Caesar Creek Spillway Spoils

[FossilSniper]

     Alright, so after going to the St. Leon roadcut a few days prior (rather unsuccessfully, unfortunately) my family I put on boots, whipped on gloves, slapped on some knee pads and spent the next two days hunting the Caesar Creek Spillway in Ohio! 

 

These runs were much more successful.

 

My best personal best finds consist two partially pyritized orthoceras- these are a first for me! I found plenty more orthoceras, which is rather impressive for a field overpicked by collectors! I also found a handful of fossilized gastropods. Here are the spoils:

 

 

[FossilSniper]

Some complete and partial gastropods: 

 

Trace fossil(s):

 

Some crinoid fragments to make my day even better:

 

[Raggedy Man]

[FossilSniper]

 

Pyritized orthoceras! The brownish rock is actually pyrite, just my camera would not allow me to get closer. Tadaa:

“Back”:

[FossilSniper]

Trace of a Flexicalymene roller: (my first from this site!)

 

Some Isotelus fragments (these fragments were all found next to each other, so these are possibly all from the same trilobite!):

[Darktooth]

Congratulations on a successful hunt and quality time with your family!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds! 

Glad you had a more productive trip this time. 

 

[FossilSniper]

More orthoceras:

 

Overall, it was quite a successful trip. We were limited by rain, so I had to find all of pictured in under two hours! 

 

I think the best find of ne of the day would have been a 24 cm negative of a MASSIVE orthoceras, but according to rules we were not allowed to keep the fossil imprint. Still, I’m glad to have it in my memory.

 

Maybe, I’ll be off to St. Leon road today (this time with some helpful advice from Uncle Siphuncle!)

 

-FS

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Great haul there! Orthoceras pyrite is definitely cool! 

[DevonianDigger]

Cool stuff! Worth braving the muck for I imagine

[belemniten]

Great finds ! 

[Peat Burns]

Sounds like it was a fun trip.  I always like finding the nautiloid chunks. 

 

Thanks for sharing.

[ynot]

Congratulations on the successful trip and nice finds!

[Malone]

Nice finds! Not bad bad for a couple of hours hunting! Any ideas on what made the trace tunnels?

[Miocene_Mason]

23 minutes ago, Malone said:

Nice finds! Not bad bad for a couple of hours hunting! Any ideas on what made the trace tunnels?

Polychaete worm I think might be a good guess

——————————————————-

Awesome finds! Love those Isotelus trilobits!

 

[Monica]

The nautiloids are great!  And it looks as though you found at least two different species of them - congrats!

 

By the way - is that a little brachiopod that I see on the very last specimen that you took a picture of?  What a cutie! 

[erose]

Good stuff. But no bugs?  Flexicalymene? They are tiny tiny things but I never left without a few and even a small enrolled Isotelus once.  You have to get real close to the ground as in crawling along  with your face right in the mud. I had most of my luck out in the middle of the south side of the spillway. But on one occasion the north side produced a few weird crinoid bits and pieces.  You look for concentrations of the tiny brachiopod Zygospira amongst which the little rollers hide. And you have to often look twice because the Zygos and Flexis blend together.

 

Love the cephalopods.

[Pilobolus]

Lovin' the orthos and the crinoids!

 

 

[Tcat3rd]

Looks great for a couple hours! Congrats

[Ludwigia]

Great finds. For your information, I believe that the pyrite was deposited long after sedimentation. What you have there is a vertical section and the pyrite as well as the calcite is visible on the insides of the section, which would mean that watery solutions seeped into the cracks in and around the fossil and the minerals fell out there later.

[FossilSniper]

13 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Great finds. For your information, I believe that the pyrite was deposited long after sedimentation. What you have there is a vertical section and the pyrite as well as the calcite is visible on the insides of the section, which would mean that watery solutions seeped into the cracks in and around the fossil and the minerals fell out there later.

Exactly what I thought! 

[FossilSniper]

On 4/20/2018 at 5:22 AM, Monica said:

 

By the way - is that a little brachiopod that I see on the very last specimen that you took a picture of?  What a cutie! 

Correct! Good eye