Help Solve These Mysteries Please

[Spiritwolf]

Hello, I just joined the forum today although I've been here many times searching for information, particularly photos & IDs of fossils similar to mine. I've also spent many hours searching the entire web for photos, pdfs, articles, anything & everything I could lay my hands on that might aid me in identifying my own fossils &/or be useful to save for reference in the future.

However, I came to the conclusion that to get fairly definite IDs on my fossils, I need help from those more experienced in recognizing & identifying fossils.

I've collected fossils for a long time & still continue to collect fossils.

All the fossils I'm posting in this thread are from one of these two places

1. A private rock quarry near Logansport Indiana

2. A steep hill at the edge of my backyard that terminates in a big drainage field. Water runoff down the hill continually exposes new fossils to the surface.

To the best of my knowledge, I believe most/all of my fossils are either Silurian or most likely, Devonian.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help me solve these mysteries & positively ID these fossils. Measurements are given at the longest, widest & thickest point of these fossils

Fossil#1

5 inches long, 3 1/2 inches wide, approximately 3/4 inches thick

Fossil #2

Approx 4 inches long, 3 1/2 inches wide, 2 1/2 inches thick at thickest point, approx 1/2 inch thick at thinnest point

Fossil #3

Approx 6 inches long, 5 inches wide, 1.5 inches thick.

Fossil #4

Approx 7 inches long, 7/2 inches wide, 4 1/4 inches thick. very heavy

Edited September 25, 2011 by Spiritwolf

[piranha]

Hi Spiritwolf and Welcome to TFF

Numbers 1, 2, 3, all appear to be coral. Fossil 4 is a fantastic stromatoporid. This reef builder is classified as a separate specialized group within Porifera (sponges). Cass County is Silurian-Devonian as is the range of the likely genus, Parallelopora or possibly Stromatopora. The features that identify this as a stromatoporid are the characteristic mamelons (bumps) and banded laminae (layers). These have an extremely wide range of distribution throughout North America. Attached is an example of Parallelopora (front & back) at 6" across, but only .5" thick, from the Devonian of Michigan. Yours is spectacular by comparison.

Congrats on the amazing finds!

[glacialerratic]

#1 and #3 look like Cladopora coral.

Not sure about #2, but that is a cool looking piece.

Nice finds!

[sward]

Spiritwolf,

Sorry, but I can't help with the id.

But, a fossil hunting spot in your back yard? I couldn't live where you do because I would never be in the house. That must be fantastic to be able to hunt in your back yard.

Welcome to the forum.

BRGDS

sward

DFW, TX

[Maniraptoran]

the top 4 pics look like coral, while the rest look like stromatoporoids

[Spiritwolf]

To those who generously contributed thier help in identifying my fossils, I THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I have more fossils I need to post photos of for help identifying the fossils, but the photos I've already posted used almost my entire 2.5Mb limit.

Sbould I simply delete those photos I already posted & then add new posts with new photos & descriptions to this current thread?

Should I start a separate thread for the fossils I haven't posted photos of yet or should I simply add them to this current thread or what?

How long should I wait to give others time to view & offer their input on my current fossils photos in this thread before I remove the photos?

I want to save my forum thread so I can keep track of my fossils pics I've already posted & avoid duplication.

But when I try to save my forum thread to pdf for reference, all it does is save a blank page. I've tried four different pdf printer programs now, all these programs work fine when used to save pages from other sites for reference, yet on my thread here the only result I keep getting is one blank page.

Does anybody know what's causing my thread to fail to correctly save to pdf?

Thank you.

[Auspex]

Please don't remove anything; the photos and responses are an invaluable resource, to be archived for posterity!

You needn't remove any photos; the limit (designed to guard the sanity of those with slower connections) is per post, not per topic, so you can just add a post to the topic and attach the new pictures there. You can also start a new topic, which might improve the exposure of the new pictures.

[Kentuckiana Mike]

Fossil #2 looks like a Billingsastrea yandelli? found in Devonian period limestone. Its genus may have been renamed to Heliophyllum though.

Nice find.

See this link for pictures of another specimen: http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/06/billingsastraea-yandelli-coral.html

The first fossil might be some sort of Favosites or Alveolites Devonian coral.