Silurian Dalmanites Trilobite Fragments

At one time in the Louisville, Kentucky area there lived some very large Silurian Period trilobites. Here are some fragments that were found that were just the back pieces. They are almost 4 cm wide so the entire trilobite was huge compared to Devonian Period Phacops and Ordovician Period Flexicalymene pieces we find. The only other trilobite in this area that may have been larger was the Ordovician Period Isotelus.

These fragments were found in Jefferson County, Kentucky in the Louisville Limestone. These are probably Silurian Period Dalmanites.

Modern Day Brachiopod

On my tour of the Indiana University Southeast (IUS) Geosciences department, they had a modern day brachiopod sitting in a jar of preservative. That explains why the image has optical distortions since it taken through a curved surface of a jar with the specimen in a liquid.

No name was on the jar so I am not sure what the name of the brachiopod is.

Here is a reference Platystrophia Ordovician Period brachiopod found in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ordovician Flexicalymene Trilobite

I picked this rock up in one of the eastern Louisville, Kentucky road cuts that has Ordovician Period fossils. Originally, I was attracted to a conical shaped cephalopod mold looking rock. Once I picked it up, it had a small exposed area of a trilobite thorax. The ridges of the thorax had matrix in them so it seemed like a good idea to sand blast them clean.

I took it to my cousin and pointed out that a cephalon was partially visible and maybe a whole trilobite was there. So he sandblasted the rock for about 20 minutes and what a surprise. There were sections of three Flexicalymene trilobites there. The largest one is about 2 cm long.

This is a work in progress. More matrix needs to be removed to see if another cephalon exists. Notice the white marks on the rock made by the engraver tool.