Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Carboniferous Fossils

The following are images of Lower Carboniferous Period (Mississippian) fossils. This first one is a elliptical crinoid columnal segment from maybe a Platycrinites.

This next image of a crinoid calyx that is probably an Eretmocrinus.

This next image is of an anal tube of an Eretmocrinus crinoid.
This might be a holdfast of an unidentified crinoid.


Unknown brachiopod shell half fossil.


A view of Lake Cumberland, Kentucky where these fossils were found in the Fort Payne Formation.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Falls Fossil Festival - September 19-20, 2009

If you are in the Louisville, Kentucky area on September 19 or 20, 2009 and are interested in fossils, visit the Falls Fossil Festival at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. The park is right across the Ohio River from downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

The park consists of 220 acres when the Ohio River is at a low point and contains the largest naturally exposed Devonian Period (380 millions years old) fossil beds in the world. This festival is in its 15th year and is a great place to learn about fossils and nature.

View this PDF for a list of activities during the 2009 festival: http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/forms/FossilFestivalbrochure09.pdf

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Trip to Lake Cumberland

Back from Lake Cumberland, Kentucky where the boaters were celebrating the end of the summer holiday season with boat racing on the lake. It was quite a busy day on the lake to be studying the area geology and looking for fossils. At one point from my perch on a large boulder I counted over 70 boats in view. It was an interesting day in that I saw a number of coral pieces, bryozoans, numerous brachiopods, and even a small trilobite fragment fossil.

This first picture is of a common calyx found at the lake called Eretmocrinus. I like to think of it as a pineapple. One person in the group I was in found one of these out of the matrix with its long anal tube intact. Amazing that fossil stayed in one piece over the millions of years!


This next image is a panoramic image of the lake. The boats were moving closer to the shore to allow room for the racing boats. Notice the muddy water close to the shore line churned up by so much wave action from the fast boats.



This next image is of a fragment of what might be an Agaricocrinus or "mushroom crinoid".


This picture depicts a Cladochonus coral wrapped around an unidentified crinoid stem.


This picture shows a section of crinoid holdfast.