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This summer I was once again able to look for fossils near Newberry, MI in a degrading hill filled with drift. In my research recently, I came across a paper on the Collingwood formation drift in Newberry, and was excited to find exact descriptions of some of the layered rocks found there. I am including photos of one of them, split into its layers...and the orthocones revealed in thos layers. The orthocone has a very thin shell of some kind....they are always found flattened and usually with that line down the center indicating what was once rounded has been squished flat. In the 4.5 " orthocone showing (the third image and about 6" overall) even the open edge presents a somewhat curved opening. usually it is squared across. Over the years I have found these triangular shaped creatures filling the shale...from 1/4 " long smattering of them all over a hashplate, to the ones that average 4 or so inches. I have not been able to figure them them out. The interesting paper I read doesn't mention them, which was a surprise to me since they are so plentiful. At any rate, If someone has a suggestion I would appreciate it. The other thing I am curious about, is the geologic process that formed this rock...for each of them, the split layers reveal creatures...in one of my rocks, each layer is filled with graptolites. So what was the process by which the layers formed....rain storms that roiled the sediment and trapped a layer of animal...followed by a week or month or day or year storm that layered another 1/2 inch of sediment and captured another layer of creatures....and how did this layer than get broken up into cobbles....(the animal remains found in each of the layers sames to be consistent with all the other layers of each, so I am assuming a rather quick succession of silt was laid down....in a somewhat regular pattern.

I have several pieces similar to this from a drift hill near Newberry, UP, Michigan. I have been told it is Collingswood?, and found very nice pseudogygites impressions there, none whole however, just adding that for the location. At any rate, I have been trying to figure out what these orthocones are. I have several layered from various rocks which are quite small...little cone shaped impressions from 1/2 " to these. all of them are flattened, with that distinctive crush mark down the middle, where the oval part collapsed. My reason for this post, other than still being curious as to what these creatures were, is how do I preserve them...most often I have both top and bottom impressions, filled with the flattened material of the creature between them...much like a flattened trilobite. But as they dry, the animal part is beginning to flake off...is there something I can do to preserve them, other than slathering them with some kind of glue...I have used butvar b76 on some of the bones I've collected, but these seem too fragile for that kind of application. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (1 is the rock with layers cracked, 3 is the image from the third layer, 2 is the image from the second layer, each of these layers have orthocone images in them, ranging from about 6" down to 1.)