A Final Trip To The Decorah Shale

[minnbuckeye]

Hunting spots unfortunately come and go. And so it will be with the site I visited this week having been one of my favorite local spot for Decorah Shale fossils it saddened me to see  construction taking it away from me. So I hunted it hard and it produced fairly well. First up are a few hash plates.

 

 

 

There was a discussion this week on whether fossils should be left in matrix or not. I decided to provide a little of both

 

 

 

 

 

 

There seems to be two types of rugosa coral. One is very smooth. The other has rough ridges. The only species name I have for the Decorah is Lambeophyllum profunum, which I feel is the smooth one.

 

 

I found dozens of Strophomena but have a difficult time differentiating the various species based on the look of one side of one shell. So I didn't bore you with many pictures of this genus.

 

 

 

 

These are worm burrows, very common in the Decorah.

 

 

 

 

I find these on occation and call them sponges. It is a ball with a stalk that seems to have attached to something. Maybe it is just a common Prasapora bryozoan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of my favorite finds of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

Gastropods in the Decorah are not pretty. The Platteville below and the Galena above produce many nice gastropods. If anyone knows an explanation, I would love to hear it!!

 

 

This is your typical Prasapora bryozoan of the Decorah. Two species are mentioned without a description of how to tell them apart.

 

 

 This next species of Prasapora is easy to tell apart. But is uncommon to find. I was ecstatic to grab two in the same trip!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture speaks of how easy it is to ID a P. grandis from the others!!

 

 

Now I must tearfully say goodbye to this site. But construction continues to boom in the area and new exposures will likely show up.  

 

 Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by minnbuckeye

[traveltip1]

Awesome finds....

[Jeffrey P]

Beautiful finds. Sad story. 

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the report, Mike.
Sorry to see it come to an end. 

[Ironhead42]

That looks like it was a nice site with fantastic specimens!

[Ludwigia]

Sure is sad sometimes to watch things being transformed or obliterated over the years. The house in which I spent my teenage years suddenly wasn't there any more when I wanted to show it to my wife on a trip to Canada a decade ago many years after my family had moved out of it. Apparently it had to be torn down because of mould infestation, but at least there's a new one standing there now.

[FossilNerd]

I recently lost a collecting site to construction as well. I liken it to losing a good friend. 
 

You’ve spent many hours with the site. The time just flies by. It’s brought you joy with fossil gifts, but also the occasional frustration and heartache with “heartbreaker” finds. Just like with most friends there are good times and bad. Of course the good outweighs the bad or you wouldn’t keep them around! 
 

I’m glad your friendly fossil site was able to bring you joy with a nice haul of fossil gifts one last time!  May it Rest In Peace!

[minnbuckeye]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

. The house in which I spent my teenage years suddenly wasn't there

 

So sad! Worse than loosing a hunting spot. Hopefully fond memories will remain!

[Fin Lover]

Mike,

Nice finds and sorry to hear that you are losing a great spot.

[Ludwigia]

6 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

Hopefully fond memories will remain!

Yes they do fortunately.

[Neanderthal Shaman]

Great finds! Sorry to see that  the spot is closing down, maybe one day once it has served whatever purpose they're using it for, it will once again yield treasures for future generations. 

[saidthegirl]

Gorgeous finds! I’m traveling to Decorah this weekend for the first time and am hoping to do some collecting. Don’t know of any definite spots (and it’s only my 2nd trip fossil collecting), but I am hoping to find some good road cuts or public areas to collect in  

 

Thanks for the posts, as they have been very helpful in researching what I could expect! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some great finds, several species I hadn't heard of before.

Nice photos too and you're getting really good at your ids. 

What a shame about losing the locality; though. 

[Stingray]

Some people chain themselves too tree’s maybe we should chain ourselves onto boulders just sayin 

 

SAVE OUR FOSSIL BEDS

SAVE OUR FOSSIL BEDS