KYANA Geological Society Show 2010

If you are near the Louisville, Kentucky area this weekend (November 12-24, 2010) consider visiting the KYANA Geological Society Mineral, Gem, & Fossil Show.  Pictures shown in this post are from the 2009 event.  It is held at a church's gym with a number of dealers selling polished rocks, jewelry, minerals, fossils, and toys.  Admission is free as is parking.  The featured exhibit will be minerals from the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum of Marion, Kentucky.

Learn more at this web page: http://www.kyanageo.org/showflier.htm

I am a member of KYANA Geological Society and also Cincinnati's Dry Dredgers though I do not attend meetings very often at either group.  Last year, I created an Ordovician fossil display for the show.  It was designed for the general public being the main audience.  In retrospect, if I designed a display again I would obtain the case to assemble the fossils in ahead of time.  Improvements would be: to attach the display cards at better viewing angles, attach cloth to stands so there are no wrinkles, and use fluorescent lights instead incandescent.

Calcite Crystals in Silurian Brachiopods

Stay with my theme this week of crystals and brachiopods... Calcite crystals formed in Athyris brachiopods of the Middle Silurian Period.  Fossils found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana.  Since they are in this limestone material I will assume they are calcite.  Plus calcite is one of the most common minerals found in the state of Indiana.

Crystalline Lophophore

This image shows a crystal lophophore probably belonging to a Pseudoatrypa brachiopod.  The fossil is broken at least in half leaving a view of the two internal tapering tube structures.  It looks to be embedded in a chert like material.  Material is from the Jeffersonville Limestone of Clark County, Indiana (Devonian Period).

This is a combination of the two themes on posts the last two days: crystals forming in brachiopod fossils and lophophore structures preserved in brachiopod fossils.  So today the fossil is a crystalline lophophore.

As reader soliussymbiosus (of blog Swimming The Ordovician Seas) pointed out in the comments of the November 7, 2010 posts on "Calcite in Brachiopod Fossils", these crystals are probably quartz.  It makes sense, if chert is composed of silca then the crystals could be silicon dioxide that formed in the cavity.

As a bonus, four more pictures have been adding showing quartz crystals formed in Devonian Period Athyris brachiopods.  They too are found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Clark County, Indiana.  I apologize for the lighting on these images.  The light was intense because the Pseudoatrypa shown earlier needed to have the crystal chamber illuminated.  The levels on these photos had to be adjusted quite a bit to reveal crystal detail in the fossils.