Jim's Trips

[JimB88]

Im going to start putting all my trips under 1 topic (easier to find that way.)

Ive been collecting three to four times since my last trip report. This included a trip west to the Ordovician (to scout for new roadcuts) a trip east to look for the Nolichucky Shale (Cambrian) and a recent trip to the abandoned quarry I used to frequent (Mississippian, Bangor Limestone.)

the Ordovician trips went well, and I managed to collect a wide variety of fossils. I collected from two formations, both of which I had collected from before, but at different locations. The Leiper's (which I cant seem to escape from ) and the Hermitage; of which I was pleased to find another exposure of.

First was a whole bunch of brachiopods (of which this is a small sample.)

a.) Hebertella occidentalis b.) Platystrophia sp. c.) Rhynchotrema increbescens d.) Onniella sp. e.) Dinorthis pectinella

Rhynchotrema seems to occur in the billions in the Hermitage.

next up is the bivalves, which are fairly abundant in the Leipers, these mostly consist of internal molds.

a and d.) Modiolopsis modiolaris b.) Caritodens sp. (a rare internal mold around here) c.) Ctenodonta pectunculoides (side view, beak is to the right)

and a nice mass mortality plate of (mostly) bivalves I picked up at a road-cut on my way home from the last trip west. Its upper Ordovician.

the most common ones (labeled a.) Modiolopsis b.) a razor clam, most likely Orthodesma sp. c.)a strophomenid brachiopod d.) an orthid brachiopod, probably Hesperorthis sp.

Bryozoans were everywhere but I only picked up a few; I did very well on sponges however

a.) a semi-smooshed sponge Hindia sphaeroidalis (with matrix still attached) b.) two nice bryozoans that I haven't ID'ed yet

cont. next reply....

[JimB88]

cont....

an as of yet unidentified sponge...

not sure if this is a sponge or a bryo or some kind of coral...could be Lyopora sp. not sure though

cont. next reply....

[JimB88]

cont...

gastropods are the one thing I dont get a lot of around here, but I did manage to snag this one from the face of the road-cut..

not sure on the id though...

I managed to pick up some more ostracods which are fairly common in the Leipers

Leperditia sp.

internal mold of the biggest ostracod found here Teichochilina.

My next trip was to the east to look for exposures of Cambrian strata ( and trilobites.) My luck going east is terrible and I usually come home empty handed. Fortunately this time I actually found some fossils

I first stopped at a large road cut with a lot of shale exposed, but I found no fossils in it and after 45min moved on. It turned out to be the Nolichucky Shale that I was looking for, but I found no trilobites (or anything else ) in it. I next stopped at an exposure with some limey shale that weathered to a dun hue. The first piece I picked up had a small cephalopod on it so i got excited!

This turned out to be another Ordovician exposure, the Martinsburg Shale.

the fossils are replaced with pink calcite! Ive yet to id the cephalopod or what part of the Ordovician the Martinsburg Shale is part of. Along with the ceph, I brought home some examples of the small brachiopods that occur with it (though, I havent cleaned them yet or id'ed them.)

Further up the road I found a large road-cut of mudstone, and though I found no fossils per se, i did find some nice ichno fossils. This site turned out to be the Rome Formation, an upper Cambrian formation.

this is front and back of the same piece...Skolithos

cont on next reply....

[JimB88]

cont...

unknown ichno fossil

though i was glad I found something, it wasnt much for a two hour drive!

My most recent trip saw me going back to the abandoned quarry I used to always collect at to see if I could handle it again. I had a couple of blood clots in my left leg in 07 and 08', even though I could walk, my strength in that leg was waning and it became too difficult for me to hike up the hill to get out of there. So I stopped going there. After having corrective vein surgery last month, I wanted to test the strength of that leg. Im happy to say my strength has returned! And though I didnt bring home a lot (I didnt even take my pack down) I still consider it a good trip.

The quarry is Bangor Limestone, Upper Mississippian.

a.) Pentremites buttsi b.) Pentremites gemmiformis (?) c.) Pentremites cherokeeus d.) Neozaphrentis sp e.) Composista sp. f.) Girtyella indianensis g.0 unknown at this time

thasts it for now..I'll be adding to it as I go...

Edited May 2, 2015 by JimB88

[Auspex]

I'm really glad you 'got your legs back'!

More fossilicious adventures for me to enjoy vicariously

[ZiggieCie]

THX for the tour.

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report, pics, and finds.

Thanks for the report, Jim!

Regards,

[jpc]

Nice stuff, Jim. Congrats on the finds and the rejuvenated leg. Pink calcite... You don't see that every day. Cool.

[Ludwigia]

Congrats on the nice Blastoids, but I'm particularly glad for you to hear that the corrective surgery was a success!

[JimB88]

Thanks guy's! Its great to be back at full strength again!

[JimB88]

Time to add a short stop I made today in the Upper Mississippian Pennington formation, when returning from an errand. I was only there for 15 min (and I didnt have my boots with me.) This site is mostly 'hash' plates that result from a rough near shore environ on laminated limestone and siltstone. Most fossils are not articulated at this location but one can still find some neat stuff!

When i spot something black on one of these plates its usually one of two things..a smooshed platyceras gastropod or a tooth. Now I can add a third possibility...

Paraconularia

not complete but so rare here as to still be a good find!

a nice fan of a bryo (which is miraculous to have survived this intact!)

Fenestella sp.

a small but nice impression of this flat brachiopod...

Orthotedes sp. These are usually much larger and smooshed in such a way as to conform to whatever is beneath it.

not a spectacular fossil but still neat to see a productid brachiopod with the spines still on it!

more on my next trip!

[Auspex]

Well, we're glad you stopped, boots or not!

The Paraconularia is fun

[Ludwigia]

Very good for just a quarter of an hour! Are my eyes playing tricks, or am I seeing 2 different types of bryozoa on that Fenestella piece?

[JimB88]

Very good for just a quarter of an hour! Are my eyes playing tricks, or am I seeing 2 different types of bryozoa on that Fenestella piece?

yeah, theres a polypora and a fistulipora as well.

[JimB88]

I managed another trip last Sat to my usual Ordovician spot ( the Upper Ordovician, Leipers Formation.) This time I tried a more sedentary approach and had some success buy breaking hard limestone to reveal a plethora of fossils inside! Normally I surface scan at this spot, but this day I wanted to try something different. The fossils found in this particular layer occur as internal molds but the variety is beguiling.

By far, the most common fossils are the gastropods (which is exactly opposite of how that site otherwise produces by surface scanning. )

I managed to collect around a dozen nice internal molds..of which this is a sample to show what types I found...

a. Liospira sp. b.Cyclonema (?) c. Sphenosphaera capax d. Lophospira sp.

The bellerophontids are one of the reasons I still collect at this spot. Ive been trying to find a large intact one; but they are very fragile..i do get close on occasion like this one I picked up the 'old fashion way'..

they are almost always broken or badly worn..its frustrating..

Occasionally when breaking a rock, a partial cephalopod would dominate or, as in this case fall out into my lap...

Ive yet to id it, but the severity of the taper is unusual.

there were many molds of single valves from bivalves and brachiopods, but none were articulated, and most were small...

Caritodens demissa

a mold of the smaller version of this otherwise large bivalve.

One of the more exciting things from this layer is the abundance of trilobite remains..this is also the layer where I found my first complete one as well..

I believe this to be Ceraurus milleranus which seemed to be thriving here as in the same matrix as this near complete cephalon was this glabella of the same kind. Now if I can only find a complete one!

I also found a sweet little pygidium (possibly Belizoma ) but the pics didnt turn out so I'll have to try again later.

On my way out I surfaced scanned some for bryozoans and sponges as they weren't represented in that layer. Along with some nice examples of both was this little mystery..I think its a echinoderm plate of some kind.

cont...

Edited May 20, 2015 by JimB88

[JimB88]

cont...

heres a rather robust example of a bryozoan...

I think its Homotrypa sp.

This is a curious one..a sponge..

this may be Heterospongia

I also picked up an example of another common occurrence at this spot.. geodized fossils..

It has nice crystals.

thats it for now...

[JimB88]

On a funny side note...my research taught me that the Martinsburg Shale is contemporary with the Leipers formation. I just cant escape it....

[Auspex]

Neat report & good finds!

You even used the word "plethora" in a post; tracer would be pleased

[JimB88]

[jpc]

HeyJim... NIce stuff and nice report. I like your idea of putting all your trips on one post, but I can foresee a problem: after a while it will be difficult for us regulars to get to the latest post. This is just an idea, but maybe on your initial post you can edit it every time you add an adventure and put on the bottom... "New outing poisted on XXXdate" or somemsuch so we don't have to scroll through all the cool stuff we already read.

Or am I being lazy?

[JimB88]

that's a good idea, but it doesn't seem to give me the option of editing it.

[Auspex]

HeyJim... NIce stuff and nice report. I like your idea of putting all your trips on one post, but I can foresee a problem: after a while it will be difficult for us regulars to get to the latest post. This is just an idea, but maybe on your initial post you can edit it every time you add an adventure and put on the bottom... "New outing poisted on XXXdate" or somemsuch so we don't have to scroll through all the cool stuff we already read.

Or am I being lazy?

My settings take me to "Last Unread" when I click on the blue dot left of the topic.

[Fossildude19]

Jim,

Great finds, once again - thanks for posting them.

Fingers crossed for you to find a complete Ceraurus trilobite.

Regards,

[JimB88]

Went out again this Friday to hit a couple of Ordovician spots west of me.

The first stop was the Leipers Formation, which I didn't stay at long as there was no shade and the sun was beating down on me. The Leipers is Upper Ordovician.

My second stop was the Hermitage Formation (Middle Ordovician) at a rather productive site, especially if you like brachiopods and bryozoans.

Ill start with a pic of part of my haul...

a. the button bryo Prasopora b. Zygospira c. Onniella d. Dalmanella e. crinoid stem section f. unknown sponge g. Heterotrypa bryozoan h. Cyrtoceras cephalopod i. Rhynchotrema j. Platystrophia

The button bryo's were identified by Steve Holland of the University of Georgia. He did acetate peels of other examples I sent him.

Heres a close up of the button bryos (and a strophomenid brachiopod.)

Prasopora patera

cont next post...

Edited June 6, 2015 by JimB88

[JimB88]

cont..

from my first stop I did manage to pick up some neat stuff (in my opinion.)

These small cephalopods often beak up into the individual sections. They're like coins scattered everywhere. Articulated ones are hard to find.

Cyrtoceras convidale

Heres a large bellerophont gastropod..the shell itself is replaced with white calcite crystals.

Sphenosphaera capax

Stromatoporoid sponges form large areas of some of the layers; these usually have mamellons or raised bumps on them...

Stromatocerium huronensis

I also find alot of these strange yet beautiful canary yellow crystals growing there..not sure what mineral they are though.

cont next post...

Edited June 6, 2015 by JimB88