Thursday, May 28, 2009

Unknown Trilobite Cephalons and Pygidiums

I have a cousin who works with a jackhammer in his job sometimes. As a result he comes across a number of interesting items in the rock layers of Louisville. Luckily, his brother took some pictures of his finds and gave me the images. These trilobite cephalons and pygidiums were found in either the Louisville limestone or Jeffersonville limestone layer in Louisville, Kentucky.

Usually, I associate the brown/tan/reddish chert like rock with the Devonian period and the grey-white like rock with the Silurian period.

This first image the pygidium shows signs of being a forked posterior. A Devonian trilobite that had a forked posterior was the Coronura. The cephalon looks pointed so maybe this is a Silurian Trimerus.

Here is a closer view of the cephalon shown in the last picture. Again it might be a Trimerus.

This rock looks to be Devonian and this pygidium looks worn. The apparent point at the end of the pygidium could be a Trimerus or Dalmanites?


Pointed cephalon makes me think Trimerus.

These next three pictures are of the same fossil. It appears the cephalon is 5-7 cm wide. I wonder if this could be Trypaulites in the Jeffersonville limestone?




Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Dendrites Forest

My cousin gave me some pictures of these dendrites. It reminds me of looking down on little trees. He did not tell me if he or his brother found them but it is a nice find.

These manganese oxide deposits for the most part have a well defined form.


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Productella spinulicosta - Devonian Spiny Brachiopod

UPDATE: I originally labeled this as a spiny snail but after more research it is a spiny brachiopod.  The descriptions have been now fixed.

Here is a Devonian brachiopod a friend found on his visit to Louisville. It has 5 spines visible and is around 2 cm in diameter. It is sharing rock with several brachiopods and a horn coral.

It appears to be a Productella spinulicosta (Hall, 1867) in the Jeffersonville Limestone.  Might also be known as Spinulicosta spinulicosta (how original).

According to this Kentucky Geological Survey page, the Jeffersonville Limestone is similar to the Onondaga Limestone of New York and the Grand Tower of Illinois (Savage, 1931).