Visit Falls of the Ohio State Park

Happy Independence Day, USA!

As one can see from the picture the ancient Devonian Period sea beds are now becoming exposed in this summer season at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. Granted most of the visitors appear to be fishing from them but it is a great time to visit the park. If fossils or fishing are not your game, a large selection of day lily varieties are now blooming. It seems like 50+ types are flowering and the great part is they are mostly labeled with names.

The flowers were planted by the Louisville Daylily Society many years ago. Today Terry Martin maintains them and he has quite a collection to tend to. Learn more at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Facebook page.

Enrolled Phacops rana

First two images of an enrolled Phacops rana (Green, 1832) trilobite fossil found in the Silver Creek Member of the North Vernon Limestone of Clark County, Indiana.  This fossil has been sandblasted though concrete like residue still remains in between thorax segments.  Creature existed in the Middle Devonian Period.  Nice size for this trilobite at about 3 cm wide.

Still not been able to determine if pygidium or cephalon exists on this fossil due to hardness of matrix.  Tried using the engraver some to expose more of fossil but conservative use due to fragile nature of fossil.

Fossil in plate before sand blasting.

Elaeacrinus verneuili Blastoid

Middle Devonian Period blastoid fossil called Elaeacrinus verneuili (Römer [aka Roemer], 1851). The pictures were taken in my cousin's workshop where he has been trying to extract this fossil from a large matrix piece.  So my lighting was fluorescent overhead so the images are a little blurry.

Fossil is about the size of a grape.

The blastoid is in Jeffersonville Limestone.