A Nettelroth Fossil Displayed at the Smithsonian

 

This picture was taken in June 2023 while visiting Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It is the Platyceras dumosum (Conrad, 1840) snail fossil found by Henry Nettelroth (1835-1887)  probably in the 1870s in Clark County, Indiana or Jefferson County, Kentucky. This gastropod existed in the Devonian Period and Jeffersonville Limestone. Nettelroth documented the specimens his book Kentucky Fossil Shells published in 1889. I am not sure which fossil on the plate is the one in the picture above. The curator at the Smithsonian said that spines had broken off while in storage over the last 110 years. The institution acquired the collection in 1907.

 

You can read my past experiences with the Smithsonian staff and their help in getting the specimens of USNM PAL 51268 imaged. So I was surprised on my visit to the museum earlier this week and saw on the specimens in a display case in the exhibit labeled PLAYING THE NUMBERS. They had it labeled as sea snail 1 Spinyplatyceras dumosum lived 391-389 million years ago and found in the Columbus Limestone of Clark County, Indiana.

From my personal perspective I was happy to see one of Louisville's fossils being displayed in the main fossil hall at the museum. Hopefully, if Henry Nettelroth were alive today he would be too.

Grewingkia canadensis? Horn Coral

 

These horn coral fossils appear to be Grewingkia canadensis (Billings, 1862). They were found in the Whitewater (aka Saluda) Formation of Napoleon Indiana USA. They date to the Hirnantian stage, Richmondian local stage of the Ordovician Period. The first fossil shown is just a cross section but shows a good view the septa. The second fossil does not have a visible septa but shows the more cornucopia shape of the horn coral.

Oliva sayana Gastropod Shell

This shell was found in 1889 by a 17 year old Lucien Beckner (1873-1963) in Naples, Florida USA. Mr. Beckner was a mentor to Professor James Conkin (1924-2017) and his natural history collection was left to him upon his death.

I think the shell pictured in this posting is a Lettered Olive Snail or Oliva sayana (Ravenel, 1834). 

Lucien Beckner was born into an established Kentucky family in 1873. He attended Louisville Military Academy, Centre College, the University of Kentucky and Transylvania College. Later he practiced law in Winchester, Kentucky as well as serving as a newspaper editor there. Next he worked as a geologist at the Kentucky Geological Survey and with Louisville Gas and Electric. He switched careers and worked as an engineer with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and then helped build a railroad in Ecuador.

In 1933, he became curator of the Louisville Museum of Natural History and Science at the Louisville Free Public Library. He held that position for 26 years helping educate the Louisville area community about natural history. He is buried at Winchester Cemetery in Clark County, Kentucky, USA.