Lawrenceburg, Indiana Fossil hunt

[Nimravis]

Today I spent about  two hours near Lawrenceburg, Indiana collecting some Ordovician fossils. I had a lot of luck with collecting some great looking complete brachiopods that I believe might be Herbertella, but I am going to ask the experts @Herb and @Peat Burns on this formation and see if they can correct any mistakes or unidentified finds.

 

 

  Rafinesquina ponderosa 

 

 

Platystrophia? 

 

 

 

It was bryozoan heaven today, as shown by some of the pics below. One piece was extremely large. 

 

 

Trilobites Parts ? 

 

 

Gastropods- "Sinuites" 

 

 

Unknown ?

 

 

 And some very nice small hash plates that are probably my favorite fines of the day. 

 

[Sagebrush Steve]

Wow!  You've really hit the jackpot the last few days!  Great finds!

[Nimravis]

Thanks Steve

[KimTexan]

Wow, that is a very impressive place. Fossils galore and quite a nice variety. 

Are those a form of crustacean I see?

 

The gastropods look like superfamily Bellerophontoidea and along the lines of the Euphemitidae family, but I know next to nothing about ID of fossils. I could be way off.

[Nimravis]

3 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

Wow, that is a very impressive place. Fossils galore and quite a nice variety. 

Are those a form of crustacean I see?

 

The gastropods look like superfamily Bellerophontoidea and along the lines of the Euphemitidae family, but I know next to nothing about ID of fossils. I could be way off.

Not sure which pic you are referring to as a crustacean, but I say no. 

 

You could be right on the gastropods, I am not sure on a lot of these and I am waiting for some ID help..

[Peat Burns]

Wow, @Nimravis!  You've been on fire!  I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast.  But thank you! I think the brachiopods in pictures 4 and 5 might be mostly Cincinnetina meeki.  I don't think the brachiopods in picture 8 are Platystrophia.  They almost look like Hiscobeccus, but I'm not sure if they are found in the formations exposed at Lawrenceburg (I haven't been to that site yet).  I think the gastropods are Bellerophontida. Let's see what @Herb and @erose have to say.

 

Awesome finds!

[Kane]

This trip was definitely dominated by the brachs. I defer to @Peat Burns on the identification, but these are lovely as you have some internal casts in there, too. 

[Nimravis]

6 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

Wow, @Nimravis!  You've been on fire!  I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast.  But thank you! I think the brachiopods in pictures 4 and 5 might be mostly Cincinnetina meeki.  I don't think the brachiopods in picture 8 are Platystrophia.  They almost look like Hiscobeccus, but I'm not sure if they are found in the formations exposed at Lawrenceburg (I haven't been to that site yet).  I think the gastropods are Bellerophontidae. Let's see what @Herb and @erose have to say.

 

Awesome finds!

Thanks much PB

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

This trip was definitely dominated by the brachs. I defer to @Peat Burns on the identification, but these are lovely as you have some internal casts in there, too. 

Yes– a lot were present. 

[ynot]

Ya did nice again.

[Kane]

What were the trilobite pieces? Some of these look like Flexicallymene sp. ?retrorsa

[Peat Burns]

I think I see a piece of the trilobite Cryptolithus!?! (4th photo under "trilobite parts").  Maybe more with some prep?

[Monica]

6 hours ago, Nimravis said:

 And some very nice small hash plates that are probably my favorite fines of the day. 

 

I'm a sucker for hash plates, too 

 

Nice finds!

 

Monica

[Fossildude19]

Another great report.

I am enjoying these roadside site reports.  

Thank you, Ralph.

[Shamalama]

8 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Today I spent about  two hours near Lawrenceburg, Indiana collecting some Ordovician fossils. I had a lot of luck with collecting some great looking complete brachiopods that I believe might be Herbertella, but I am going to ask the experts @Herb and @Peat Burns on this formation and see if they can correct any mistakes or unidentified finds.

 

Nice finds!

 

Lawrenceburg, IN is right along the Ohio river near the borders of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Much of the rock formations in that area are the Kope formation with some Fairview/Point Pleasant/Dillsboro formation (depends on which state Geological survey you use). The Kope is more shaly (and likely where you got the Cryptolithus piece from) while the others are more limestone and have lots of bryozoans.

 

Herb will steer you straight but you can also reference the Dry Dredgers site as they have a section that illustrates some of the more common fossils found in the region. Steve Holland has a terrific site at the University of Georgia that goes through the stratigraphy and fossils of the Cincinnati Arch. What's also nice about his site is he lists the formations that a particular species is found in. 

 

I agree with @Peat Burns that you have a part of the lace collar from a Cryptolithus in the fourth Trilobite pic. The rest of the trilobits appear to be Flexicalymene parts.

 

That whole region is fun to explore as practically every roadcut yields fossils.

 

[Herb]

possibly,

Plaesiomys

[Nimravis]

14 hours ago, Shamalama said:

Nice finds!

 

Lawrenceburg, IN is right along the Ohio river near the borders of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Much of the rock formations in that area are the Kope formation with some Fairview/Point Pleasant/Dillsboro formation (depends on which state Geological survey you use). The Kope is more shaly (and likely where you got the Cryptolithus piece from) while the others are more limestone and have lots of bryozoans.

 

Herb will steer you straight but you can also reference the Dry Dredgers site as they have a section that illustrates some of the more common fossils found in the region. Steve Holland has a terrific site at the University of Georgia that goes through the stratigraphy and fossils of the Cincinnati Arch. What's also nice about his site is he lists the formations that a particular species is found in. 

 

I agree with @Peat Burns that you have a part of the lace collar from a Cryptolithus in the fourth Trilobite pic. The rest of the trilobits appear to be Flexicalymene parts.

 

That whole region is fun to explore as practically every roadcut yields fossils.

 

Thanks for that infoI really appreciate it., I really appreciate it.

11 hours ago, Herb said:

possibly,

Plaesiomys

Thanks Herb.Thanks Herb.

[Herb]

http://strata.uga.edu/cincy/fauna   

try this site

[Herb]

the gastropods are Sinuites sp.

[Nimravis]

3 minutes ago, Herb said:

the gastropods are Sinuites sp.

Thanks Herb

[Plantguy]

Oh dont get me started with hash plates--I get the attention deficit shakes! LOL. Your finds are great! thanks for the photos. congrats. 

 

Regards, Chris 

[Nimravis]

On 11/1/2017 at 1:52 AM, Peat Burns said:

I think I see a piece of the trilobite Cryptolithus!?! (4th photo under "trilobite parts").  Maybe more with some prep?

I was checking some hash plates from last year and found a couple more like this one, thanks again PB.

[Peat Burns]

4 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

I was checking some hash plates from last year and found a couple more like this one, thanks again PB.

My pleasure.  I don't even have a fragment of one of those yet.  Nice find.  My rarest trilobite from the Ordovician is this fragment, which is said to be extremely rare even as a fragment.  There are some good and rare things that can be found in those outcrops.  I would love to spend days at them if I could...

 

[Nimravis]

@Peat Burns here are a couple pics of two hash plates with Cryptolithus trilobite Lace Collars that I found last year.

 

 

Close Up

 

 

Reverse Side

 

 

Additional Hash Plate

 

[Peat Burns]

 @Nimravis wow.  The bits seem fairly abundant.  There's got to be some more complete ones to be found there.  I may have to try to get down there this summer.

[Nimravis]

5 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

 @Nimravis wow.  The bits seem fairly abundant.  There's got to be some more complete ones to be found there.  I may have to try to get down there this summer.

It is a nice place to hunt, you would enjoy it.