Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 My kid and I headed north to see my family and friends in Cincinnati over TG weekend. And as they all have come to expect, I have a habit of slipping away at some point each trip to conduct sorties and surgical strikes on various fossiliferous exposures. This time, I was able to talk my friend Joe into getting up early and coming with me. Joe and I have been through a lot over the years. We've been friends since I let him cheat off my homework in 3rd grade, circa 1978. I stepped in a few times when kids tried to mess with him in grade school. We conspired to torment substitute teachers together. We've served as best man for each other over the years, and I was a pallbearer at his dad's funeral. The decades have a way of binding buddies together through thick and thin. In that spirit, I endeavored to take Joe to a slam dunk site, help him get acclimated to the presentation of fossils, and then turn him loose on the sweetest stretch of the exposure. So at 5 a.m. I kicked his door in and whisked him off to the Mississippian aged Indian Creek Shale of southern Indiana a little west of Louisville. With a bit of a car ride ahead of us, we had fun recounting the various misdeeds of our misspent youth, throwing around horribly inappropriate humor, and somehow, in the end, solving the world's problems. OK, we are there now. Time to grab some tools and start climbing. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Despite sloppy footprints a day or two old, we started picking up Pentremites blastoids within the first few minutes. Joe was a quick study and began finding many of his own, both loose and in matrix. Always a proponent of gentlemanly distance while collecting, I gave Joe some elbow room while I moved off into the margins. Blastoids made up the bulk of our take. I've included pics of the 40 or so I picked up, including 7 in one little matrix slab (6 on one side, 1 on the reverse). Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Another Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Another Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Blastoids were not the only echinoiderms present. I lucked into a couple crinoid crowns, neither in perfect shape, but it was cool to find my smallest crown ever. Still unidentified. Assisstance welcome. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 I grabbed 3 trilobite pygidia Kaskia chesterensis as well. Whole trilobites seem rare in this formation, but since I don't have ready access to Mississippian fossils in most of my travels, I didn't thumb my nose at them. Horn corals Zaphrentoides were abundant, but I just grabbed a couple. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Sounds like a great way to spend Thanksgiving!! Nice finds. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 One of my last finds was a pavement tooth Poecilodus sp....and that didn't offend me one bit. In fact, it was a rather nice finish. We fell back into our old routine on the ride home. It was nice to leave responsibility behind us for a few hours and recapture old times. We even abused ourselves with a stop at White Castle on the way home. After handing off a few bags of Texas fossils for his grandson, I bid Joe farewell. Now I need to get him back down to Texas for a looksee down this way. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Super finds. Great to be able to reminisce with an old school chum. Just say the name of a teacher or some kid and you'll both start laughing. No explanation needed. Quite the slab of blastoids. I actually prefer the look of them in matrix. We have blastoids in our nearby Rockies but no Pentremites and never all that prolific. Not sure why but 95% of Carboniferous trilobites I've collected over the years are also just pygidiums. Perhaps something to do with the way they shed. Nice tooth! If there was a shark tooth currency the Paleozoic ones would be at the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 1 hour ago, Uncle Siphuncle said: One of my last finds was a pavement tooth Poecilodus sp.. That would keep Me on site until it got to dark to see!! Nice way to end the hunt though! Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Simply awesome blastoids. Thanks for showing us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Those blast oils are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing the journey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Great blastoids and report, dan. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bev Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 GREAT story!!! I so wish we had blastoids in the Ordo of SE MN! This one I bought at MAPS. I love the almost mechanical look of these fossils. Here is a pendant I made of one. And one from a horn coral. The more I learn, I realize the less I know. BluffCountryFossils.NET Fossil Adventure Blog Go to my Gallery for images of Fossil Jewelry, Sculpture & Crafts Pinned Posts: Beginner's Guide to Fossil Hunting * Geologic Formation Maps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Nice finds, Dan. You definitely got some interesting pieces. ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Congrats on a productive trip Dan! That shark tooth is the winner for the day for sure. Did you get to troll the Cincinnattian as well? -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Wow, great finds! And most in awesome condition! Congrats! I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Great friends, fantastic finds of classic fossils, and the camaraderie of the day. Doesn't get much better from where I'm sitting. Thanks for the bodacious report, Dan. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 Glad y'all enjoyed. With parents in their mid 70s, I'm spending more time on these trips hanging out with them, and minimizing fossil time to just enough to get a fix. Accordingly, I focused only on the Mississippian, and skipped over the Ordovician and intervening Silurian. I wanted to lay hands on a few harder to obtain specimens to keep collecting brief, but interesting. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Wow, there are many species represented there! And that pygidium has some thorax (meaning a complete one may be possible!) Archimedes may be able to help id the crowns. And a great, and rare tooth as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 The funny thing about the tooth is that it appeared that someone else chipped it out in a small slab, then perhaps didn't recognize it for what it was, as it was only about 20% exposed. Most magnanimous of them! Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 they could have at least prepped it for you too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFOOLEY Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 You have some of the best meanderings...thanks for sharing. "I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey P Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Great report and photos! Sounds like it was an excellent old buddy day and you made some really nice finds too. Love those toids in the matrix. Great stuff!!!! Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Dan, it is the great moment that to find a very old friend (not in the age, but in the so long time as you know each other) and make still things together, especially with so attractive finds ! Coco ---------------------- OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici Un Greg... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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