Cephalopod?

[gieserguy]

Hey! I just took a trip out in the pouring rain to a road cut in Oglesby, Illinois. This road cut exposes the Pennsylvanian LaSalle Limestone member of the Bond Formation (thanks to @deutscheben for this info!)

I found lots of beautiful brachiopods, but as I was heading out, this guy caught my eye. What do you guys think?

 

 

[ynot]

Cephalopod.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Don't care. 

Show us the kazillion brachiopods you found. 

[BobWill]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Don't care. 

Show us the kazillion brachiopods you found. 

Brachiopods!? No I want to see the rest of that cephalopod! See if you can chisel off some of the matrix to expose more of it. It could be a bactrites but most likely a nautiloid.

[FossilNerd]

59 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Don't care. 

Show us the kazillion brachiopods you found. 

Lol. I agree where are all these brachiopods? Pics or it didn’t happen!

 

and also agree that you found a cephalopod.

[gieserguy]

Okay now that I’m looking back over what I collected, “lots” might have been a bit of an overestimate, but in my defense I was only trying to pick up real quality brachs this time!

 

Here’s what I have photographed right now, the rest will be coming very soon!

 

I apologize that I don’t know much about brachiopod identification, so if any of you know the names, feel free to shout!

 

 

1. A few Composita sp. 

 

2.

 

3.

[gieserguy]

4. Another spirifer-type (I think? If it’s right, I’m learning!)

 

5. These ones are favorites of mine, I’ve always thought they’re very pretty

 

 

5b. On the underside of the larger piece in the previous picture

 

 

[gieserguy]

6.

 

6a. This is the backside of the previous right one, complete and curled around and out of the matrix

[gieserguy]

7. A nice biggun’ with remnants of shell still there- the only complete one I found not in a massive boulder

 

8.

[gieserguy]

9. I believe this is Composita sp. but the coloration really stood out to me

 

10. Some nice little Composita sp.  sticking out of the matrix next to the crystallized/geodized remnants of a neighbor

[gieserguy]

This piece is one of my favorites (11)

11a. A nice series of larger Composita sp., the rightmost showing its curved “lip”

 

11b. The black bit in the center is (hopefully!) a bit of shark/fish material

 

11c. An imprint with some shell remaining

 

12

[gieserguy]

@Tidgy's Dad @FossilNerd

[connorp]

Looks like a good trip! I'll be heading there in a month or so, pretty excited for it.

[BobWill]

These are great...for brachiopods. LOL

I would say the site has good diversity and the fossils are well preserved . If you want to take a stab at identification yourself you could look through the brachiopod section of the "pictorial guide" on this page of the Dallas Paleo website.

https://www.dallaspaleo.org/Jacksboro-Study-Group

We will soon have an update to this file which will add a lot more information as well as help to find the sometimes-subtle differences that separate the species for  these critters. The study group is about to have it's own website so soon this page will have a link to the new site instead of seeing this data here.

[FossilNerd]

Wow! Ask and you shall receive! Very much entertained! Maybe not a kazillion brachs, but some nice specimens.

I’m headed to bed, as it’s midnight in my neck of the woods, but maybe I can look closer and try to help you identify a few tomorrow. When I’m not so bleary eyed.  

[gieserguy]

2 hours ago, BobWill said:

Brachiopods!? No I want to see the rest of that cephalopod! See if you can chisel off some of the matrix to expose more of it. It could be a bactrites but most likely a nautiloid.

I’ll be sure to post pictures if I’m ever able to do it! I don’t have any sort of prep tools at home right now though unfortunately, so for now we’ll just have to imagine...

In all honesty when I found it, I audibly said “NO WAY” 

 

[gieserguy]

20 minutes ago, connorp said:

Looks like a good trip! I'll be heading there in a month or so, pretty excited for it.

If you’d like some company, I’d love to join you there! I’ll pm you some of the info about it

[Kane]

Please use metric scales for images. Only a small minority of the planet uses pennies and imperial measurement. Science uses metric as it is international, like our membership. 

[gieserguy]

5 minutes ago, Kane said:

Please use metric scales for images. Only a small minority of the planet uses pennies and imperial measurement. Science uses metric as it is international, like our membership. 

You’re so right, I apologize about that. I should have thought of that earlier. 

 

I just measured, and a penny is slightly over 1cm in diameter. I hope this helps ease some confusion. 

...I need to invest in one of those 1cm cubes many of you have. 

[Kane]

4 minutes ago, gieserguy said:

You’re so right, I apologize about that. I should have thought of that earlier. 

 

I just measured, and a penny is slightly over 1cm in diameter. I hope this helps ease some confusion. 

...I need to invest in one of those 1cm cubes many of you have. 

Or just a ruler.  Many have both metric and hogsheads to chicken beaks (or however imperial runs ).

 

our decimal coinage up here (Canada) is identical in size to the US, but we ditched our penny in 2012. 

[Randyw]

Skipping over the whole millimeters to inches debate... (everyone knows inches are better...) ;-D but where do you guys find those cubes? I’ve been looking all over for them.  And back to the original post great looking finds!

[gieserguy]

11 minutes ago, Kane said:

Or just a ruler.  Many have both metric and hogsheads to chicken beaks (or however imperial runs ).

 

our decimal coinage up here (Canada) is identical in size to the US, but we ditched our penny in 2012. 

No no no, I believe the conversion you were thinking of is ram’s horns to to snake’s toes 

And honestly, I think Canada got it right once again by getting rid of that coin. Man, why do you guys up there have to be so perfect!

[gieserguy]

2 minutes ago, Randyw said:

Skipping over the whole millimeters to inches debate... (everyone knows inches are better...) ;-D but where do you guys find those cubes? I’ve been looking all over for them.  And back to the original post great looking finds!

Thanks!

I’d like to know where to find one too... internet probably...

 

And back to inches and centimeters- it’s such an easy conversion! 

See! It’s uh... well... there’s a uh... a conversion? Kinda?

[Kane]

In terms of those cubes, our member @aerogrower  makes them. 

[ynot]

11 minutes ago, Randyw said:

but where do you guys find those cubes? I’ve been looking all over for them.

 

6 minutes ago, gieserguy said:

I’d like to know where to find one too... internet probably...

@aerogrower makes them for Us.