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Microtrilobites and Other Microfossils of the Pooleville Member
Isotelus2883 posted a topic in Micro-paleontology
Recently I acquired some microfossil matrix from the Bromide Formation, in Oklahoma. They were of the Pooleville and Mountain Lake Members, containing a very diverse fauna, mostly bryozoans and crinoid arm fragments. While searching through the matrix, my main aim was to find some of the small and young trilobites that are often found here. Also, I had bought a trilobite meraspis previously, from the same locality. It is an enrolled meraspis of a Lonchodomas mcgeheei, from the Pooleville member. Views of the Cephalon and pygidium.  Now, here are the finds. A Cyclospira parva, these were very common and found in all samples of the Pooleville Mbr. These are the trilobites of the Lower Pooleville. What may be a partial Lonchodomas mcgeheei pygidium. It is more likely a brachiopod fragment, however. A proetid free cheek, I think. This one is more likely to be a Homotelus bromidensis cheek. I'm not sure for this cheek. Eoceraurus? Here are the trilobites of the Middle Pooleville Member. Calliops armatus partial pygidium.It is rather fragmented, as sadly most of the microfossils in this material are. This may be a trilobite pygidium, but it seems now that I look at it, it may be a brachiopod. Now here is one of my better finds from the matrix. It is a partial trilobite, with the hypostome in place, unusually. Because the dorsal side is not preserved, I don't know what species it is. Here are the fossils of the Upper Pooleville Member. A picture of some of what I found in the sample. A healthy sized proetid free cheek. Two partial cephalons of Frencrinurus capitonis. Though partial, they still show exquisite detail, including several sharp spines. Last, there is this specimen. I am hoping it is a protaspis of some trilobite, but... Yeah. Doesn't look like it. These samples gave a clear picture of the Bromide Formation, and they were rich with fossil fragments, an excellent test for my microscope.- 2 replies
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From the album: Trilobites
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Howdy folks! I’ve had a lot going on so I haven’t been super active on here as of late, but I wanted to do a little recap of some of my favorite finds and acquisitions of 2023. Hope yall enjoy! Thanks for looking! First up is by far my favorite find from last year. This bug was collected as a ventral specimen in February, and was flipped and prepped dorsally by Jon Ginouves. Hypodicranotus striatulus is an exceptionally rare species from the Middle Ordovician Trenton Group of NY and equivalent strata in Canada. This is the first NY specimen I have ever seen or heard of coming out of strata outside of the Walcott-Rust Quarry. Up next is another piece from the same locality as the Hypodicranotus. I believe this came out of the site in the late spring or early summer. Generally, juvenile Gravicalymene magnotuberculata are near impossible to find, but I stumbled upon a mass plate containing around 20-25 specimens ranging from prone to fully enrolled. It is entirely possible that this is the largest cluster of this species ever collected, which is pretty sweet. This pic doesn’t show the whole plate, but you can get the general idea of how plentiful the trilobites are! This next specimen is just a cephalon, but it is from the iconic and very rare Walcott-Rust Quarry trilobite species Sphaerocoryphe robusta. This was found when I visited the locality in June with @KompsFossilsNMinerals . Normally I only focus on trilobites while collecting, but this past October I made a couple short visits to a Fiddlers Green Formation eurypterid site very close to my college campus. Eurypterid material is very sparse, but I did find some pretty interesting pieces. The most exciting of these was a partial Dolichopterus macrocheirus specimen showing the prosoma, 2 tergites and most of the appendages. Along with the usual trilobite suspects, I also ventured into some new territory strata-wise. I was able to visit an Onondaga Limestone locality several times during the summer and fall where I found half a dozen or so Odontocephalus selenurus specimens. Through my work in the Tully Limestone, I have become good friends with Steven Mize, who primarily collects the unit’s trilobite species. He invited me to come collect the Tully with him in July, which is when he gave me this beautiful enrolled specimen of an undescribed Basidechenella sp. While out collecting, Steve found this plate of 6-8 undescribed Asteropygine sp. , which he was kind enough to let me keep! During this past fall, I became very interested in the various Cambrian biotas of China. Here are a couple of Radiodont appendages I acquired. I believe the first one is Guanshancaris kunmingensis, and the second is Anomalocaris saron. This is my favorite trilobite I acquired from China. Although it is only a partial, this Redlichia mansuyi from the Guanshan biota exhibits one of its robust antennae!
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From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Specimen on the Left is bought online, from Wisconsin Mifflin Platteville Formation. Campylorthis deflexa is the middle one with Rostricellula minnesotensis Leftmost. Oepikina minnesotensis is rightmost. The specimen on the right is the closest Minnesota mifflin Campylorthis deflexa like specimen that I could find. It is darker color rock so its harder to see good textures but if you look closer toward the edge you can see where ribs are which makes it more coarse than the much more numerous Strophomena and Oepikina which are distinct characteristic in Twin Cities bed.-
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Now that the holiday festivities have past and we are waiting for the New Years celebrations, I thought I would finish up the year with a few ID requests on some Galena/Ordovician finds from NE Iowa last month. 1. 2 3. 4. 5. 6.
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In my Secret Santa gift last Christmas from @connorp I received (among other nice items) a very nice little hash plate from the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation (U/M Ordovician, Blackriverian, ~453 MY) from SW Wisconsin. The picture below is the plate as it was received and in my 12/20/22 post about getting it I said: “A great hash plate. I already see two or maybe three different trilobite types with a couple of them tantalizingly partially buried and an interesting gastropod that I am not familiar with. I think a little prep work will make this even more spectacular. As an added plus, it represents my first fossils from the state of Wisconsin.” I finally got around to doing the prep I talked about and spent a little time exposing some of the more prominent fossils and giving it a gentle going over with air abrasion to bring out some of the features. I think it looks even better than it already did and I was even more impressed with the wide variety of fossils on the small section of rock. Below is the cleaned up plate: Here is a collage of the plate just turned at different angles to the sunlight in case it helps to bring out any features: There are hundreds of fossil fragments on this one small piece of rock, but I want to highlight the top couple dozen specimens. With the help of some TFF members via previous posts and replies in a couple of ID threads I put out (thanks @Tidgy's Dad, @connorp, @piranha, @minnbuckeye and others), I have identified several trilobites, brachiopods, gastropods, ostracods, bryozoans, and a crinoid and want to show you this wonderful diversity in such a small space. If anyone sees changes to my ID's please feel free to chime in. Some will be very specific ID's and some will be a bit more general. The picture below is the key to where each of the numbered specimens is on the slab (see number in upper left of each specific picture). We will start with the trilobites. Although each is only a partial, there is enough present to get a pretty specific ID on most of them. All are new genera or species in my collection. Here are the brachiopods: Here are a couple of specimens of a really neat gastropod which was new to me. So often it seems Paleozoic gastropods are just internal molds or rather plain forms, but this first one is very nice. Here are a few bryozoans and one very small horn coral. There were several of these small corals, I'm not really sure of the ID, I didn't research them much yet. Just a couple of small crinoid columnals were found. And last but not least are the ostracods. I am used to small ostracods (which some of these are) but there is also this one form that is huge (by ostracod standards) coming in at about a centimeter long. At first I thought they were brachiopod fragments until I looked at them closer. These things are the size of a kidney bean! Note the scale difference between the Eoleperditia and all the others. Most of my ID's are questionable as I was using a reference that is for the immediately overlying Decorah Formation until I can find a listing for the Mifflin Member. OK that is everything for now. I hope you have enjoyed the wonderful diversity of this small slice in time. With a little more investigation, I may yet tease out a few more specimens worthy of an ID. Thanks for looking. Mike
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From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
All sources had says there are only two genus of the family of this particular brachiopod and Protozgya and Rostricellula is listed for Platteville Formation. Protozyga is too different and much weaker ribs structures by comparations.-
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From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Like Anazyga recurvirostis, A. plinthii tend to prefer muddy limestones and is locally abundant where found in Twin Cities. -
From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Flatter than A. recurvirostis and a bit bigger.-
- anazyga
- anagyga plinthii
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From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Very recently in 2023 paper came out that basically places all Zygospira earlier than Mayville/Richmondian in genus Anazyga. Cinnicinntea website also had name change for Anazyga recurvirostis since it also extends into maysville formation. The Decorah Formation Twin Cities can have a lot of those but oddly enough to me they are very specific to muddy limestone as I never find them in the weaker shales for unknown reasons. One of the tiniest Decorah Formation Brachiopod species I have ever found, tiny enough to balance on eraser end of pencil. Compare to the other Anazyga species it is much smaller and more inflated in shape. -
From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Those are the closest specimen I could find that I think is Anazyga lebanonensis. Described as longer in length than the other two Anazyga species from Decorah Formation.-
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From the album: Brachiopods of Platteville/Decorah Twin Cities Minnesota
Lepidocyclus - Decorah Formation only? For me I hadn't found it in Platteville formation for unknown reason - could be locations. Very abundant and highly variable in forms - I suspects quite a few genus and species can be easily mistaken for this one. Part of it is I only find the smallest ones as strongly triangular and more flat with sulcus not as prominent. But all the bigger one are much more inflated. Plus costae is pretty uniform over all species. Transverse growths are sometimes prominent on anterior portion of the shell, usually on adult specimens.- 1 comment
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I "rediscovered" a weird rock I found 6 years ago at a quarry near Belvidere, Illinois. The rocks exposed at the quarry are dolomitic ordovician Galena group. Last night, I took a closer look at it under a microscope and noticed that the spiny crystal structures seem to be formed by mycelium. I know mycelium breaks down rocks, but I'm curious to hear any thoughts/insight about this oddity.
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Enrolled specimen. Collector unknown.-
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Collector unknown.-
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Collected by Ed Books-
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Collected by Steve Hess-
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Collected by Steve Hess-
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From the album: Swatara Gap
Collected by Steve Hess-
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As I went through the rocks I had collected in October from the Ordovician's Galena, likely Stewartville Formation, a SMALL gastropod popped out of a piece of matrix that was split open. After looking thorough my references, I could not place this fossil. Hence the need of your help.
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I have found a few of these mis identified fossils from the Galena/ Ordovician. A request for identification was made awhile back and I labeled them Asgadaspira evolvens based on a response given to me. Having just exposed another one, I searched for it on line and nothing came up. Did I misspell it or am I just out in left field? By the way the first one measures 8cm by 5cm.
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Found what I think looks like a trilobite cephalon in a creekbed, but I'm not certain. It was fragmented, and the shell looks to be eroded away. This creek had a slurry of Mississippian aged Burlington Formation and assumed Ordovician aged Trenton Limestone mixed throughout. I found Mississippian crinoids and Ordovician cephalopods at this location. It looks like it resembles Illaenus taurus, or some other member of the Illaenidae. Any opinions?
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From the album: Fossil Collection: DC Area and Beyond
Crinoidea Maysville Roadcut, KY Kope, Fairview, and Bellevue Formations Ordovician -
From the album: Fossil Collection: DC Area and Beyond
Gastropoda Maysville Roadcut, KY Kope, Fairview, and Bellevue Formations Ordovician- 1 comment
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From the album: Fossil Collection: DC Area and Beyond
Brachiopoda Maysville Roadcut, KY Kope, Fairview, and Bellevue Formations Ordovician-
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