Micros From Ohio's Ordovician Sea

[Fossiholic]

On my last visit to Caesers Creek, I scraped up a small zip-lock bag of material, hoping to find one or more tiny trilobites when I sifted through it at home. I just came across the bag while looking through a box, and started sifting last night. My first step was to sift it through a kitchen strainer. This left me with about 200ml of courser material, and about 60ml of finer sand like material.

So far I have searched through about 20ml of the finer material, and this is what I have pulled out so far (without the use of magnification). I am ordering a jeweler's lens, and will go back through the finer material to see what other treasures it holds. I will also have my neighbor take the next round of photos as he has a much better camera with much better lens.

So far skimming over the larger chunks I have only found shell, bryozoan frags, and crinoid segments, along with a few other expected finds . . . but no tilobites.

[Chadheimer]

Cool itty bitty stuff. I like the pentagon shaped ones. My eyesight is so bad I would have looked right over them.

Thanks for sharing. I just love this stuff.

[Auspex]

These results are well worth the effort, in and of themselves!

[squali]

wow nice finds and a pretty good good picture too.

We just started sorting some Texas Hawthorn formation yesterday,

I have to use a loupe.

My daughter just looks and picks..

[Pagurus]

Looks like quite a bit of good stuff for just a little ziplock bag. Have fun with it. I've been looking at micros too the last few days and having a ball.

Mike G

[Jimi]

Very cool! But, be careful micros can be very addictive LOL

[Fossiholic]

@ all: thanks!

@Chad: I like the hexes too. I think they might be cross sections of something with a hex shaped "tube". I have a number of crinoid cross section pieces, but I think they may all be round. An I D on them later would be cool.

@Auspex: I couldn't agree more . . . no disappointment here . . . a trilobite would simply be a bonus.

@Squlai: I did have to put reading glasses on, and am ordering a magnifier tomorrow.

@Pagarus: Mind you, this (pictured) came from only about 20ml of sifted sand from the 250 ml in bag. I still have a lot to post. I may do one pic at the end that shows how much came from the bag total.

@Jimi: I am too addicted to all of it to be threatened by one aspect. When the weather is nice, the big Megs call me, when it's hot, the beach calls me, and when it's cold or rainy . . . I can sift all day!

[Herb]

there should also be scolecodonts, conodonts and ostracods in the material in the Caesars Creek/Waynesville area. 20X to 30X should be enough to see them fine. If you don't have sieves you can strain the clay/mud through a woman's hose. Preferably without the woman in them.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

the little brachs look like zygospira modesta from the waynesville/liberty

[Herb]

There are plenty Z.modesta in that area,

[Fossiholic]

Herb,

I just looked through a pile of fine sediment, and did not see any scolecodonts or the like. I did see many items as small or smaller than this brach., and through my jeweler's loupe, the detail wasn't too bad . . . certainly far better than what my camera did. It's a Z. modesta, right? And yes, there are a lot of them. I always picked them up while searching for small detached trilobites.

I will do a more thorough look through a greater portion of my matrix this winter when I have more time.

[Ridgehiker]

Wow. That's my favourite type of material.

It's a reminder to scoop up a bit of sediment when out collecting.

Herb...do you ever find loose conodonts out of matrix in your area? That would be neat.

[Fossiholic]

Yes . . . to bringing home some sediment from any and every applicable outing/hunt. It makes me wonder how much amazing stuff gets left behind each time someone sifts with a 1/4" or 1/2" hardware cloth screen, especially in water.

One of my last times out sifting in our nearby creek, I took a shovel and bucket, and brought home some sand. I was quite surprised at how many small shark teeth I found in that one bucket full . . . and I normally use a 1/4" screen, and usually find rather small teeth when out.

[Herb]

I do find conodonts in almost all of the Ordovician clays (lot of micros in the Waynesville area), in KY,IN and OH. Lots of ostracods and lots of worm jaws. Mosquito screen will take out 90% of the micros, Look at my post on collecting micros w/o breaking the bank for inexpensive buy effective collecting.