Ammonoid Fossils At Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

 

When in Washington, D.C. in June of 2023, I got a chance to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The gift shop at the memorial has quite a few fossils in its polished slab floor. They are ammonoids, not sure of their names, time period, or geological formation. Thanks to Christopher Barr of dcfossils.org for letting me know about these fossils.

Archive web site for dcfossils.org if you cannot reach it from main web address.

Cipangopaludina Snail

Cipangopaludiana japonica? snail found in the Potomac River outside of Washington, D.C. It is not a native species of the United States but found its way here from Asia. I have posted about this snail before but those were found in the White River of Indianapolis, Indiana. See that entry from November 15, 2010. The specimen was cleaned up and I posted it on April 2, 2011, see post here.

I wonder if this snail is edible. There is a show on Korean television (KBS) called Screening Humanity. They profile different households around Korea every week. One older couple who lived in the countryside was shown preparing marsh snail soup. It looks like the snails are soaked in clean water and then boiled later. A needle is then used to extract the snail out of the shell. I am not sure what is next in the recipe as they did not show that part on the show.

The two specimens shown in this posting have been cleaned.

Thanks to Kenny for specimens.

Smaller specimen shown.

In Memory of 9-11-2001

This picture is of a roof tile from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  It was removed after the terrorist attack on the building on September 11, 2011 at approximately 9:37 AM EST.  This attack killed 125 people in the building and the 53 passengers, 6 crew and 5 hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77.

May the victims of all the attacks that day, rest in peace.

Damage at Pentagon - Image taken September 14, 2011
Photo by TSGT Cedric H. Rudisill, USAF
From Wikipedia.org

The tile is on display at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum in Marion, Kentucky.  It was donated by a resident of Stafford County, Virginia.

The facade of the Pentagon consists of Indiana Limestone originally installed in 1941-1943. The repairs to the Pentagon required new Indiana Limestone in 2001-2002 which was supplied by Bybee Stone Company of Ellettsville, Indiana and Independent Limestone Company of Bloomington, Indiana.

Aerial View of Pentagon circa 1980-1998?
DoD photo by Master Sgt. Ken Hammond, U.S. Air Force
From Wikipedia.org

Learn more of these attacks at the report on Wikipedia.org: CLICK HERE

As for my memories of that day, it was extremely foggy that morning in southern Indiana across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.  It made vehicle travel difficult. I was home from work and remember hearing about a plane crashing into a building on morning radio news.  It seemed like some of accident at first until the next plane crashed. 

Talking to my neighbor on his front porch we discussed the morning's events.  While outside, the sky became quiet as planes were absent from their usual flight paths going to the Louisville and Clark County airports.  It was an eerie feeling.  Later, at night the UPS planes were not out as usually line up above the Ohio River to wait their turns to land at the air freight hub.  Its impact on air travel in the United States is still felt today.

Homalophyllum (Zaphrentis) ungula

These horn corals are on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.  They are located in the Ancient Seas section on the first floor.  The three specimens are identified as Homalophyllum (Zaphrentis) ungula of the Devonian Period found in Kentucky.

This museum is an amazing national treasure loaded with specimens of all types!  I started with this fossil since I suspect it is from Louisville and probably the Falls of the Ohio.  My visit to the museum was educational and tiring after trying to see as much of the material before they closed for the day.  A later post will overview my visit and impressions of such a grand place once I collect my thoughts and survey the photos taken.

The odd thing is when I type the scientific name Homalophyllum ungula or Zaphrentis ungula into the Smithsonian collections database nothing is found.