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Brachiopods And Crinoids From The Kashong Shale


Mediospirifer

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Last summer, my husband and I went collecting in a location that was rich in small brachiopods and crinoid stem sections. I'm now trying to identify some of them, and a few are giving me trouble. I have two brachiopods and two crinoid stem sections for right now, and may follow up with others sometime later.

All of these are from the Middle Devonian, extracted from weathered Kashong shale. I've photographed pairs of fossils that I think are the same species, in different positions.

This first photo is of damaged brachiopods. They're crushed enough that I'm not sure which picture in my fossil guide represents them:

post-12648-0-39400400-1439357559_thumb.jpg

The second photo doesn't really match anything in the guide, except possibly a crushed Nucleospira concinna. Can anyone either confirm this tentative ID or tell me what it actually is? If it was only one fossil that looked like this, I'd be more willing to simply go with that label, but I have several with this concentric-ringed structure, and I've never seen modern shells broken like that.

post-12648-0-91194600-1439357549_thumb.jpg

And the two crinoid sections. My fossil guides don't have much on crinoids, and what they do have is limited to crowns. I'd appreciate any identification!

post-12648-0-33449200-1439357570_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-21281700-1439357592_thumb.jpg

Thanks all!

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Thanks!

I collected bits of close to a dozen different species at that site. The detail is indeed nice!

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Nice finds!The first seems a rynchonellid. The brachiopods in the second photo look specimens of the genus Athyris (maybe athyris eifelensis).

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Hello Mediospirifer,

Your 1st photo looks like Camarotoechia. The 2nd photo looks like you are correct calling it Nucleospira. The left crinoid column looks like Thylacocrinus and the left looks like Clarkeocrinus.

All the fossils you show, do appear on the faunal list for Moscow formation, Kashong member. My references are Devonian Paleontology of New York by David Linsley 1994 (PRI Special Publication #21) and Devonian Crinoids of New York by Winifred Goldring 1923 ( NYSM Memoir #16)

My Echinoderm names might be obsolete and have contemporary new assignments. Crinoid "stems" can be tricky. They vary from one another in the same species and at different positions on the "stem" they can show differences.

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The second brachiopod is an Athyris. It is not a Nucleospira which has a smooth shell with many small spines on it. Nucleospira would have no growth rings which is typical for Athyris. I agree that the first one is Camarotoechia.

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Thanks! Now I can label them. :D These are some pieces I'm sending to a couple of friends in a geology pen-pal exchange.

fossilcrazy, I have the Devonian Paleontology book you mention, and the recently updated edition. Both are good references, I'm just not familiar with the Kashong material. I'll have to look for the Devonian Crinoids book.

I have a question. In sorting through my crinoid sections, I noticed a few different internal structures. The Thylacocrinus structure was particularly interesting, and there were a couple of different external morphologies with the same structure, all with pentagonal symmetry. They range in shape from nearly round to star-shaped. Would all of these be Thylacocrinus, or are there other possibilities?

Here's a photo. I've been told this is Thylacocrinus clarkei.

post-12648-0-00718400-1439415052_thumb.jpg

Thanks again!

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Thanks! Now I can label them. :D These are some pieces I'm sending to a couple of friends in a geology pen-pal exchange.

fossilcrazy, I have the Devonian Paleontology book you mention, and the recently updated edition. Both are good references, I'm just not familiar with the Kashong material. I'll have to look for the Devonian Crinoids book.

I have a question. In sorting through my crinoid sections, I noticed a few different internal structures. The Thylacocrinus structure was particularly interesting, and there were a couple of different external morphologies with the same structure, all with pentagonal symmetry. They range in shape from nearly round to star-shaped. Would all of these be Thylacocrinus, or are there other possibilities?

Here's a photo. I've been told this is Thylacocrinus clarkei.

attachicon.gifCrinoid 1.JPG

Thanks again!

I don't know the particulars of these Devonian specimens but some crinoids have stems that change shape over the length.

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I don't know the particulars of these Devonian specimens but some crinoids have stems that change shape over the length.

Good to know!

I'm going to have to get my hands on a good reference book for crinoids.

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