Devonian Assemblages At Deer Lake

[hitekmastr]

Nancy and I made a two hour stop at the Devonian borrow pit/rubble slopes at Deer Lake, PA on Sept. 1, on our way to St. Clair (along Route 61). These are very steep rubble-covered slopes, a bit tricky to climb and navigate. There are several locations. The mining slopes are posted so we avoided them. There are slopes behind two restaurants, and slopes next to a parking lot although some of the back slopes are posted.

I spent most of my time at the top of the slope and Nan cracked shale rocks at the bottom. Nan found a 8 cm long cephalopod which is discussed and pictured in the Fossil ID section (http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php/topic/31741-devonian-cephalopod-from-deer-lake-pa/page__hl__%2Bdeer+%2Blake )

The Deer Lake site is described by several sources as having an extremely large and diverse variety of Devonian fossils, from ammonoids and brachiopods to cephalopods and trilobites. We found no ammonoids or trilobites - however, I found some very impressive "death assemblages" that confirmed the variety of fossils here, including a nice internal spirifid brachiopod that later separated from the substrate. The shell in Image 10.1 seems to show the pattern (and possibly color) of the original shell (look at the brown and beige stripes that cut across the contoured grooves). Also, Image 11.1 looks like a portion of an Orthonata shell although it could be something else.

Some of the assemblages are artistically arranged and are very cool. The iron content creates some bright orange fossils and the shale tends to come in purple and orange colors, including some olive green shale. This orange and purple coloring is very impressive. Our goal is to find a much larger "death assemblage" in order to collect a specimen that would be suitable for display.

On the way to this site, we stopped at a local roadcut near our home that we had been eyeing and found a lot of olive green colored shale. In a very quick 10 minute look, we found some trace fossils but nothing significant although if we find anything that is well defined it will be impressive because of the unique color of the shale.

We plan to spend more time at the Deer Lake slopes, on a future visit. Nancy wants to crack open some of the larger rocks and I want to extract some larger slices of shale, to get a nice display piece.

We have not had time to go through the fossils to identify them - we have a large collection of Devonian shell fossils from several different sites and I plan to spend the winter identifying these.

If anyone would like to offer identifications for any of these now and save me some time poring over the fossil books this winter, you're welcome to do so - I've numbered the images for easy ID.

[Bullsnake]

Man! You guys find really cool stuff! Great job!

[TMNH]

Great finds! Sounds like an interesting site!

[Missourian]

You're right about the artistic quality of the fossils.

Plus, I always enjoy reading your detailed descriptions of your trips.

[AgrilusHunter]

Great report and beautiful fossils! I especially like that first specimen.

[trilobiteruss]

Nice finds!

[hitekmastr]

Man! You guys find really cool stuff! Great job!

That's my favorite, too - the most artistic arrangement, for sure...

[mzkleen]

Great finds you two!! You two have a "sixth sense" for fossils.

[Shawn71]

I have found many partial trilos in Deer Lake...nothing to write home about though. As far as I know, Michael's Restaurant is the only place to collect..."The Cafe" restaurant closed down last year or the year before. I have had much better luck near Stroudsburg, although the honey hole in the road cut on route 191 has been posted for years. There are Devonian exposures all over there.

[hitekmastr]

I have found many partial trilos in Deer Lake...nothing to write home about though. As far as I know, Michael's Restaurant is the only place to collect..."The Cafe" restaurant closed down last year or the year before. I have had much better luck near Stroudsburg, although the honey hole in the road cut on route 191 has been posted for years. There are Devonian exposures all over there.

Good to know. We are always looking for new sites to explore.

[Auspex]

...We are always looking for new sites to explore.

You don't explore just fossil sites, you explore ancient ecosystems.

[pleecan]

Nice finds!