Mucrospirifer mucronatus Brachiopod

Pictures of a sampling of small brachiopods (1.5-3.0 cm wide) found in the Jeffersonville Limestone (Devonian Period). Using the Fossils of Ohio book and Index Fossils of North America this brachiopod is a Mucrospirifer mucronatus. The Ohio book says they are found in the Columbus Limestone which I think is similar to the Jeffersonville Limestone this was found in. Looking at Nettelroth's book Kentucky Fossil Shells (1889) this brachiopod seems to closely match images on Plate XII figures 14-15 of Spirifera arctisegmenta (1889 name) or today's Spirifer arctisegmenta (Hall, 1857).

Another document I have entitled Middle Devonian Type Jeffersonville Limestone at the Falls of the Ohio by James E. Conkin, Barbara Conkin, and Larry Steinrock on page 8, figure 5 labeled Diagnostic fossils of the Jeffersonville Limestone shows it as "Spirifer duodenarius" in the Paraspirifer acuminatus Zone.

So confusing but all the names seem to have spirifer in them.

All brachiopods found in Clark County, Indiana.

Upper Cretaceous Foraminifera

Pictures are of foraminifera fossils from Starksville, Mississippi. Recovered from the Prairie Bluff Formation that contain fossils from the Upper Cretaceous Period. This first fossil might be an Anomalina sp. Images were photographed at 100x with a microscope thus need to be stacked but I am not quite ready to climb that incline.  My images do not show the divots and bumps that appear on the surface of some of these fossils.

I used A Preliminary Report of the Foraminifera of Tennessee by Joseph A. Cushman (1931) as an identification guide (plates 11 and 12).  It contains a number of specimens from the Upper Cretaceous.  Thanks to Herb for the material.  It is fossil rich!

This next fossil I cannot even guess at an identification.

This fossil might be a Globigerina sp.

Last fossil could be a Globigerinella sp.

Index Fossils of North America lists a number of Upper Cretaceous foraminifera that can be found in Mississippi: Palmula (6-14), Frondicularia (6-17), Kyphopyxa (6-18), Guttulina (7-1), Pseudopolymorphina (7-3), Gumbelitria (8-2), Gumbelina (8-1), Rentilabrella (8-4, 8-5), Bolivinoides (8-6), Pseudouvigerina (8-11), Siphogenerinoides (8-12), Buliminella (8-13), Neobulimina (8-16), Loxostoma (8-18), Lamarckina (9-2), Globigerina (11-1), and Globotruncana (11-9).

Devonian Spiny Snail Fossil

This image is of a partial fossil of a spiny Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840) gastropod fossil. Found in Louisville, Kentucky USA in the Devonian Period Jeffersonville Limestone. My cousin found this to add to maybe the 2-3 others he has found in the last year or so. He has prepped this one a little bit since finding it but the spines on it are impressive. Quite the little porcupine of the sea.

This image is from the book Kentucky Fossil Shells - A Monograph of the Fossil Shells of the Silurian and Devonian Rocks of Kentucky by Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887), 1889, Frankfort,  Kentucky, Kentucky Geological Survey, Plate XXIII, Figure 1 of the Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840).

Another picture of the specimen shown earlier but more on the intact spine side.

This image is from the book Kentucky Fossil Shells - A Monograph of the Fossil Shells of the Silurian and Devonian Rocks of Kentucky by Henry Nettelroth, 1889, Frankfort,  Kentucky, Kentucky Geological Survey, Plate XXIII, Figure 2 of the Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840).

He also found a negative image at a different time of another Platyceras (Conrad, 1840) again from the Jeffersonville Limestone.