Paulding (OH) Fossil Gardens

[Peat Burns]

Thanks to @Fossil-Hound, who recently submitted a trip report to Paulding, Ohio, I was reminded that I had not been there yet and decided to head down there today.  As mentioned by Fossil-Hound, this is "spoil" from the LaFarge Quarry which operates just down the road from the site.  The quarry has generously set aside some land where they have placed numerous long piles of fossil-rich shale from the Silica Formation (middle Devonian: Givetian).  The fossil park is fenced-in, and there is a nice, spatious, gravel parking lot as well as a porta-pot.  There is a liability waiver form, but when I was there, there were no more blank ones -- just a whole bunch that had already been filled out and stuffed in the receptacle on the sign.  I read everything and looked everywhere regarding rules for using "tools".  I saw no rules against using a rock hammer or other tools.

 

Here are a few pictures of the site and parking area (the "smoke" in the background is from the quarry.  THey actually blasted once when I was there!):

 

 

[Peat Burns]

There were a surprising number of visitors while I was there.  Perhaps 5 cars came and went.  Once from Cleveland, one from North Carolina, and others from the local area.  A number had kids, and this seems like a great, safe place to take kids to fossil hunt.  I had a great day out there.  Here are some of my finds:

 

 

Horn corals are very abundant.

 

 

 

 

This is the coral Aulopora growing on the brachiopod Pseudoatrypa devoniana

 

Other brachiopods found:

 

Athyris vittata

 

 

Cyrtina cf. C. hamiltonensis

 

 

 

[Peat Burns]

Megastrophia concava

 

 

 

Mucrospirifer sp.

 

 

Mucrospirifer sp.

 

 

Orthospirifer cooperi

 

 

The inarticulate brachiopod Petrocrania

 

 

A broken Protoleptostrophia perplana (these can be hard to get whole, as they are very thin and fragile)

 

 

 

Strophodonta cf. S. demissa

 

 

Strophodonta sp.

 

 

 

Unidentified brachiopod (all these fossils are "farm fresh", and I haven't had a chance to look at them too closely yet for identification)

 

 

 

Unidentified brachiopods

 

[Peat Burns]

Eldredgeops rana crassituberculata (cephalon).  One gentlemen found a huge complete "roller" while I was there, so they can be found even though it's "picked over".

 

 

A tiny Platyceras gastropod

 

 

And the surprise of the day (for me):  a piece of FISH ARMOR!

 

 

It had the bluish color typical of fish armor from the silica, but I thought it might be part of the interarea of an Orthospirifer.  So when I got back, I put it under the scope and saw the characteristic structure of fish armor along the broken edge:

 

 

Well, that's all folks.  Thanks for looking and HH!

[Fossil-Hound]

@Peat Burns very nice! Glad I could provide that gentle nudge. It's a great site and I'll leverage your knowledge of brachiopods for my own I'd. Are you sure that your first brachiopods has Aulopora? That almost appears to be a bryozoan but I'm not savvy on my corals or bryozoans. That's very cool fish armor. I'd rather have one of those than a roller. Fish armor is tough to find. I'm sure there are placoderm teeth there to.

[izak_]

Very cool stuff! I especially like the trilo head

[Peat Burns]

2 minutes ago, Fossil-Hound said:

@Peat Burns very nice! Glad I could provide that gentle nudge. It's a great site and I'll leverage your knowledge of brachiopods for my own I'd. Are you sure that your first brachiopods has Aulopora? That almost appears to be a bryozoan but I'm not savvy on my corals or bryozoans.

Thanks @Fossil-Hound.  I'm really gald you made that post.  I had forgotten all about that site, and it was a beautiful day to be out there.  It's only 44 miles from where I live.  Yeah, the Aulopora coral  looks kind of like a bryozoan.  I think this species might be Aulopora microbuccinata.  I'll definitely double-check and make sure I have it right when I go to start putting names on them, but I am pretty sure it is a coral .  Maybe others will chime in.

3 minutes ago, Foozil said:

Very cool stuff! I especially like the trilo head

Thanks!  You should have seen the complete one that gentlemen found.  It was about 2 inches wide...

[jewelonly]

Very nice report @Peat Burns!! You had a productive day!! Love those Orthospirifer cooperi and Mucrospirifer sp. Between you and @Fossil-Hound, I am especially eager to visit that site and hope to get up there before summer's end, although I think it is running out on me! Did you have to rake the piles to try and turn over the material or were you mostly surface collecting?   

 

Leah

[Peat Burns]

1 minute ago, jewelonly said:

Very nice report @Peat Burns!! You had a productive day!! Love those Orthospirifer cooperi and Mucrospirifer sp. Between you and @Fossil-Hound, I am especially eager to visit that site and hope to get up there before summer's end, although I think it is running out on me! Did you have to rake the piles to try and turn over the material or were you mostly surface collecting?   

 

Leah

Thanks, Leah.  Surface collecting is the best because the rain has washed everything.  If you dig, everything blends together with all the "dirt" and you really can't see the fossils.  There's so much there, I find it hard to imagine it could be picked clean anytime soon.  I basically crawl around on my hands and knees (make sure to bring knee pads).  I'm sure there are a lot of "cherry pickers" (those that just go for the rolled trilobites), but if you haven't noticed yet, I'm rather fond of brachiopods.  I look for fossils and collect assemblages -- if a trilobite pops up, that's icing on the cake   

 

There are large chunks of soft shale there that can easily be split with a rock hammer.  That has the potential to yield some real goodies that haven't been seen and haven't yet been damaged by erosion.  I did some splitting today.

[jewelonly]

I love the brachiopods and corals too but my daughter wants a trilobite. Now I know to start digging out our knee pads, wherever they may be. Thank you for all the helpful information!  

[Rob_P]

I'll have to make a trip there this week, I think paulding is only about an hour or so away. Thanks for sharing!

[Peat Burns]

53 minutes ago, Rob_P said:

I'll have to make a trip there this week, I think paulding is only about an hour or so away. Thanks for sharing!

Would love to see pics of your finds.  Let us know how you do!

[Fossildude19]

Great report and finds.

Thanks for the vicarious hunt!

Regards,

[Rob_P]

6 hours ago, Peat Burns said:

Would love to see pics of your finds.  Let us know how you do!

Will do, I'll be posting pictures from my recent sylvania trip too. Be on the lookout!

[Miocene_Mason]

Dang, everyone keeps finding good stuff here, now I'm forced to go at some point.  nice finds!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice indeed! 

Some super brachiopods here.

[Bobby Rico]

Nice find and really good report. Thank you