Blue Brachiopods of Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

The last visit KYANA Geological Society made to the Lake Cumberland, members came across blue brachiopods. This creature must be from the Mississippian or Lower Carboniferous time period. The fossils appear to be in the Fort Payne formation.

It also appears some beekite patterns are on parts of the shell imprint




Dr. Don Chesnut has a number of fossil images from this time period in Kentucky's history. See his site here: http://www.donchesnut.com/travels/geology/geologypictures.html#fossils

Alethopteris - Pennsylvanian Plant

This fossil is not from the Louisville area but I think my cousin bought it at the Falls of the Ohio fossil festival (http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/fossil_festival.shtml) which is in the Louisville area.

According to its label, it is a Alethopteris from the Pennsylvanian Period. It was found in the Strangter formation in Ottawa, Kansas.

Silurian Cephalopod - Dawsonoceras amycus

This is one of my favorite fossils in my small collection. It is a Dawsonoceras amycus? Silurian Period cephalopod shell fragment. It was found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana. It has an added bonus with what appears to be a black crinoid holdfast attached to its shell.  It might be Eucalyptocrinites crinoid.

The inside of the shell is now quartz. On the outside, sinusoidal lines still exist showing the growth lines of the creature. The shell is marked by distinct ridges (5 visible in this picture) that also set this specimen apart from other types of cephalopods I have found.

Using my Fossils of Ohio (Bulletin 70 Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey, Rodney M. Feldmann, Editor, 1996) reference book page 172 in chapter 14 entitled Phylum Mollusca, Class Cephalopoda, it says that cephalopod fossils have not been studied seriously in the United States in more than 50 years and only good identifications can be made on Middle Ordovician European fossils.

It goes on to describe the Dawsonoceras as "a longiconic nautiloid that is orthoconic or slightly curved. It is characterized by conspicuous transverse ridges called annulations."