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A Spectular Trip in the Cincinnatian


connorp

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While heading to visit family in southern Indiana, I decided to leave a day early to do a bit of collecting in the Cincinnatian. The first stop was, as usual, St. Leon, to look for the famous Flexicalymene rollers.

 

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In the past, I've usually found 2-4 per visit, but was quite lucky this time, walking away with 10 rollers and my first prone. Here are a couple in situ shots.

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After a couple hours at St. Leon, I headed towards my hotel. As it turned out, it was just down the road from Trammel Fossil Park. I had not been here before. It exposes several formations (which are helpfully marked). I only spent about 20 minutes here but did find a beat up edrioasteroid (my first!) in the Miamitown. I would imagine it is very picked over, but it's a neat place to visit nonetheless.

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The following day I woke up quite early and drove down into Kentucky to check out a couple spots in the Kope along the AA Highway. Not much success was had, so I decided to head back towards Cinci to visit a popular site where the crinoid Ectenocrinus is often found. Again, little success. That was until I decided to flip over one last rock sitting right next to my car. And as luck would have it, the rock was covered in crinoids. At least half a dozen individuals were visible, but I suspect that many more are buried.

 

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Excellent find. Almost as good as Iowa fossils!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you take a close up of the best one? It is a bit blurry if enlarged. Also, was that still Kope?

  

Mike

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The real prize of the trip was actually found within the first 10 minutes of collecting, but deserves its own post. Like many collectors who visit St. Leon, I'm usually focused on the trilobite layer in the Liberty. I decided however that this time I'd spend at least an hour searching the other layers. Evidently, this was a good idea as I quickly stumbled upon this stunning crinoid.

 

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It was found around 10-15 feet below the trilobite layer, which I believe puts it in the Waynesville. But I was told there is a crinoid layer in the Liberty above the trilobite bed, so this could have slid down from there. The slab that it was in was absolutely massive (probably 100 lbs), and to complicate matters the crinoid itself was embedded in a very thin shale layer on the surface. I was worried that trying to break or cut down the slab in order to ship it off to get prepped would lead to a disastrous outcome, so I reached out to a well known prep lab in the area to see if I could drop it off in person. And to my surprise, they generously offered to complete the prep while I waited. Here is the final result. Any suggestions on the ID are welcome.

 

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Edited by connorp
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51 minutes ago, connorp said:

The real prize of the trip was actually found within the first 10 minutes of collecting, but deserves its own post. Like many collectors who visit St. Leon, I'm usually focused on the trilobite layer in the Liberty. I decided however that this time I'd spend at least an hour searching the other layers. Evidently, this was a good idea as I quickly stumbled upon this stunning crinoid.

 

IMG_0486.thumb.jpg.9dc42f6d860210c5278a2b6f1fe56ab0.jpg

 

It was found around 10-15 feet below the trilobite layer, which I believe puts it in the Waynesville. But I was told there is a crinoid layer in the Liberty above the trilobite bed, so this could have slid down from there. The slab that it was in was absolutely massive (probably 100 lbs), and to complicate matters the crinoid itself was embedded in a very thin shale layer on the surface. I was worried that trying to break or cut down the slab in order to ship it off to get prepped would lead to a disastrous outcome, so I reached out to a well known prep lab in the area to see if I could drop it off in person. And to my surprise, they generously offered to complete the prep while I waited. Here is the final result. Any suggestions on the ID are welcome.

 

IMG_0529.thumb.jpg.bd3df2b4317cdc6dce7260d7818bd043.jpg

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That’s an awesome piece! Beautiful prep work! Definitely FOTM worthy! :thumbsu:

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I grew up there and can confirm that you experienced highly condensed success.  Well done.

 

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Those crinoids are awesome. Congratulations! The Ordovician sites of Southern Ohio are on my bucket list of places to visit.

Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

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Wonderful report, those look like sweet spots to collect.

The crinoid is especially spectacular, brilliant job finding that one :dinothumb: I'm curious about its ID.

Great nature photography too!

Edited by The Amateur Paleontologist

Opalised fossils are the best: a wonderful mix between paleontology and mineralogy!

 

Q. Where do dinosaurs study?

A. At Khaan Academy!...

 

My ResearchGate profile

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Great stuff.  
 

I got to spend about 20 minutes at St. Leon in October while passing through the area.  Even with only 20 minutes, I was able to find more good stuff than I could carry.  No bugs though.  I was led to believe they were exceedingly rare there so I didn’t look too hard for them.  If I can swing a return trip someday, I will  have to look a lot harder for rollers.  

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Some cool stuff but what really amazed me is that you could simply drop off your rock and have it cut out and prepped while you wait!  I bet just about everybody here would love that! 

 

RB

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Fantastic report and finds!

Congratulations on your well earned haul!  :) 

Thanks for sharing this with us.

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
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Nice finds and report!

Thanks for sharing.  :)

 

I am planning to visit St. Leon one of these days.  ;)

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

Some cool stuff but what really amazed me is that you could simply drop off your rock and have it cut out and prepped while you wait!  I bet just about everybody here would love that! 

 

RB

It was definitely very generous! They thought the prep would be <15min from the initial pictures, but it ended up taking longer since the rock needed to be stabilized a lot.

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6 hours ago, BigKen said:

Great stuff.  
 

I got to spend about 20 minutes at St. Leon in October while passing through the area.  Even with only 20 minutes, I was able to find more good stuff than I could carry.  No bugs though.  I was led to believe they were exceedingly rare there so I didn’t look too hard for them.  If I can swing a return trip someday, I will  have to look a lot harder for rollers.  

Trilobites are found throughout the Cincinnatian. You can find pieces in pretty much every formation of the series. But, yes, complete specimens are not so common. At St Leon there is one particular layer that is more productive than most for trilobites. Same can be said for a few other layers and locations around that tri-state area.  If you know what, where and how to look in those productive layers you have a good chance of going home with a bug or two. 

 

For example the Caesar Creek Spillway is good but many people go and expect to find them just walking around. In fact they are almost all TINY and to find them you need to get prone on the ground and crawl. And even then you need to look for things that will be associated with them for better luck.

 

Like Uncle Siphuncle I grew up in SW Ohio, but I found very few trilobites when I was younger. Later I learned what to look for and where. I've done well because of it.  Just haven't been home in almost 8 years.  These posts are hard to read since I just get all buzzed and jonesed out for some serious Cinci collecting....

 

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Great finds! Those Crinoid are incredible.

 

Do you know what the species of Flexi that is found at St.Leon is? Those are some nice bugs, from an amazing location

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6 minutes ago, Misha said:

Great finds! Those Crinoid are amazing.

 

Do you know what the species of Flexi that is found at St.Leon is? Those are some nice bugs, from an amazing location

Flexicalymene retrorsa minuens. Isotelus and Tricopelta can also be found in this layer but I’ve only found flexis so far. The regular sized F. retrorsa can be found in different layers. I’ve found many bits but no complete ones.

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Well done! :fistbump:

That Flexi prone is going to prep out beautifully. :wub:

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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That'll be one of those days that you never forget!  The trilobites are fun, but those crinoids are fantastic.  :wub: :wub: :wub:  I've been to St Leon a few times, and I've accumulated a small handful of the Flexicalymene, but I've never seen a crinoid calyx (or a Tricopelta trilobite either).  Every time I pass by I say I'm going to look more broadly, and then I always spend the whole time looking in the "butter shale".

 

Don

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick update: the crinoid was IDed by the Dry Dredgers as Xenocrinus baeri.

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