Palaeoconchus Worm Fossil

The fossil the blue arrow is pointing to appears to be a Palaeoconchus (aka Spirobus) worm fossil. It was found in the Glen Dean formation.of Grayson County, Kentucky USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. The worm fossils is intermixed with bryozoans (maybe Fenestella). Image was taken with a microscope with an approximate 4 mm field of view (FOV).

Learn more about this worm fossil at the Falls of the Ohio State Park web site:
http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/Fossil_Worms.html

Thanks to Kenny for the image for this blog posting.

Polygnathus Conodont Fossil

Here is a picture of a recently found conodont fossil fragment. It appears to be a Polygnathus sp. The fossil was found in the Jacobs Chapel Shale of Clark County, Indiana, USA which dates to the Mississippian Period.

Thanks to Kenny for the picture.

Digging the Past! Event at Falls of the Ohio State Park

Saturday was Digging the Past! A Celebration of Archaeology and Fossils Day at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana. It is an event that focuses on educational activities for public. I am not sure how many years I have been volunteering at this event but it is always a fun and educational event to attend. This year I got a lot of new scientific questions about minerals that I need to be ready to answer next year.

The fossil pile did not yield a lot of fossils but I did see a number of brachiopods people brought to me for identification. I saw a nice crinoid holdfast and beautiful Platystoma snail fossil with growth lines. The naturalist at the park showed me a Dawsonoceras cephalopod fossil someone left that was about 20 cm long. The Devonian fossil pile was stocked with lots of spirifer brachiopod fossils for visitors to take home. A number of trilobite and coral fragments could be found there as well.

The mineral pile was the usual big geology attraction. A number of visitors found flourite cube corners or cube clusters in purple, yellow, and bluish colors. The material is from a fluorite processing mill in southern Illinois that processed minerals from that area. Normally one sees four types of minerals: fluorite, barite, calcite, and sphalerite. The fluorite is usually purple, yellow or clear. Occasionally, green and blue fluorite will be found.

A persistent child collector found a nice pink-clear fluorite fragment.

Learn more at the Falls of the Ohio State Park web site:
http://fallsoftheohio.org/special_events.html