Impromptu hunt

[Raggedy Man]

I was given a treat yesterday as my wife woke me up around 6am telling me go hunt as the weather was about to drop out and end the season. I arrived to my spots around 10am as I scouted several new sites along the way. I was finding the typical cephalopod fragments and brachiopod hash plates. As I started to head back to the TARDIS I noticed a small area that had been recently exposed from a rock slide, so I figured I'd better take a look. I'm glad I did. After moving some smaller rocks I noticed a familiar shape that stuck out like a sore thumb and had to walk away and come back just to make sure I was seeing what was there. 

 

And here it is. This definitely made the trip. My first complete Wisconsin ordovician crinoid!

 

 

Unidentified crinoid

Mifflin mbr, Platteville formation

Middle ordovician

Grant County, Wisconsin

 

 

[Fossildude19]

Sweet!  

What a first, too!

Congratulations, Paul.  

Regards,

[caldigger]

Are you sure that's not one of those cheap Chinese knockoffs?  Excellent find.  I know if I were to walk away, it would take me half the day to find it again.  Are we looking at another entry for IFOTM?

[Raggedy Man]

30 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Are you sure that's not one of those cheap Chinese knockoffs?  Excellent find.  I know if I were to walk away, it would take me half the day to find it again.  Are we looking at another entry for IFOTM?

Dang it...says made in China on the back...

 

As for your IPFOTM entry...it's already been posted. LOL

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations. That sure is a super find. A great way to end the collecting season.

[PFOOLEY]

That is an exciting find (and way to wake up)! 

[jpc]

very cool....  Congrats on this great find.  

[FossilDAWG]

Beautiful crinoid!! 

Check out  Praecupulocrinus conjugans as a possible ID.  I can't see the calyx plates well enough on your specimen to be sure of the ID.

 

Reference: Cupulocrinid Crinoids from the Middle Ordovician (Galena Group, Dunleith Formation) of Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota

James C. Brower, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 99-128

 

Don

[Ludwigia]

What would we do without our better halves? Congratulations on a really exciting find!

[ynot]

That is a very nice find!

Tony

 

[sixgill pete]

Fantastic. What an amazing specimen. 

[Raggedy Man]

4 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Sweet!  

What a first, too!

Congratulations, Paul.  

Regards,

 

4 hours ago, caldigger said:

Are you sure that's not one of those cheap Chinese knockoffs?  Excellent find.  I know if I were to walk away, it would take me half the day to find it again.  Are we looking at another entry for IFOTM?

 

3 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Congratulations. That sure is a super find. A great way to end the collecting season.

 

2 hours ago, PFOOLEY said:

That is an exciting find (and way to wake up)! 

 

2 hours ago, jpc said:

very cool....  Congrats on this great find.  

 

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

What would we do without our better halves? Congratulations on a really exciting find!

 

2 hours ago, ynot said:

That is a very nice find!

Tony

 

Thanks everyone! It was definitely a good day. Wisconsin doesn't give up her treasures easily, but when she does a lot of hard work pays off.

 

2 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Beautiful crinoid!! 

Check out  Praecupulocrinus conjugans as a possible ID.  I can't see the calyx plates well enough on your specimen to be sure of the ID.

 

Reference: Cupulocrinid Crinoids from the Middle Ordovician (Galena Group, Dunleith Formation) of Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota

James C. Brower, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 99-128

 

Don

Thanks Don. I was looking for that report, but my subscription is out atm. I will have to do some research with the provided possible ID. I know there are several that are hard to differentiate from one another so we'll see how that goes.

3 minutes ago, sixgill pete said:

Fantastic. What an amazing specimen. 

Thanks Sixgill!

 

Best regards,

Paul

[TNCollector]

Nice one! I have never found one so superb.

[StevenJD]

congrats on the awesome find!

[minnbuckeye]

4 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

 

Reference: Cupulocrinid Crinoids from the Middle Ordovician (Galena Group, Dunleith Formation) of Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota

James C. Brower, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 99-128

 

I tried accessing this and struck out. Any suggestions?

[Barerootbonsai]

Very nice and very jealous  

[smt126]

Wow what a great find. glad you had better luck than your last trip. 

[Raggedy Man]

12 hours ago, smt126 said:

Wow what a great find. glad you had better luck than your last trip. 

Lol I know right? I'll tell ya, falling into that dense patch of stinging nettle was a nightmare. What was worse is that time I had wild parsley just graze my arm. It felt like someone poured battery acid on me...

[Shamalama]

Congrats on the find Paul! It's always sweet to find a nice fossil like that right on the surface with little weathering damage.

[Raggedy Man]

7 hours ago, Shamalama said:

Congrats on the find Paul! It's always sweet to find a nice fossil like that right on the surface with little weathering damage.

The nice thing about the Mifflin is it takes 3 to 6 months for the weather to remove the thin shale lays between the dolomitic limestone layers. It definitely helps keep everything mostly intact.

 

 

[Pagurus]

That's a pretty critter you found there, a mere 450 million years or so after it lived. It seems so delicate yet here it is, after so many years. I'm glad you were there to recover it.