Aulocystis Coral

Two pictures of the same fossil that is some type of Aulocystis coral found in Clark County, Indiana. It is from the Devonian Period and I believe I was in the Beechwood Limestone when I found it. This fossil is relatively small and could fit in a 2 cm cube.

This particular fossil might be a Aulocystis frutectosa described by W.J. Davis in 1887 (Kentucky fossil corals, a monograph of the fossil corals of the Silurian and Devonian rocks of Kentucky, Part 2).

Indiana Button Coral Fossil

The Hadrophyllum orbignyi (Edwards & Haime, 1851) is found in the Speeds Limestone found in Clark County, Indiana. These two fossils are about the size of an American nickel. I sometimes wonder what this little Devonian Period creature looked like when alive. Looking at this fossil sometimes makes me hungry. It reminds me of my grandmother's peanut butter cookies that had this color and texture with a criss-cross pattern pressed into them.

While doing research on a brachiopod fossil from a recent post I came across some really nice websites:

This French website on brachiopods is very well done.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jean-ours.filippi/brach/anglais/index.html?26,38

The University of Iowa has some really good brachiopod images. One project they did called "Fossils In My Backyard" is great. it shows the geological map of the state of Iowa and then one can click on a county and see the fossils found there. I did not realize they had so many time periods exposed in their state.

http://nmita.iowa.uiowa.edu/paleo/FIMBY/GeologicIA.html

The Alberta Palaeontological Society website is well organized. I was impressed with quality of their sample bulletin and the extensive member's guide. They even published a book on vertebrate fossils entitled, "Guide to Common Vertebrate Fossils from the Cretaceous of Alberta".

http://www.albertapaleo.org/

Cincyevolution Website

I found the website for the Cincinnati Museum Center so I decided to quote their own words to describe it. Hopefully, they will start posting some of their fossil images soon.

"Welcome to this introduction to science and natural history at Cincinnati Museum Center. This is the gateway to field and collection-based research in the departments of invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology and zoology and a portal to information on education, conservation and research at the Richard and Lucile Durrell Edge of Appalachia Preserve System. Click on the links above to visit the sites for each department."

http://cincyevolution.com/Cincyevolution/Welcome.html

I have been waiting to see a better picture of their Cladoselache Devonian shark fossil:
http://cincyevolution.com/vertpaleo/Vertebrate_Paleontology/Chondrichthyes.html

Also the Dry Dredgers profiled a recently published book on Ordovician fossils from Canada the seems to cover some found in the Kentucky area. It is called SOUTH-CENTRAL ONTARIO FOSSILS: A Guide to the Ancient Marine Life of the Region by William A. Hessin.

See this website for more details: http://www.eagle.ca/~ontariofossils/