Mucrospirifer mucronatus Brachiopod

After volunteering at the Louisville Science Center, I decided to post some pictures of some of their fossils. It is great that they have already been identified for me down to the species.

The small fossil case is located on second floor in the western corner of the building next to the windows looking out over the river. It sort of gets you in the frame of mind for seeing these ancient creatures while seeing the Ohio River flow by.

The brachiopod was labeled Mucrospirifer mucronatus from the Devonian period.

Fossil Rock

I was cycling yesterday and came upon a pile of rocks from construction in a nearby subdivision. Some rocks contained crinoid pieces and this one has some crinoid stem pieces, part of a brachiopod, and in the middle it looks like a small star shape but I don't think starfish fossilize.

Not sure about the time period on this rock. It looks like it was dug up for a basement on a lot so the rock was maybe 10-15 feet down. In a near by area, I found a Silurian trilobite but this rock does not look the same.

Sandblasted Platyceras dumosum

Here is a spiny snail my cousin found at a road cut in Clark County, Indiana. I believe he spent about 20 hours sand blasting it to get the spines to show up.

It appears to be a Platyceras dumosum from the Devonian time period.