St. Paul, Caesar’s Creek, and Napoleon

[Velociraptor99]

Hello all, it’s been a long time. I started getting back into fossil hunting now that I’ve gotten older. I had the chance to go out fossil hunting last month with my fossil club and a few friends. I’ll post the pictures over time of my finds.

 We went out to southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana. We stopped first at Caesar’s Creek. I had never been to any of these sites so it was very exciting.
Everything at Caesar’s Creek is tiny, and you aren’t allowed to take anything larger than your palm/hand home with you. The most common find were absolutely tiny brachiopods which literally litter the spillway floor. If you want to find anything, you’ll have to get on your hands and knees. I managed to find plenty of brachiopods and a few bryozoans.

But the best finds were 6 of the smallest whole trilobites I’ve ever seen or found. All of them smaller than my pinkie nail. Followed by some nice gastropods, a few pieces of horn coral, and a section of a cephalopod shell with its inner chambers partially intact. I was bummed that I didn’t find an isotelus roller but there’s always next time.

If anyone could help with ID on these that would be greatly appreciated. More to come in other posts in this thread. Sorry for the poor photography, all I have is my phone camera. 

[Velociraptor99]

On our way to our hotel, we stopped by a roadcut in Indiana. The site was rich in fossil material. However, almost all of it was limited to brachiopods. Still, the quality of these brachiopods was nice. They generally lacked the other half of the organism, and are very thin. I picked up the ones I found the nicest and went along my way. I found a couple of small decent gastropods there too, as well as some bryozoans and trilobite cephalons.
 

Someone in my friend group managed to find a partial cephalopod shell at the roadcut. We were going to hit a famous large roadcut in the area that’s been historically open to collectors, but we decided against it as Indiana state/highway patrol put up a sign saying that “trespassers would be prosecuted”. It’s a shame they changed that spot because it’s well known for its trilobites. Better safe than sorry. 
 

[connorp]

9 minutes ago, Velociraptor99 said:

We were going to hit a famous large roadcut in the area that’s been historically open to collectors, but we decided against it as Indiana state/highway patrol put up a sign saying that “trespassers would be prosecuted”. It’s a shame they changed that spot because it’s well known for its trilobites. Better safe than sorry.

Are you talking about St. Leon?

[Velociraptor99]

4 minutes ago, connorp said:

Are you talking about St. Leon?

I believe so, the name rings a bell. 

[connorp]

10 minutes ago, Velociraptor99 said:

I believe so, the name rings a bell. 

The signs say that people who dig will be prosecuted. Surface collecting is fine there.

[Velociraptor99]

20 minutes ago, connorp said:

The signs say that people who dig will be prosecuted. Surface collecting is fine there.

Oh, well that’s good news at least. Thank you for the heads up and correction. My club may be heading down that way again in the fall to visit St. Paul again, so I’ll try and visit that site. 
 

After a while we reached our hotel, tucked in for the night after getting dinner together. The next day we visited Napoleon quarry in Napoleon, Indiana. This site is known for its cystoids, many of them seemingly loose or free from matrix. Well, not for me that is. I me managed to find a few cystoids and at least 1 to 3 complete ones at that. But all were in matrix. One of my friends managed to find at least a full small baggie of them, all loose.
 

It really started to rain there after a while, just on and off. It got really muddy, but that helped the cystoids kind of “pop out” for you due to their unique color and texture. I found most of my cystoids this way. Aside from cysptoids and a few brachiopods, there were some nice cephalopods to be found including this giant piece. And some horn coral. I also managed to find a weird fossil that someone from the Dry Dredgers who was present at the trip, who was also part of our club, told me was likely a conostichus. I also managed to find some gastropods. As for my cystoids, if anyone knows how to prep them loose that would be greatly appreciated. Or at least anybody I can pay to have them prepped. 

[Wrangellian]

Nice... I like that snail. And is that tiny thing a bivalve?

[Velociraptor99]

10 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Nice... I like that snail. And is that tiny thing a bivalve?

If it’s what I think you’re referring to, then yes it is some kind of clam/bivalve. The other small thing above it is a part of a crinoid calyx I think. 
 

On our last day we went to St. Paul quarry. Known for its trilobites, pyritized fossils, and crinoid “cups”. I unfortunately, found almost no crinoid calyxes. I did too much splitting when I should have been surface collecting. All my best finds came from just getting on my hands, knees, and elbows surface collecting with my face glued to the ground.  

I did manage to fine at least 1 or 2 small complete/mostly-complete crinoid cups. And a partial large one. The best finds were two large gastropods and at least one small complete trilobite. I think I may have two other complete ones but they are surrounded by matrix so I’d need a couple second-hand opinions on that. I found a decent variety of brachiopods and clams/bivalves. There was one find I wasn’t sure about, a weird thing I’ve included as a picture. A club member brought in a nicer one that looked similar and someone said it was likely a “worm tube”, any guesses on mine?

 

This site I was looking for the tube worm Cornulites proprius, which a member of the club had found at the previous year’s visit. Unfortunately for me I was looking in the wrong quarry because it was actually found at the Napoleon Quarry. I hope someday I can find a nice tube worm fossil. The only thing that has me stumped is the little thing “growing” on my giant gastropod. It looks like either a bryozoan or a piece of tube worm. All in all I had a great time. If anyone knows where the best place to look for tube worm fossils is in northeast Ohio let me know. 

 

 

[Wrangellian]

Yes, the little dinky one... I'm not sure how you even found it except that your face must have been close to the ground! Anyway it sounds like collecting heaven in that spot, picking up loose fossils one after another. That's a rare experience in my area.

That last one looks like either a 'worm' tube or a small horn coral, but I'll leave it to others with more specific knowledge of that fauna to give you a better ID. Might need more pics of that one.