Example Of Oolites In The Westerville Limestone?

[Kehbe]

A couple of small pieces that I collected recently in what I believe to be the Pennsylvanian, Westerville Limestone of the Kansas City Missouri area. There are not a lot of fossils in the particular area i found these in but the ones that are there have a nice white color and all these little 'oolitic pearls' and as always, comments and opinions are more than welcome! There are some small gastropods in this area as well and I think it definatly warrants another once over! Maybe on the way home from work today Here is a couple of pics! Thanks!

pic1 pic2

pic3 pic4

[Auspex]

Them's good-looking fossils! The "oolites" seem kind of irregular, though; have you looked at them under magnification?

[pleecan]

Ostracodes?

[Kehbe]

All I have right now is a set of 2.25X headgear binocular mags. It is quite possible I am incorrect about these being oolites hence the question mark in the title. I was comparing it to this information on wikipedia and the picture in this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolite but after looking up ostracods, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracod I suppose they could be that instead. Do massive amounts of ostracods consolidate like the oolites and form limestone? I will have to get a better look at them this evening and maybe try and take some better photos. I will try to get a photo of the wall these came from. It is cross-bedded and interestingly looks like a 'sanddune' in cross section that has been 'washed' back and forth by wave action. Quote from the wikipedia article, ".The oolites are commonly found in large current bedding structures that resemble sanddunes. The size of the oolite reflects the time they have had exposed to the water before they were covered with later sediment." Missourian is somewhat familiar with the area these were found and may be able to offer up more insight!

[Missourian]

I'd call them ooids (or pisoids if over 2 mm).

They would be oncoids (Osagia) if the laminae are cyanobacterial in origin.

The irregular ones could be coated shell fragments.

[thanatocoenosis]

Clearly, in pic 2 a pisolith can be seen that has fractured(to the lower right of the bivavlve(?).