Protoleptostrophia perplana Brachiopod

Half of an internal Protoleptostrophia perplana (Conrad, 1839) brachiopod found in the Silver Creek Member of the North Vernon Limestone.  Specimen found in Clark County, Indiana.  Brachiopod existed in the Middle Devonian Period (Eifelian).

While this fossil is not complete, features I like are the muscle scars and exposed hinge teeth. It might be mixed in with other brachiopod fragments of Chonetes and Sprifier. 

The Silver Creek Member ranges 0-9 meters in thickness through out Clark County.  Described by (Campbell & Wickwire, 1955) as "homogeneous, fine-grained, bluish to drab or gray, argillaceous, magnesian limestone". I find it to be a light gray to whitish in color and quarried for cement.  Maybe it is the reason Cementville exists with the Essroc plant in Clark County.  It was named by C.E. Siebenthal in the 1901 Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources Annual Report 25. 

Sources for identification:

Formations of Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian Rocks in the vicinity of Hanover, Indiana Compiled by Guy Campbell and Grant T. Wickwire - January 1955.

Picture on fossilpictures.wordpress.com web site.  Especially picture located lower left corner (click to enlarge).

Jesse Earl Hyde Collection

 Cladoselache Shark Fossil

Cleveland Shale - Upper Devonian Period

Geier Collections Center of Cincinnati Museum

Ohio - United States

While doing research about the Devonian Period Cladoselache shark, I came across images from an Ohio geology professor who taught in the early 1900s.  The collection is called "The Jesse Earl Hyde Lantern Slide Collection" and it is housed at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  It can be seen at this website.  The collection was digitized by a student named Kathy Huwig in maybe 2003-2004.  That looks like quite a bit of work!

The website describes itself this way, " This website contains images and descriptions of over one thousand glass lantern slides used by Prof. Jesse Earl Hyde (1884-1936), a professor who taught geology at Western Reserve University (now part of Case Western Reserve University) from 1915 until his death in 1936. The collection itself contains more than 2000 slides and hundreds of photographs made roughly from 1890 to the mid 1930's. These slides span a massive range of topics such the evolution of man, glaciers, Ohio geology, and the history of science just to name a few"

The images that interested me were of the Cladoselache shark: 675.7, 675.8, and 675.40.  The last link has a picture that I hope will help me identify something I found in the New Albany Shale.  Since I do not have permission to use the pictures from the Jesse Earl Hyde collection, I include in this post images I took while visiting the Cincinnati Museum Geier Collections Center.

 Cladoselache Shark Pectoral Fins Fossil

Cleveland Shale - Upper Devonian Period

Geier Collections Center of Cincinnati Museum

Ohio - United States

Update (March 2020): Elizabeth Hyde Siman, Professor Jesse Hyde's granddaughter contacted me and this collection. I realized the university had moved the images from their geology server to the College of Arts and Sciences one. I have adjusted the links so they work again.

Beargrass Creek Quarries

When looking at old fossil collections stored at museums and universities that contain specimens collected from the Louisville, Kentucky area, one sees localities like "Falls of the Ohio" or "Beargrass Creek".  In previous posts, the Falls of the Ohio have been covered plus they have an excellent website. 

The locality has somewhat faded into history. Beargrass Creek once hosted a number of quarries that I assume harvested Louisville limestone from the Silurian Period.  As you can see from the pictures it has been a while since any rock was harvested from the Beargrass Creek area.  An example of some fossils listed as having been found in the Beargrass Creek quarries: Cystihalysites nexus, Quepora huronensis, Syringopora hisingeri, Diorychopora tenuis, and Aulopora pygmaea.  These species are just a few listed in Erwin Stumm's 1964 book that showed the specimens as being stored at Harvard University.

Today, one can see remnants of these quarries along the Beargrass Creek Greenway.

The actual Beargrass Creek visible from the path.

Rock walls becoming overgrown by vegetation.

Side note here are signs showing Louisville, Kentucky's sister cities: Mainz (Germany), Quito (Ecuador), Leeds (United Kingdom), La Plata (Argentina), Tamale (Ghana), Montpellier (France), Perm (Russia) and Jiujiang (China).  It should be noted that Louisville is also twinned with Bushmills, Northern Ireland.