Kentucky Fossil Shells - Henry Nettelroth & Brachiospongia Fossil

Recently, I acquired a book entitled Kentucky Fossil Shells A Monograph of the Fossil Shells of the Silurian and Devonian Rocks of Kentucky by Henry Nettelroth 1889. I like to collect the old reference books to see the fossil plates even if I already have a digital copy. The copy I bought was discarded from the Adelbert College of Case Western Reserve University Library in Cleveland Ohio. It does not appear the school teaches paleontology classes anymore so no need for this book.

It just so happened that I got to see an Ordovician Period poriferan (sponge) fossil at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, USA last week. The museum display list it as Brachiospongia  sp. (490-443 million years old) and found Bridgeport, Kentucky. That same type of fossil is shown in the book. It is described as Brachiospongia digitata (Owen, 1857) on pages 29-30 and image listed in Plate XXXV figure 3 (image below). The fossil was first described by David Dale Owen in First Kentucky Geological Report Volume 2 page 111 as Seyphia digitata. The genus was later named by Marsh in 1867 in American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d series, Volume  44.

Next are two more figures from Plate XXXVI figures 1 and 2.

More images of another specimen at the museum.

It was a treat to see this fossil as I had only read about it before. They are very rare finds and only found in a few localities. The Peabody Museum at Yale have specimens can be seen here: https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-IP-030074 and https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-IP-030063

Dan Phelps the president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society (KPS) gave a talk about these glass sponges to the Dry Dredgers fossil group in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA in 2008. I did not realize how many he had found and the large number of specimens that The Peabody Museum have in their collection.

Also it is brought up that a sponge fossil was found in Tennessee in the 1830s. It turns out that it was documented by Dr. Gerard Troost who I have written about before on this blog in 2009. The Field Museum of Natural History published Annotated Bibliography of Lower Paleozoic Sponges of North America by J. Keith Rigby and Matthew H. Nitecki in Fieldiana: Geology Volume 18, Number 1 on October 25, 1968 which lists references on sponge fossils. Find at this link.

The bibliography reports that Gerard Troost probably described the first fossil sponge from North America in 1838 but did not name it in Description d'un noveau genre de fossiles. Mem. Soc. Geol. France, 3, pt. 1, Mem. 4: pp. 87-96, pis. 9-11.

Natural History Tiles at Roosevelt Station

While visiting Chicago, Illinois, USA, I traveled from Midway Airport to the Roosevelt station via the Orange "L" line. The "L" stands for elevated as in the tracks are high above the street. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The address of the station is 1167 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

The Roosevelt Station is the closest to the Museum Campus where the Field Museum of Natural History can be found. Because of its locality, tile artwork in one of the passenger walk ways are decorated in a natural history theme.

The first image depicts a trilobite, if I had to guess it is a Silurian Period Calymene. Chicago is built on a 420 million year old Silurian Period seabed so this would be a good choice to show. The border tile in yelllow, black and gray show animals as well. The one on the left appears to show a Permian Period tetrapod Discosauriscus. While the one on the right shows a crinoid calyx with part of its stem.

On the opposite wall is tile shows what I think to be is a brachiopod.

The next image shows a Permian Period Dimetrodon (the fossil of one can be seen at the Field Museum of Natural History in the Evolving Planet exhibit). The smaller tiles from left to right show a straight conical shelled cephalopod, a Silurian Period sea scorpion Eurypterid, and maybe a crinoid column section.

At one end of the walkway is an image representing a human in a form similar to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man artwork from 1490. The smaller tiles represent on the left a snail (reminds be of a Turritella or Loxoplocus fossil) and the right a standing bird (reminds me of a Dodo). The human figure seems to represent current time of where our natural world is at.

At the opposite end of the walkway, the tile shows the Big Bang or the beginning of our known natural world.

Fossils In A Museum Floor

Just recently, I have returned for a small vacation to Chicago, Illinois, USA. In these troubled times of a world-wide epidemic, I did not think a trip would happen in 2020. As it turns out, some museums in Chicago opened for limited visitation and Kentucky was not put on a quarantine list by Illinois. So I was able to visit.

So we visited the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) this week. The building was built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was known as the Palace of Fine Arts. After the Exposition it housed the Field Museum of Natural History until that museum moved in 1920.

After watching a Brain Scoop YouTube video on the fossils in the floor tile at the Field Museum I wondered if they were at MSI. As it turned out, they were and they appear very similar to the ones found that Field Museum. According the video the tile were quarried at Carthage, Missouri, USA (Carthage Marble Corporation?).

The fossils in the pictures above are Mississippian Period Archimedes sp. bryozoan. The first image is a quite nice cross section showing the screw section plus the net like structure that helped capture food for the colony. The tile can be found in front of the Red Stairs entrance way.