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I found this in a rock wall about 5 feet above lake level. The face of this finding was obviously different than the surrounding shale. I noticed the radial array of "cells" and ones that could be seen end-on. The structure was about 10+ inches in diameter. I was able to gently get it out of the wall (with some real effort) but it split in half upon removal. What is this?

Good morning! I have been puzzling over this piece of what I believe to be a type of rugose coral, a little over an inch across at its widest, 1.5 inches tall but a fragment of a whole. The closest thing I could find might be ketophyllum perhaps? It was found on the western edge of the Otisco Valley in central/western NY state, between Skaneateles and Otisco lakes. The layers if the area I am know of are is Ordovician/Silurian/Devonian, i am not certain as to its original bedding plane location as it was a post thunderstorm erosion find, all sorts of fresh material came down the gorge, but i think it came from above the “famous” layer of Staghorn coral that emerges on the east side of Skaneateles lake. It popped right out of the shale I split and is almost graphite in appearance, the "stump" nodes that look like broken off appendages and the vertical pattern (vs the typical horizontal growth bands in the common staghorn corals) make it very different from anything I have found in the area, it almost looks soft-bodied, realizing how unlikely that is. I love the detail in this piece, it looks like there may be preserved damage/healing that occurred in life but I may be reading too much into that thought. Additional angles attached, just quick ipad shots but they may be helpful. No visible septa on either end, nothing radial or even patterned, although it looks like there may have been an internal, central structure. Thank you! It may have come down from the Devonian Otisco Member of the Ludlowville Formations (Upper Hamilton Group)?

I was planning to attend the Museum of the Earth's outing to Jamesville Quarry and knew that gas would be the primary expense for the three and a half hour trip each way. So, I decided to make the most of it and head up there two days early, camp, and visit some very productive Middle Devonian sites my girlfriend, Valerie and I explored last May. 11:30 Thursday morning I arrived at Deep Springs Road quarry near Lebanon in Madison County. It is an excellent exposure of the Windom Shale and was my favorite site on my last visit to the area. A wide variety of well preserved fossil invertebrates are profuse in the relatively soft shale where they can usually be extracted without too much difficulty. Many preserved in calcite, can be removed entirely from the rock. Within the first fifteen minutes I uncovered a small Greenops trilobite cephalon. Several minutes later, I found a complete Phacops rana enrolled. The very top of its cephalon shattered when I removed it from the rock, but otherwise it was perfect. Here's a picture: Almost as exciting was the wide assortment of excellent bivalve fossils I found. This is a Grammysia: Brachiopods were also abundant. This is Athyris spiriferoids: Also found other partial trilobites, crinoid stems, gastropods, and a tiny goniatite. I was going to spend a few hours there and then head over to a nearby exposure of the upper Ludlowville Formation, but I ended up spended the whole day at Deep Springs Road. Friday morning I drove twenty minutes to Pompey Center and a famous roadcut along Route 20 where the Skaneateles Formation is well exposed. Within minutes I found a nice large Cornulites, a bivalve: There were other bivalves as well. This is Modiomorpha: One of my goals was to find a large Spyroceras, a straight-shelled nautiloid. Last May we collected a number of fragments. Friday I was hoping for a more complete one. Wasn't to happen. This is one of the fragments I collected: Also found a number of fragments of Michelinoceras, another straight-shelled nautiloid. The surprise of the morning was a two and a quarter inch goniatite found lying free on top of the roadcut: It was nearly an hour drive east to the tiny hamlet of North Brookfield through stunning farm country. Nearby is a sandstone quarry exposing the Skaneateles Formation which is famous for its abundance of Dipleura dekayi, a huge burrowing trilobite. Valerie and I only spent a short while there last May. Still I was able to find three Dipleura cephalons, a pygidium, also an enormous bivalve, brachiopods, and cephalopods. The first rock I split open on Friday revealed a small, but complete Dipleura cephalon, better than any of the ones I found on my last trip. A few minutes later, I split another sandstone slab and I immediately focused on a bivalve in the center, but then my eyes drifted down to something unusual in the corner. There was the thorax and pygidium of a young Dipleura. When I turned the slab on its side I saw the cephalon still attached to the body, pointing downwards. Even though it was young, it is at least three times the size of the adult Phacops I found the previous day: Later I found a number of pygidiums and some bivalves, including one very large Leioptera. Saturday morning, the Museum of the Earth group was planning to congregate at 11:00 so that gave almost an hour an half to return to Pompey Center. I decided to focus on the lower portion of the roadcut which is shale where last May Valerie found a perfect Paleozygopleura, a lovely corkscrew-shaped gastropod. I was hoping to find one myself. After a while of digging in the crumbly shale, I found a small complete Greenops trilobite. Unfortunately the fragile body was stuck in the imprint and much of it crumbled when i removed it. However the imprint is perfect: Later, I found my own Paleozygopleura, though not as good as the one Valerie found: I joined the Museum of the Earth group at Jamesville Quarry. That excursion is very well documented by Marley's Ghost so I need not repeat anything. I did find a number of teeth of Onychodus sigmoides a rhipidistian fish as well as other small unidentified fish parts. In the Nedrow member of the Onondaga Limestone I found excellent examples of Favosites, a tabulate coral. I brought a number of pieces back. They really show the structure well: Well, that's about it. It's been hectic the past few days organizing, sorting, and cleaning my specimens as well as getting back on track with all the personal and professonal matters I neglected while I was away three days. All in all it feels good to be back home.