Ordovician Bryozoan Constellaria

Here are pictures of two pieces of an Ordovician Period bryozoan called Constellaria. It was found in the Drake Formation(?), Spencer County, Kentucky. Its name comes from the star like patterns that one can assume form constellations.

Kentucky Trilobite Book

Tracking Trilobites: Adventures in Paleontology by Judy Lundquist is a great primer on learning about ancient creatures known as trilobites. A trilobite is an extinct animal that belonged to the phylum of arthropods. According to the book, trilobites share traits with today's spiders, scorpions, and horseshoe crabs.

The book is easy to read and rates itself at the beginning of the book on a 3 point technical scale (general, intermediate, technical) as general level book. There are lots of pictures, drawings, and maps for the reader to study. This book is from a point of view from a person in Kentucky since it was published by the Kentucky Geological Survey. A number of experts from Kentucky and around the world are cited throughout the text. A section of the book covers trilobites found in Kentucky from five geological time periods: Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian. Once the book is read, a person can learn more by consulting the references and web site addresses at the end of the book. Though, a number of the web site addresses do not work anymore.

The state of Kentucky has a wide variety of trilobites to study. Whether it be the large Isotelus trilobite from the Ordovician Period, the spiked tail of the Dalmanites existing in the Silurian Period, the large eyed multiple lenses of the Phacops living in the Devonian Period, or the blind, deep ocean Ordovician Period Cryptolithus trilobite. Their diversity and detail rich fossil remains make for great study.

All in all this is a good book to learn about Kentucky trilobite fossils.

Find out how to obtain Judy Lundquist's book at this website.

Devonian Monotrypa? Bryozoan

UPDATE: (8-16-2020): After reading Dave's blog entry about this type of fossil at http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/2020/08/mound-like-bryozoan-from-speed-limestone.html it is obvious this bryozoan is not Eridotyrpa (Ulrich, 1883). I found these after I joined the local geology club and we visited Speed Quarry. They are very numerous and I asked someone what they were called and got that name. Now that I have the Index Fossils for North America book by Schimer and Shrock 1944. It describes it as a bryozoan having branches. Dave suggests it might be a Monotrypa sp. (Nicholson, 1879). The research of  H. A. Nicholson (1844-1899) deserves my further attention to see if it can help identify more bryozoan fossils from this area.

Devonian Period bryozoan colonies called Eridotrypa. These fossils were found in Speed Limestone in Clark County, Indiana. The first fossil shown looks like something was boring into it.

A neat thing to show people is that some of these fossils will float in water. I suppose the small bodied creatures decomposed leaving air pockets. This porous structure is light enough to float until the cavities eventually flood.