulrich (1857-1944) to publish Contributions to American Palaeontology. In it Ulrich names a brachiopod Rhynchonella greeniana (Ulrich, 1886) after Greene. Ulrich makes a misstep in naming a new foraminifera genus Moellerina and species M. greenei as it later turns out the fossil is a plant charophyte. The name is still used though and the type specimen is at the Smithsonian catalog number P42079. Elizabeth McGowan married him on May 28, 1894.
Rhynchonella greeniana (Ulrich,1886) brachiopod fossil named in honor of George Greene
Moellerina greenei (Ulrich, 1886) charophyte algae fossil named for George K. Greene
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM P 42079 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m37c47d760-07e4-435e-8f46-fd2194d87b1a Photographer Curt Breckenridge. Specimens housed in the collections of the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. Holotype of Moellerina greenei (Ulrich, 1886) named for George K. Greene who found in Devonian Period layer of Jeffersonville Limestone at Falls of the Ohio Clark County, Indiana, USA
From February 1898 till September 1904 he published Contribution to Indiana Palaeontology Volume I Part I to XX. University of Michigan paleontologist and coral fossil expert Erwin C. Stumm noted in 1964 that Greene "described 164 species of rugose and tabulate corals"... from the Falls of the Ohio but many were already described previously. Non-coral fossils were described by R. R. Rowley (1854-1935) of Louisiana, Missouri. Having another researcher allowed him to publish new fossil names where the species was named after him. Specifically a horn coral Blothrophyllum greenei (Rowley, 1904), a crinoid Dolatocrinus greenei (Rowley, 1904), and a blastoid Nucleocrinus greenei (Rowley, 1904).
His second wife died in 1910. Below is his business card of the different types of historical items he dealt with.
On September 17, 1911, The Courier-Journal published an almost full page article about George Greene entitled "Fossils Found Revert to Age When Louisville Was At the Equator". He reveals that he has sold fossils to American Museum of Natural History, British Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, Boston Society of Natural History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Borden Institute of Indiana. He considered some of his best finds a 150 pound coral found in the mud of Silver Creek which he sold to William Borden for $50 and an over 100 arm crinoid calyx he sold him for $100. "This specimen is considered the finest ever found, both for beauty and size. It was five and one-half inches high and three inches in diameter. It had 152 arms."
He told the journalist that he was content living as a recluse in his two room home next door to his son, the mayor. "Despite his 76 years, he is hale and hearty. He eats only the simplest foods, prepared by his own hands. He does not drink, chew or smoke, and never was seriously sick in his life."
Photoshop enhanced
and colored from copy of photograph in Miss Emma Carleton scrapbook no.
1, page 11. Date unknown but probably early 1900s. Original plate should
be at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library archives
Death
In September of 1916, Greene was admitted into the Southeastern Hospital for the Insane (aka "Cragmont" now known as Madison State Hospital). George Greene died of a cerebral embolism at approximately 1 A.M. on August 19, 1917. The Indiana State Board of Health Certificate of Death 25540 listed his occupation as geologist. He was buried at Fairview Cemetery in New Albany, Indiana.
Legacy
His son, Newton sold his father's collection consisting of 1500 boxes, 100 cabinet drawers, 3 show cases, 5 bins, 65 cigar boxes, 1 trunk of Indian relics, 3 cabinets and 20 bushels of fine specimens for $5,500 to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. When Dr. C.A. Reed, Assistant Curator at AMNH shipped it off to the New York, it weighed 23,000 lbs. and estimated to consist of 400,000+ specimens. They never curated it except for the type specimens. Dr. Reed also bought the William J. McConathy (1841-1918) collection for $2,300 consisting of 7,000+ coral specimens that were shipped with the Greene collection. In 1960, the Greene collection was donated to the U.S. National Museum. As of this writing in 2023, their database shows 23 specimens with the species name of greenei.
The Sources:
Greene Family file, Indiana Room, New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, 180 West Spring Street, New Albany, Indiana 47150
Dr. Lane consulted with librarian Ruth Ann Kramer (1920-2017) at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Libary and its Indiana Room collection. I recently visited there and reviewed their research file. It contains correspondence with Mrs. Kramer and Dr. Lane about George Greene from a period 1980-1982. She carbon copied all her letters about this research and Dr. Lane was good enough to send her copies of what he had found for the library file. The file contains more than what is covered in the 1987 article. Greene had correspondence with James Hall (New York State Museum of Natural History), Edward Orton (Ohio Geological Survey), Stephen E. Lee (Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History), S.S. Gorby (Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History), William W. Borden (Borden Institute), S.S. Newberry (School of Mines, Columbia College), William A. Oliver (U.S. National Museum), and letters to Canadian geological institutions.
After reading a lot of the letters Mrs. Kramer had sent trying obtain more information about George Greene for the library, I had respect for this research. Since this had occurred over 40 years ago I felt she had probably passed away and went looking for an obituary. I only found a notice in a Pennsylvanian newspaper she had died but no obituary and just that she was buried nearby in Floyd Knobs, Indiana next to her husband. Next did a little more research and found a memorial video created by her daughters on YouTube that I found to be a very touching remembrance of a life well lived.
This picture is of a Spirifer grimesi (Hall, 1858) brachiopod fossil. It was found in Burlington, Iowa USA. It
dates to the Mississippian Period. The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This picture shows an interesting fossil. It is an Amecystis laevis (Raymond, 1921) which is a cystoid. It was found in Bobcaygeon Formation of Simcoe County, Ontario Canada. It
dates to the Middle Ordovician Period.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
Learn more about this at Smithsonian Department of Paleobiology Collections USNM 436990:
Here is another Louisville area fossil on display in the Deep Time Exhibit. It is a Modiomorpha concentrica (Conrad, 1838) which is an extinct clam. It was found in Silver Creek Formation of Clark County Indiana USA. It
dates to the Middle Devonian Period.
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
Learn more about this at Smithsonian Department of Paleobiology Collections USNM PAL36267:
This fossil is an Wiwaxia sp. (Walcott, 1911) which might be an extinct mollusc. It was found by Charles Walcott
(1850-1927) in 1911 in Burgess Shale of British Columbia Canada. It
dates to the Middle Cambrian Period (505 million years ago).
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This fossil is an Opabinia regalis (Walcott, 1912) which is an extinct arthropod. It was found by Charles Walcott (1850-1927) in 1912 in Burgess Shale of British Columbia Canada. It dates to the Middle Cambrian Period (505 million years ago).
The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.
This picture was taken in June 2023 while visiting Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It is the Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840) snail fossil found by Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887) probably in the 1870s in Clark County, Indiana or Jefferson County, Kentucky. This gastropod existed in the Devonian Period and Jeffersonville Limestone. Nettelroth documented the specimens his book Kentucky Fossil Shells published in 1889. I am not sure which fossil on the plate is the one in the picture above. The curator at the Smithsonian said that spines had broken off while in storage over the last 110 years. The institution acquired the collection in 1907.
You can read my past experiences with the Smithsonian staff and their help in getting the specimens of USNM PAL 51268 imaged. So I was surprised on my visit to the museum earlier this week and saw on the specimens in a display case in the exhibit labeled PLAYING THE NUMBERS. They had it labeled as sea snail 1 Spinyplatyceras dumosum lived 391-389 million years ago and found in the Columbus Limestone of Clark County, Indiana.
From my personal perspective I was happy to see one of Louisville's fossils being displayed in the main fossil hall at the museum. Hopefully, if Henry Nettelroth were alive today he would be too.
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 2 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m3c65a4dfe-ad99-45cc-8f4a-0217d73e8a45
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Echinocrinites fenestratus (Troost, 1850) cystoid fossil described in A Critical Summary of Troost's Unpublished Manuscript on the Crinoids of Tennessee
by Elvira Wood
1909. This cystoid was found in Brownsport limestone of Decatur County
Tennessee USA (Silurian Period). It was assigned
U.S. National Museum number 35091 and identified as a holotype.While
fossil is described on pages 8-9, no explanation as to why no
illustration was provided. It was later renamed by Professor Charles Schuchert (1858-1942) as Tetracystis fenestratus (1904). He published about this same specimen in On Siluric and Devonic Cystidea and Camarocrinus and included three photographs at Plate XXXIV figures 6-8.
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 2 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m36381a8a3-ba40-4d94-aea8-3a9ab5a5c632
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 2 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m3168ad43c-793c-4122-bdcc-1d6c566bba8a
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Photos are from the Smithsonian collection, first three shown from specimen 2. The record for USNM PAL 35091 lists only 1 specimen but there are six pictures and appear to be two distinct cystoid fossils. Three pictures shown below appear to be from specimen 1.
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 1 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m360b0775e-4ca2-48cb-92e2-ca1ab25b8a70
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 1 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m3a74e0aa5-fa6a-4fb5-8624-e6f4ce09d08c
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 35091 Specimen 1 GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/m3d01e00e9-334e-4fdf-a0e5-654056b7b4c0
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 39909 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/36ce242a9-26bb-4138-8ab4-fccdd1ce4954
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Melonite granulatus (Troost, 1850) crinoid calyx fossil described in A Critical Summary of Troost's Unpublished Manuscript on the Crinoids of Tennessee
by Elvira Wood
1909. This crinoid was found in Cumberland Gap Claiborne County Tennessee USA (Mississippian Period). It was assigned
U.S. National Museum number 39909 and identified as a holotype.While fossil is described on pages 107-108, no explanation as to why no illustration was provided.
Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Specimen Catalog Number: USNM PAL 39909 Specimen GUID: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/36ce242a9-26bb-4138-8ab4-fccdd1ce4954
Photographer Suzanne McIntire. Specimen housed in the collections of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
