Life on a Brachiopod

This specimen is an interesting example of biodiversity layer upon layer. The top layer consists for at least 5 crinoid holdfast probably belonging to the Eucalyptocrinus. See following magnified images for more detail. These holdfasts attached to an encrusting bryozoan that could be either Lichenalia or Sagenella. The bryozoan is covering an Eospirifer brachiopod.

Creatures lived in the Middle Silurian Period (425-419 million years ago). Fossil found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana, USA.

Let Me Play Among the Constellaria...

Today's fossil is an easy to identify Ordovician bryozoan fossil that looks like a star. It is called the Constellaria sp. This fossil was found in the Lexington Limestone of Franklin County, Kentucky, USA.

The next image is of a magnified star shape. It is nice in you can see the individual pores (zooecia). The Cincinnati Fossils book edited by R.A. Davis (Cincinnati Museum Center,1998) lists two species of this bryozoan that are found: Constellaria florida and C. polystomella.

My blog title refers to the Frank Sinatra song Fly Me to the Moon "and let me play among the stars". 

Red Hill Fossil

A while back my friend Herb gave me a piece of matrix from Red Hill roadcut in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, USA. After leaving the sample outside for weeks it began to break apart. In one of the pieces, I found this impression. It looks to me to be some sort of brachiopod with radial lines (costae or plicae) and a light blue layer with maybe muscle scars on it. If it is a brachiopod it is very compressed.

Looking for more information about Red Hill locality (Duncannon Member, Catskill Formation), I consulted the Devonian Times web site. It lists the site as a Late Devonian area (Famennian Stage, 361 million years old). The area was an area that flooded due to a near by river. If this was a river, I am not sure about this fossil since I thought brachiopods were marine creatures.