Stylophoran Enoploura (Carpoid) Fossil

Over the weekend the weather was very nice for March. So I visited a Lexington Limestone site with two friends and collected Ordovician Period fossils. Here is one of my rare finds of a fossil plate of a carpoid called Enoploura.  Fossil found in Franklin County, Kentucky.

Also view this November 22, 2009 blog entry of a larger section of Enoploura found.

Cycloconcha Clam Fossil

This little clam (2.2 cm long by 1.2 cm wide) is found in the Marble Hill Bed, Rowland Member, Drakes Formation of Bedford, Trimble County, Kentucky, USA.  The outer shell does not have much detail but the inner part has nice hinge teeth.  Thanks to Bill Heimbrock of Dry Dredgers for the identification of Cycloconcha milleri?.  Read the paper Review of Ordovician Pelecypods by John J. Pojeta, Jr.  Document is in the DJVU format so you will need a reader program like the Windows version of WinDjView on CNET download.com: CLICK HERE.

This pelecypod fossil is from the Ordovician Period Katian (Richmondian) Stage. This dates to about 450-445 million years ago.

UPDATE (2020): The Review of Ordovician Pelecypods is now available on PDF format at the site linked above. I added a possible species name for the specimen as well.

The author of the paper has since passed away Dr. John Pojeta Jr. (1935 - 2017). He retired from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1994. See link for memorial:
https://www.aaps.net/John-Pojeta-Jr-Memorial.htm

Ectenocrinus simplex Crinoid

After the snow melted, I reviewed the cleaning piles and found another crinoid calyx. This calyx was found in the Kope Formation of Carroll County, Kentucky. It is Ordovician Period and called Ectenocrinus simplex.

The fossil is about 2 cm in length, the stem diameter is 2 mm and the cup at its widest is 5 mm.  The longest arm is 1.2 cm and 3 arms are visible with a possible pinnule still attached to one arm.