ID help with multiple small Mississippian fossils

[kehaz]

A recent trip to the Madison Group near Yogo, MT turned up a small exposure for Mississippian fossils, mostly small crinoid hash plates but with a few little surprises. I'm still learning about different types of fossiliferous rocks; I believe this was an outcropping of limestone. I tried to locate these fossils in the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Fossils, but I'd like to get an opinion from someone who knows much more than I do (which, let's be honest, isn't very much )

 

01: These were the largest brachiopods I recovered from the site. Perhaps schuchertella?

02: This one straight-up stumped me. At first I thought it was some sort of aquatic plant or coral, but my reference book is pretty limited in plants, and it looks like no corals I've seen.

03: These are very small, but the coloration of this tiny group is what caught my eye. I'm sure the small segments are crinoid, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I have sectioned off a few small fossils in the plate that I'd like to know more about. 03-1 looks plantish, but I had the same issue with this one that I had with 02. 03-2 are so small that I'm not really able to differentiate one mollusc from another. 03-3 is straight-up weird and I have no idea what to make of it. I won't even venture a guess; I just have no clue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A picture of the outcrop. It was small but kept me busy for several hours.

 

Please let me know if I need to upload more pictures. I'm pretty sure I did everything that the multitude of "how-to" posts said to do...

 

Thank you!

 

 

[Rockwood]

15 minutes ago, kehaz said:

02:

Aulopora. A tabulate coral

3-1 Transection. Looks like a spiny brachiopod, with a big maybe.

3-3 "road kill" 

[JimB88]

3-1 is the bryozoan penniretopora

[tombk]

If I'm seeing the rectangles correctly, it looks like 3-2 encloses two small brachiopods, although I can not identify them further. 

 

1 hour ago, JimB88 said:

3-1 is the bryozoan penniretopora

@JimB88, hat's off to you for the nice ID. Do you think picture 2 (not 03-2) may be some sort of bryozoan also? 

[TqB]

I agree no. 2 is an auloporid tabulate coral, but maybe Cladochonus rather than Aulopora itself. (Be aware that a lot of the Google images of it seem to be more like Aulopora.)

 

 

One of the very few specimens I have, fragile preservation in shale.

Edited September 1, 2021 by TqB

[kehaz]

8 hours ago, Rockwood said:

3-3 "road kill" 

 

[JimB88]

On 8/31/2021 at 10:49 AM, tombk said:

If I'm seeing the rectangles correctly, it looks like 3-2 encloses two small brachiopods, although I can not identify them further. 

 

@JimB88, hat's off to you for the nice ID. Do you think picture 2 (not 03-2) may be some sort of bryozoan also? 

TqB is correct its Cladochonus with a Penniretopora alongside.

Edited September 6, 2021 by JimB88

[Tetradium]

On 8/31/2021 at 11:41 AM, TqB said:

I agree no. 2 is an auloporid tabulate coral, but maybe Cladochonus rather than Aulopora itself. (Be aware that a lot of the Google images of it seem to be more like Aulopora.)

 

 

One of the very few specimens I have, fragile preservation in shale.

Aulopora tend to be tinier and encrusts hard surfaces. Your sample didn't seen to be encrusting anything but I could be wrong. 

[TqB]

14 hours ago, Tetradium said:

Aulopora tend to be tinier and encrusts hard surfaces. Your sample didn't seen to be encrusting anything but I could be wrong. 

Auloporids don't all encrust substrates. Even when they do, some parts of the colony can be free standing.

Cladochonus, from the Treatise: "Proximal parts of corallum prostrate… distal parts of corallum erect branches that may fork". 

 

The few Cladochonus pieces I've found have been unattached.

[Tetradium]

On 9/7/2021 at 4:39 AM, TqB said:

Auloporids don't all encrust substrates. Even when they do, some parts of the colony can be free standing.

Cladochonus, from the Treatise: "Proximal parts of corallum prostrate… distal parts of corallum erect branches that may fork". 

 

The few Cladochonus pieces I've found have been unattached.

Ok. I only know that from a couple species from Minnesota and Iowa from Ordovician through Devonian  - that's why I said I could be mistaken since I only seen a tiny fraction of the overall diversity of Aulopora species. And by Aulopora I means the genus itself not family. But its interesting knowing there are a branch that had evolution to become freestanding in muck. A pity the family went extinct otherwise we would had found them still growing in muck in bays and lagoons. 

[Rockwood]

2 hours ago, Tetradium said:

otherwise we would had found them still growing in muck in bays and lagoons. 

There's probably a little bare footed woman clearing away a colony to harvest lingulids as you type. 

[Tetradium]

11 hours ago, Rockwood said:

There's probably a little bare footed woman clearing away a colony to harvest lingulids as you type. 

Lol