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Last weekend I finally made my way up to the famous St. Leon road cut. Also known as South Gate Hill in some literature. I made the 2.5 hour drive to Lawrenceburg Indiana after work last Friday and stayed overnight so that I could be up with the sun and on my way Saturday morning. The site itself is another 20-30 minutes from the hotel. By 6am I was out the door and on the road. After a quick gas station stop I found myself at the mile long road cut. Most people come here to hunt in the butter shale of the exposed Liberty Formation for Flexicalymene rollers. I was no exception. Trilobites are not common in my immediate area so they were top on my list of things to find here. The butter shale is easy to spot. A creamy light gray layer exposed at the top of the second tier. I made my way there and following the advice of @Nimravis (Who sadly couldn’t make the trip to hunt with me. Missed you Ralph!) I got down on my hands and knees and put my nose to the ground. Most of the trilobites found here are quite small. The ones that I found were maybe a centimeter. I was lucky enough to come away with 2 complete rollers and 1 that was complete minus a bit of damage to the cephalon. Plus other trilo-bits. Including the usual Isotelus chunks found throughout the Ordovician of the area. A pile of Isotelus fragments. After I adjusted my focus away from trilobites I was able to see that the site had plenty more on offer. Brachiopods are everywhere here. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Sorry for the lack of scale. The plastic ruler in the below picture fell out of my pocket very early in the day. I never found it. I can provide estimated sizes if requested, and will certainly have scale in the photos of the specimens I took home. This block was about a meter long. I found some nice examples of horn coral here too. Orthoconic nautiloids can be found here as well. Those were all the pictures I took from the field. All the ones worth sharing anyway. I stayed till after lunch, but all the climbing around and lack of food (forgot my packed lunch at the hotel )forced me away. After a bite to eat I also hit up a road cut in Lawrenceburg that I had read about. It was only 5 minutes from the hotel so I decided to check it out. The exposure was impressive in size, but not nearly as fossiliferous as St. Leon. Mainly consisting of Strophomenid brachiopods and some chunky bryozoans. Still I came away with a few finds and was glad that I took the time to look it over. The St. Leon road cut lived up to the hype and was well worth the visit. I definitely will be back. I’ve been short on time this week and haven’t gotten my finds that I brought home cleaned up enough for their photo shoot, but I plan on adding pictures of them as soon as I can as there was much more to see than pictured here. I also had plans to drive over to the AA highway, but I ended up having to head home earlier than expected. Oh well… Maybe that will be my next trip worthy of a report.
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What a haul! Rare goodies from the St. Leon roadcut, Indiana. (Trilobites!)
FossilSniper posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
About a month ago, I headed out on two fossil trips to the well-known St. Leon roadcut in Indiana. I was hunting in the Liberty formation (late Ordovician) with the sole goal of finding some nice trilobites (which I definitely achieved!). Along with multiple rare trilobites, I was able to find some excellent examples of other fossils. The spoils were totally awesome, and I am itching to go back. I hope you enjoy. Best for last.- 25 replies
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