Indiana Button Coral Fossil

The Hadrophyllum orbignyi (Edwards & Haime, 1851) is found in the Speeds Limestone found in Clark County, Indiana. These two fossils are about the size of an American nickel. I sometimes wonder what this little Devonian Period creature looked like when alive. Looking at this fossil sometimes makes me hungry. It reminds me of my grandmother's peanut butter cookies that had this color and texture with a criss-cross pattern pressed into them.

While doing research on a brachiopod fossil from a recent post I came across some really nice websites:

This French website on brachiopods is very well done.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jean-ours.filippi/brach/anglais/index.html?26,38

The University of Iowa has some really good brachiopod images. One project they did called "Fossils In My Backyard" is great. it shows the geological map of the state of Iowa and then one can click on a county and see the fossils found there. I did not realize they had so many time periods exposed in their state.

http://nmita.iowa.uiowa.edu/paleo/FIMBY/GeologicIA.html

The Alberta Palaeontological Society website is well organized. I was impressed with quality of their sample bulletin and the extensive member's guide. They even published a book on vertebrate fossils entitled, "Guide to Common Vertebrate Fossils from the Cretaceous of Alberta".

http://www.albertapaleo.org/

Cincyevolution Website

I found the website for the Cincinnati Museum Center so I decided to quote their own words to describe it. Hopefully, they will start posting some of their fossil images soon.

"Welcome to this introduction to science and natural history at Cincinnati Museum Center. This is the gateway to field and collection-based research in the departments of invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology and zoology and a portal to information on education, conservation and research at the Richard and Lucile Durrell Edge of Appalachia Preserve System. Click on the links above to visit the sites for each department."

http://cincyevolution.com/Cincyevolution/Welcome.html

I have been waiting to see a better picture of their Cladoselache Devonian shark fossil:
http://cincyevolution.com/vertpaleo/Vertebrate_Paleontology/Chondrichthyes.html

Also the Dry Dredgers profiled a recently published book on Ordovician fossils from Canada the seems to cover some found in the Kentucky area. It is called SOUTH-CENTRAL ONTARIO FOSSILS: A Guide to the Ancient Marine Life of the Region by William A. Hessin.

See this website for more details: http://www.eagle.ca/~ontariofossils/

Unknown Devonian Brachiopod

UPDATE: I originally posted this as a clam but Howard set me straight pointing out this is probably a brachiopod. After more research this appears to be an Athyris spiriferoides (Eaton). I used this picture to help with this identification: http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=fossil_gallery&sectionnav=detail&submission_id=1260&taxon_id=&state_id=&period_id=13&assemblage_id=&last_section=search This website shows a list of the species found in the limestone layers of my area: http://www.indiana.edu/~libgeol/reprints/campbell.html

Here is an unidentified brachiopod I found recently. On this particular trip, I found maybe six clam fossils at this Clark County, Indiana location. I could identify the others except this one which I originally thought was a clam. This profile is one I am pretty sure I have not seen before. It is Devonian Period and appears to be from the Beechwood Limestone. It might be a Grammysia gibbosa (aka Grammysoidea secunda). Finding pictures of some of these species is not easy!

Here is our caravan leaving the fossil collecting location. The clouds are really out!



The arrows point out an interesting feature on this fossil shell. Look at the ridge lines that protrude away from it. I am not sure if these were there and fossilized or material just eroded away to form these patterns.