Some more crinoid luck at St. Leon

[connorp]

Last month I took a weekend collecting trip down to the Cincinnati area as my last trip of the year. I visited a number of sites in Indiana and Kentucky, and as usual this included the famous Upper Ordovician roadcut near St. Leon, Indiana. Although this site is best known for its trilobites, I found a great crinoid on my last trip there, and had some further crinoid luck on this trip as well. I spent most of my time in and around the butter shale bed of the Liberty Formation, shown below.

 

 

The find of the day came when I noticed a large accumulation of crinoid stem fragments. It's always a good idea to look around for calyxes when you see a lot of stems like this.

 

As I looked closer, I started to notice a couple calyxes. Then more, and more, and more.

 

 

 

[connorp]

In all, I was able to collect remains of ~30 disarticulated Plicodendrocrinus casei individuals.

 

Calyxes

 

Anal sac pieces

 

Stem pieces

 

Arm fragments

 

I had these last three specimens cleaned up by Kris @Ptychodus04.

 

Not many crinoid bits but a classic Liberty Fm hash plate.

 

 

A large individual adjacent to what was once a complete Flexicalymene retrorsa minuens trilobite.

 

 

A calyx with the anal sac and several arms still attached.

 

Here is the final display I put together.

 

 

It will be hard to top this next trip, but fingers crossed!

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by connorp

[Ptychodus04]

Very nice display. Thanks for letting me work on your pieces.

[Jeffrey P]

I've been to St. Leon a couple of times and have strong admiration for the biodiversity of this amazing site. I, myself haven't found any worthwhile crinoid material there, but your finds show that the place has even more potential than I previously thought. That calyx with arms is truly awesome! Congrats on your finds and the lovely prep work that Kris did. Thanks for sharing. 

[Opuntia]

Awesome haul.

Thank you for sharing

[Mark Kmiecik]

Sweet.

[Nimravis]

Wow what a great find, you did excellent.

[Sjfriend]

Nice pieces! Love the hash plate.

[deutscheben]

That’s quite a crinoidal bounty! 

[erose]

NICE find! The quantity is pretty cool.