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Fossil From Ottawa, Ontario Canada


Naf

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Good afternoon Paleontology afficiandos! A long time ago my friends and I were hanging out in an old open pit quarry in Nepean, Ontario, Canada (South Ottawa) and I found this little fossil. The quarry was quite deep, about 10-15 meters, so its difficult to put a depth for the find, especially since it came from a rock pile near the upper rim. 

 

Originally this find had been sitting flat on a much larger piece of rock however there were no other visible fossils on the surface layer. When I pointed this out to my friends, they 'hilariously' decided it should be pushed over the edge to explode on the quarry floor below -.-

 

Luckily I was able to pick through the chunks and find it eventually, unscathed. What is shown in the picture is everything that was found in situ on the original rock. I then brought it home and promptly forgot about it for several years.

 

I unearthed it again while doing a thorough house cleaning and figured I should ask the experts! 

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looks  like a section of cephalopod with the siphuncle exposed.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

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Awesome! I've heard that there are quite a few cephalopod bearing zones in the general area so that would make sense. I would've never thought to look into whether it was the exposed interior of something though!

 

Thank you very much for the informative and prompt reply!

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Definitely an orthocone, and it is from the Ordovician. I used to live for a time in the west end right at the border with Nepean, so I recognize these. :) 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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The fossil is an orthoconic (straight-shelled) nautiloid in the genus Actinoceras.  The specimen has been silicified (the original shell has been replaced by silica), which has allowed it to be etched from the enclosing limestone by slightly acidic ground water.  You can clearly see the siphuncle (the tube that looks like a string of beads that runs up the middle) and the chambers or camerae with extensive internal deposits, which characterize the actinocerids.  There are several described species in the Ottawa area, I'll have to check my references later to see if I can take this to species.  Actinocerids with this preservation are characteristic of the lower limestone formations (what used to be called the Leray-Rockland Formation, nowadays the Gull River and maybe Bobcaygeon).  These formations are of Ordovician age.  You can see similar fossils embedded in limestone at various places around the Ottawa Valley, such as in the river bed around the bridge at Packenham.  

 

Don

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Didn't think I would get so much information so quickly! I really appreciate it folks, its nice to finally get to know this little guy that been hiding around my desk for all these years.

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It's nice to see these may still be available from that area, and brings back fond memories. Twenty years ago, I had two go-to areas that had some very impressively sized orthocones (some of them 50+ cm long). The first was behind one of my old high schools (now demolished) in a field (now a housing development) that adjoined a forest beside the Frasier-Duntile Quarry. The other was a spoil pile on abandoned farmland (also now a development) situated between the OC Transpo terminal and the Nepean Public Library.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Its nice to meet another west ender! I'll have to go take a look around those areas sometime and see if I can find any overgrown rock piles or anything of the like, although it snowed here the other day so time might be running out this season. I'm an archaeologist by trade and have always wanted to try my hand at fossil collecting, but I haven't the slightest clue where to start. I tried walking the rivershore a few times, but its mostly fill carted in from other quarries these days, although the stuff in the riverbed at Deschennes rapids is always good for a day trip!

 

And @FossilDAWG I really appreciate the depth of the reply! I'll definitely check out the bridge at Pakenham next time I'm fishing around those parts!

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Welcome to the Forum. :) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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BTW I'm also a former west-ender (Bell's Corners), plus other places around town as I did my BSc and MSc at the University of Ottawa.  I go back periodically to visit family and usually find a bit of time to check out old fossil haunts, but many are built on, buried under rip-rap, or picked pretty clean these days.

 

Don

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