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Receptaculites SITE LOCATION: Decorah, Iowa, USA TIME PERIOD: Ordovician Period (445-485 Million Years ago) Data: Receptaculites is the name-bearing genus for an extinct group of conspicuous benthic marine genera, the Receptaculitidae, that lived from the Early Ordovician through the Permian period, peaking in the Middle Ordovician. The group's phylogenetic origin has long been obscure, but the current understanding is that the Receptaculitidae were calcareous algae, probably of the Order Dasycladales. Receptaculitids lived in warm, shallow seas and have been described from all continents except Antarctica. In some areas they were important reef-formers, and they also occur as isolated specimens. Receptaculites and its relatives have a double-spiral, radiating pattern of rhombus-shaped plates supported by spindle-like objects called meroms. Fossils can usually be identified by the intersecting patterns of clockwise and counterclockwise rows of plates or stalk spaces, superficially similar to the arrangement of disk florets on a sunflower -- hence the common name "sunflower coral" Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Chlorophyta Class: Chlorophyceae Order: Dasycladales Family: †Receptaculitidae Genus: †Receptaculites

Hebertella occidentalis Brachiopod SITE LOCATION: Trimble County, Kentucky TIME PERIOD: Ordovician Period (445-485 Million Years ago) Data: Moderate to large Hebertella species with a subquadrate outline and a moderate to highly pronounced sulcus. Shell wider than long; shell depth variable, convexoconcave to unequally biconvex; cardinal extremities angular; sulcus wide with moderate to very high depth, typically well developed in larger specimins; ventral muscle scars of variable width; dorsal and ventral umbonal angles low (<135 degrees). Articulate brachiopod. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Brachiopoda Class: Rhynchonellata Order: †Orthida Family: †Plectorthidae Genus: †Herbertella Species: †occidentalis

Hebertella occidentalis Brachiopod SITE LOCATION: Trimble County, Kentucky TIME PERIOD: Ordovician Period (445-485 Million Years ago) Data: Moderate to large Hebertella species with a subquadrate outline and a moderate to highly pronounced sulcus. Shell wider than long; shell depth variable, convexoconcave to unequally biconvex; cardinal extremities angular; sulcus wide with moderate to very high depth, typically well developed in larger specimins; ventral muscle scars of variable width; dorsal and ventral umbonal angles low (<135 degrees). Articulate brachiopod. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Brachiopoda Class: Rhynchonellata Order: †Orthida Family: †Plectorthidae Genus: †Herbertella Species: †occidentalis

Hebertella occidentalis Brachiopod SITE LOCATION: Trimble County, Kentucky TIME PERIOD: Ordovician Period (445-485 Million Years ago) Data: Moderate to large Hebertella species with a subquadrate outline and a moderate to highly pronounced sulcus. Shell wider than long; shell depth variable, convexoconcave to unequally biconvex; cardinal extremities angular; sulcus wide with moderate to very high depth, typically well developed in larger specimins; ventral muscle scars of variable width; dorsal and ventral umbonal angles low (<135 degrees). Articulate brachiopod. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Brachiopoda Class: Rhynchonellata Order: †Orthida Family: †Plectorthidae Genus: †Herbertella Species: †occidentalis