Devonian Cephalopod From Deer Lake Pa

[hitekmastr]

I would appreciate confirmation that this cephalopod is Striacoceras. It is well articulated and comes apart in segments which allowed me to take some photos of the individual "puzzle pieces."

This comes from the Devonian slopes at Deer Lake, Pennsylvania(Hamilton Group, Mahantango Formation).

Back Story: On Labor Day weekend, Nancy and I stopped for 2 hours at a Deer Lake borrow pit on our way to St. Clair. While I scrambled on the steep slope checking rubble and excavating substrate, Nan decided to chisel open some large pieces at the bottom of the slope. She segmented a large piece of shale twice and the shale was totally blank - normally that would be enough, but Nan decided to give it one more whack and was delighted to discover this large, well-articulated/segmented cephalopod. I should mention that most of her best finds have come from chiseling open pieces that were left in plain site and overlooked by other collectors.

I'll post some of the brachiopods found at Deer Lake in the Trips forum - also some very exciting Lepidendron finds at St. Clair.

Edited September 4, 2012 by hitekmastr

[Auspex]

...most of her best finds have come from chiseling open pieces that were left in plain site and overlooked by other collectors...

You can't judge a book by its cover.

[Fossildude19]

Are these from Deer Park, PA., or Deer Lake, PA.?

Deer Park is in Bucks County, which is primarily Triassic/Jurassic aged sediments.

Deer Lake is in Schuylkill County has Devonian aged fossils/sediments.

Just wanted clarification for others reading who may not be familiar with one or the other.

Neat find - either way. Not sure there is enough detail to narrow it down any further that cephalopod, but others have more knowledge than me on cephs.

Regards,

Edited September 4, 2012 by Fossildude19

[hitekmastr]

Are these from Deer Park, PA., or Deer Lake, PA.?

Deer Park is in Bucks County, which is primarily Triassic/Jurassic aged sediments.

Deer Lake is in Schuylkill County has Devonian aged fossils/sediments.

Just wanted clarification for others reading who may not be familiar with one or the other.

Neat find - either way. Not sure there is enough detail to narrow it down any further that cephalopod, but others have more knowledge than me on cephs.

Regards,

Good catch - I had the photos labeled correctly but had a mnemonic slip in the main post - it is Deer Lake. In fact, the site is in sight of the lake itself. Striacoceras is pictured in Fossil Collecting in Pennsylvania (Hoskins, 3rd Ed.).

[erose]

Not familiar with the fine points of Devonian cephalopods but there are a bunch of orthoconic genera and species. I was able to sort genera for other cephalopods by the position and size of the siphuncle as well as the relative length of the chambers compared to the diameter. For species you may need exterior shell detail.

[richardfulton]

This may help some. I did this years ago and the page is still out there in cyber space! http://dixieflag.tri...a/workshop.html

Specimens labeled Orwigsburg are generally Deer Lake.

Edited November 12, 2012 by richardfulton

[pecopteris]

Nice find. Very interesting peice.