Mississippian trip

[aek]

A few years ago I picked up an old paleontological publication from a University of Chicago used book sale and one of the sites described looked interesting. I finally got around to visiting the site last week, a good 5+ hour drive. It was completely overgrown so had to hack my way to the exposure. Middle Mississippian rocks.

 

 

 

After about three hours of careful work I came across some Griffithides skeletal elements buried in foraminifera matrix. 

 

 

 

 

I also found this nice calcite crystal that fluoresces pink under UV. The white crystals at the base phosphoresce for about 15 seconds.

 

 

 

Found nearby was this turtle carapace. I'm not sure ,but I think it could be an Eastern box turtle shell.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Love the trilobits in foram matrix! Most unusual.

What are the forams, do you know? 

Yes, looks like an Easter boxie, I'm afraid. 

[connorp]

Nice trilobits. Any idea what formation?

[piranha]

2 hours ago, aek said:

After about three hours of careful work I came across some Griffithides skeletal elements buried in foraminifera matrix.

 

Congrats!

This one is classified as Hesslerides bufo.  Brezinski 2000 removed Griffithides and has restricted it to the Eurasian realm.

 

Brezinski, D.K. 2000. Lower Mississippian Trilobites from Southern New Mexico. Journal of Paleontology, 74(6):1043-1064  PDF LINK

[aek]

 

 

@Tidgy's Dad @connorp @piranha 

The forams are Globoendothyridae , Sanders group. Thanks for the paper! 

[FranzBernhard]

On 5/31/2022 at 8:18 PM, aek said:

It was completely overgrown

Haha! This isn´t that bad, that would be a very good exposure in my area .

Seriously, what you have done is also my way to go. Prospecting and discovering new or very old sites. 

Thanks for sharing your adventure!

Franz Bernhard