Thursday, December 18, 2008

Cephalopod Living Chamber

I have never found a living chamber on a cephalopod fossil before. This one is just the very edge of the mold but it can be seen how the shell begins to spread out. The imprints on the shell showing rings and texture have worn away.


Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Colonial Coral: Foerstephyllum vacuum?

Here is a colonial coral that might be a Foerstephyllum vacuum (Foerste, 1909)  but it would need to be thin sectioned to really know. It is from an Ordovician coral bed in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Cyathophylloides cf. C. burksae

Here is a close up some colonial coral from the Ordovician period. It was found in Jefferson County, Kentucky near Jeffersontown. It appears to be Cyathophylloides cf. C. burksae as mentioned in Ruth Browne's research papers when she studied this area in the 1960s.

I come to this conclusion because the corallites have 10-11 septas and tabulae are about 4 per 5 mm. After measuring a number of corallite diameters it looks like they are between 3.5-4.0 mm. This specimen was found in the Drake Formation.

Notice the septa or star like patterns in the honeycomb like shapes near the ruler.