Modiomorpha Clam Fossil

Some images of a Modiomorpha clam fossil found in the Mahantango Formation, Pennsylvania. This pelecypod existed in the Devonian Period. Great line detail in this casting. I have only found one of these in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Clark County, Indiana.

Thank you to Dave for providing the images for today's post.

 

500 Fossil Posts

This is my 500th blog post and to mark this milestone I will post some of the most popular fossils by Internet visits and then post a few images I have posted that are some of my favorites.  The blog was started in July 2008 and now has over 1,200 pictures in it.  In retrospect, maybe I should have called this blog, "A Fossil a Day" since that is about what it has turned into.

My main motivation for starting it was to have an electronic record of what I was finding or what people were showing me.  It also is a learning tool that keeps me researching different aspects of paleontology.  Another reason was to provide the Internet with some visual images of what a genus or species looked like in fossil form that could help out with school reports or hobbyist identifications.  I would like to thank Blogger and Google for providing this free service.  Their posting tools are great along with bandwidth and storage facilities.

Will I continue to post like this?  Time will tell.  I have collected maybe thousands of images and fossils that need to be posted.  Usually the issue is identification and specifics (e.g. location, time period, formation, history) of specimen that needs to be researched before the image goes on the Internet.  It might be better to have a site that has all the fossils organized by time period, type, or location.

This first fossil is one of the most popular viewed on the blog.  It is a Platystrophia brachiopod from the Ordovician Period.  It was found east of Louisville, Kentucky and is the state fossil of Kentucky.

This next fossil's name is a popular search term on the Internet.  It is the Heliophyllum horn coral found in Clark County, Indiana.  This particular specimen also has a Favosites clausus bryozoan growing on it.  It is from the Devonian Period and might have been found in the Beechwood Formation.

Here is a fern fossil from St. Clair, Pennsylvania.  I did not find this fossil but my friend Dave gave it to me.  I thought it would be a good idea to compare the fossil image to a living fern.  Thanks to Kenny for letting me take a picture of his fern.

This fossil is of a very small Ambonychia clam.  While not it the best shape, it is unique to me because it has an aragonite (or brown calcite) shell.  Most clams I find are just molds of the shell that has disintegrated over time.  It was found at Carroll County, Kentucky in the Kope Formation.

These next set of fossils are some of personal favorite images I have posted.

This fossil is an example of photographing the fossil sitting on a glass plate with blue color gradient behind it.  The coral is also neat in that is like a stone sponge.  It is called Favosites (aka Emmonsia) eximia found in Clark County, Indiana. It is from the Devonian Period and might be from either the Jeffersonville or Beechwood Formations.

I like the contrast of the green background and the white fossil in this image.  Also the different variations of the color green along with the shadowing of the fossil catch my attention.  The colonial coral is from the Ordovician Period and was subject to the work of a local paleontologist Ruth Browne.  It is probably a Foerstephyllum vacuum (Foerste, 1909) and was found in the Drake Formation of Jefferson County, Kentucky.

 

As they said in Ordovician times, "Carpoid diem!"

Greenops Trilobite Fragments

My friend Dave has sent me some images I can use in posts.  I am using two for this today's fossil.  They are of a Devonian Period trilobite called the Greenops found in the Mahantango Formation of Pennsylvania. 

 

After seeing his image it reminded me of a Greenops? pygidium fragment (2 cm) I found in Clark County, Indiana.  This fossil is very interesting because I found it in the area of some of Phacops trilobites posted a few days ago.  This rock does not look like Jeffersonville Limestone so it might be something from the Beechwood Limestone.  The fossil is white which is another aspect that is rare for the fossils I was finding that day.

 

 

Interesting side views showing the hollow area in the spines that protruded off the trilobite pygidium.