Halysites louisvillensis Coral

The Halysites louisvillensis chain coral fossil prized by local fossil collectors for its interesting patterns and detail. These fossils were found in the Louisville Limestone layer located in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The coral existed in the Middle Silurian Period and is an index fossil for that period.

This species described in E.C. Stumm's book Silurian and Devonian Corals of the Falls of the Ohio on page 79, "Autocorallites broadly elliptical, a little less than 1 mm in maximum diameter, about 0.8 mm in minimum diameter. Twelve very short, indistinct septal spines in well-preserved corallites. Mesocorallites quadrilateral, very small, averaging about 0.1 mm in diameter."

He goes on to say this species is similar to Catenipora microporus.





I am beginning to wonder if the Coenites coral was the doormat of the Silurian coral bed. You can see an eroded one fused on the bottom of this Halysites chain coral. The Coenites seems to topple over a lot and you will usually find a sponge growing on top of it. I pick up sponge fossils and look for to see if they grew on top of the branching Coenites coral frame.

Dracorex hogwartsia

The curator at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis took the glass case of the plastic mold of this Dracorex hogwartsia so it could be boxed for travel back to the museum. He let me take some pictures while he got its packing crate. It was on display at the local rock show.

One neat side effect from studying fossils is you begin to learn some of the Latin that goes into naming these creatures. Even though I read the Harry Potter books, I did not realize that Draco was Latin for dragon. So when combined with Latin rex (meaning king), this dinosaur was the "dragon king". All the spikes on it make it quite the prickly beast though it apparently ate plants. This type of pachycephalosaur was found in South Dakota and from the Cretaceous Period.








UPDATE: Here is a picture of a casting of the entire fossil and its display at the museum taken 03/13/2010.

Fossil Insect Wing?

A reader of this site sent some pictures of a possible imprint of a insect wing. The impression is somewhat worn but the shape does look like the wing of an insect.

This fossil was found in Powell County, Kentucky. The rock might some sort of red sandstone and was found where plant imprint fossils are found. According to the Kentucky Geological Survey website, "Only one insect wing has been found in Kentucky, and it was found in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. These are extremely rare fossils. Veins within the fossil do not radiate outward from a mid-line or stem as in a leaf." (http://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossilid.htm). So if this wing imprint it would be a quite rare find.

If you have any analysis of this please leave a comment or e-mail me at louisvillefossils@blogspot.com

This imprint is about 5.5 inches or about 14 cm long.


Imprint with a man's hand to get an idea of the size of the imprint.

The rock has some other impressions as well.