Fossil Trip 11/2021 West VA Silurian ( Rose Hill Formation)

[Rexofspades]

Hi everyone, went on a nice little expedition into West VA over thanksgiving break. tried my hand on checking out the rose hill formation in Waiteville. lovely time out with some beautiful scenery and farms. The sandstone was sparse fossil wise, but I did find three pieces with some interesting stuff to ponder. 

here are each of the three rocks, labeled Specimens A-C

 

Specimen A

looks like it has some simple fossil impression. on first inspection there's some nice Ostracods and a couple brachiopod impressions in the middle. but on closer inspection on the edges I noticed there is a possible mold of a trilobite pygidium. (Likely Calymene Cresapensis)

 

 

 ostracods and brachiopod impressions. 

 

Here are closeups of the trilobite impression.

 

lastly here are a couple impressions that might be something. 

 

Specimen B

 

Specimen B has the Faintest brachiopod impression (According to this book I read it looks like Cupulastrum Neglectum)

there's a weird looking impression I have no idea what it is. 

 

other weird impressions on the side. 

 

Specimen C

 

I think i found a hash plate of trilobite chunks here, although Im not familiar with the geology of this place so it could just be concretion. this piece also has a definite Trilobite in it on the side. 

 

 

Trilobite. I do not know which part of it this is, could be Pygidium or Thorax. 

Possible cephalon piece? 

 

Please let me know if I missed any ID's or am way off on my guesses here. as always, message if you want to see a different side/ angle of something. 

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by Rexofspades

[Herb]

nice quality photos

[Rexofspades]

@Fossildude19 any ideas on these ones? 

[Fossildude19]

I think you are probably correct with most of your ID's. Some are just too incomplete to really say for sure, one way or another.

Not real good with Silurian fossils - I'm better with Devonian fossils. 

[Misha]

Very interesting!

I especially love that little ostracod imprint

[Rexofspades]

On 12/3/2021 at 12:58 PM, Fossildude19 said:

I think you are probably correct with most of your ID's. Some are just too incomplete to really say for sure, one way or another.

Not real good with Silurian fossils - I'm better with Devonian fossils. 

 

Ah, I see, thanks for your help!  do you know anyone on here that might know more?

[Rexofspades]

SO! I had Specimen C prepped with an air scribe and look at what is inside! It's chock full of trilobite pieces

[EMP]

Awesome stuff! I love those prepped trilobite pieces! I've had a lot of experience collecting in the Rose Hill Formation and other early Silurian units in the area and I agree with most of your IDs. As far as identifying the trilobites, it's usually pretty hard to do it with partial pygidiums (unless it's a Liocalymene). It looks like you have at least two species of calymenids, a Calymene sp. and a possible Liocalymene clintoni pygidium in the second/third to last photo in the recent post (I assume those are the same specimen?). A closer photo would let me confirm it. As for the Calymene sp., the pygidiums between C. cresapensis and C. macrocephala are pretty similar, except C. macrocephala is generally larger and has a slightly different axial lobe shape and bifurcation on the side lobes. I would say the larger pygidiums you have look to be from C. macrocephala going off their relative size, while the smaller ones are C. cresapensis, but they are rather fragmentary. 

 

It looks like you were collecting in one of the ironstone units within the Rose Hill. There's a couple of major ones, but the Cresaptown Ironstone is the one that typically has more of the trilobites, at least in my experience. 

[Rexofspades]

On 6/8/2023 at 8:57 PM, EMP said:

Awesome stuff! I love those prepped trilobite pieces! I've had a lot of experience collecting in the Rose Hill Formation and other early Silurian units in the area and I agree with most of your IDs. As far as identifying the trilobites, it's usually pretty hard to do it with partial pygidiums (unless it's a Liocalymene). It looks like you have at least two species of calymenids, a Calymene sp. and a possible Liocalymene clintoni pygidium in the second/third to last photo in the recent post (I assume those are the same specimen?). A closer photo would let me confirm it. As for the Calymene sp., the pygidiums between C. cresapensis and C. macrocephala are pretty similar, except C. macrocephala is generally larger and has a slightly different axial lobe shape and bifurcation on the side lobes. I would say the larger pygidiums you have look to be from C. macrocephala going off their relative size, while the smaller ones are C. cresapensis, but they are rather fragmentary. 

 

It looks like you were collecting in one of the ironstone units within the Rose Hill. There's a couple of major ones, but the Cresaptown Ironstone is the one that typically has more of the trilobites, at least in my experience. 

 

Wow, Thank you for the in depth response! Yea I was pretty certain that there are 2 diff species in that rock. The funny thing about that locality is that the rocks with stuff in them were rather rare, those 3 were the only ones my dad and I could find. Is Rose hill the best spot for finding these?

[EMP]

8 hours ago, Rexofspades said:

 

Wow, Thank you for the in depth response! Yea I was pretty certain that there are 2 diff species in that rock. The funny thing about that locality is that the rocks with stuff in them were rather rare, those 3 were the only ones my dad and I could find. Is Rose hill the best spot for finding these?

 

Of course, I'm glad to help!

 

The Rose Hill, and really the Silurian in general, is very hit and miss in this area. Almost all of the fossiliferous rocks occur within a couple of zones within the Rose Hill, mostly towards the top of the formation. Outside of those zones the Rose Hill is generally barren. 

 

The most fossiliferous formations are probably the Rochester Shale and the Keyser Formation. I'd look for exposures of those, especially the Keyser if you're interested in finding a lot of things.