Collecting fossils in the Devonian of Eastern NY

[Misha]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've been a while since I've been out to collect fossils but yesterday I finally got to enjoy some time collecting and had some interesting finds I thought I'd share.

Yesterday morning I got to meet up with @Jeffrey P who showed me his vast and beautiful collection of fossils before we went to collect two locations nearby in Eastern NY.

The first location we visited was the Glenerie Limestone, a very interesting location due to the diversity of organisms found there and the unique preservation which results in many silicified shells a number of which are completely out of matrix. This was my second time collecting at this location and as it had just been snowing and everything melted, there was a lot of nice freshly washed out material to pick through.

 

By far the most abundant fossils here are brachiopods and of those, the most common is probably Leptocoelia flabellites, I collected a few of these and some appear on the larger matrix pieces with other fossils but they're really common so only a few were kept:

Meristella sp. are also pretty abundant, I picked up a few that I thought had nicer preservation, or were complete as those are not as common at this site

These are the shells of two spiriferid, I collected a number of these last time, the most common ones are Acrospirifer sp. and Howella sp. I believe but I do not know how to differentiate between the two

 

This piece of matrix had some particularly nice spiriferids, one was pretty big for the site and another on the side of the piece has really nice preservation of some of the finse structure on the outside of the shell.

I also found a Rensselaeria sp. Terebtatulid brachiopod, my second from the location, this one has more of it preserved although it is quite distorted and with little of the shell material but I still kept it as I like these Devonian Terebtatulids and they are not as common.

Here's a tiny complete brachiopods I picked up, not sure about the ID yet, the detail preserved on such a small shell is actually pretty nice but the camera doesn't show it that well.

Two of the brachiopods found appear to be inarticulate brachiopods, although I'm not sure if it's possible to put an ID to either of them, the first is preserved as an impression, I did look at some of the internal anatomy of lower Devonian inarticulate brachiopods and this does look a lot like Craniops sp. but I don't know if I could call it that without further evidence

The other has some shell material but it's small and not completely exposed so I am not sure if it can be identified or even if it is an inarticulate brachiopod

And some miscellaneous brachiopods I haven't yet Identified:

 

Here's another item that confused me, it appears to be a brachiopod from the overall shape, as it is flat on one side and is in the shape of a semicircle, but if it is a brachiopod it has some kind of unusual epibiont on it with an unusual structure unlike anything else I've seen, does anyone know what this may be?

 

Other than brachiopods, gastropods are also fairly abundant at the site, last time I was here I found a couple but nothing too special. This time, I don't know if it was the freshly washed out material, a better pattern recognition or just pure luck I found a lot, of different sizes and different quality. I was very happy to find these they're really interesting and I love the way they are preserved here, here is most of them:

most of not all of them are Platystoma sp. I believe.

 

And finally, I also found a coral, the first time I was at the site I found a tabulate coral which @Jeffrey P told me is the first he'd seen ever from this site, and this time I found a solitary rugose coral. Unfortunately it is cracked as it was laying on the surface, exposed to the elements but I was able to safely get it home and I'm currently trying to stabilize it with some glue, hopefully it will remain intact.

I believe it might belong to the species Enterolasma strictum.

 

After Glenerie we stopped at a site not far away which was in the Middle Devonian, lower Hamilton Group, part of the Marcellus Shale, also a very interesting site which was new to me, and we had some nice finds there too which I will post later once I get them photographed.

Thanks for looking!

Misha

[Fossildude19]

Looks like you did well there, Misha! Very glad for you - some really nice finds.

Congratulations on them!

[Tales From the Shale]

Gastropods are always a win. Good stuff to find on a hunt!

[Jeffrey P]

Great finds Misha. Congratulations. It was wonderful meeting you in person and collecting together. Both of your inarticulate brachiopods I believe are Craniops terminalis, a Lingulid. As far as Howellella cycloptera, the growth lines are diagnostic to the genera. I see your specimen has those. Your find of the day though is the rugose coral. You've found the only two corals I've ever seen from the site. Although the fauna consists of 95% brachiopods and the rest are primarily gastropods and tentaculites, others such as dalmanid trilobites, a crinoid calyx, a small unidentified nautiloid, and now your two corals have added to the taxa from this fascinating location. Good going!

[Misha]

Here are some of those Middle Devonian finds I promised, the deposit is a deep water deposit and as a result most of the fossils found are the same species of bivalves with the occasional Goniatites and Nautiloids. Most of these bivalves are Nuculites sp. Although I did find a specimen that looks slightly different and I'm wondering if it may be Nuculoidea corbuliformis? It has a different overall shape to the rest, slightly different growth lines and lacks a notch in the shell which most of the Nuculites sp. have.

Nuculites:

Nuculoidea?

And some plant remains which was the first fossil I found here

[Tidgy's Dad]

The inarticulate is now Pholidops terminalis.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some of these look like large, flatish, rounded orthids. 

If so they are Discomyorthis, but the species in the Glenerie is not D. oblata common in the Kalkberg and elsewhere, but Discomyothis musculosa. 

 

[Misha]

On 9/18/2023 at 9:33 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Some of these look like large, flatish, rounded orthids. 

If so they are Discomyorthis, but the species in the Glenerie is not D. oblata common in the Kalkberg and elsewhere, but Discomyothis musculosa. 

 

Which ones are you referring to?

I don't know if I have many or even any orthids from the site

[Tidgy's Dad]

7 hours ago, Misha said:

Which ones are you referring to?

I don't know if I have many or even any orthids from the site

I'm not sure if you do either! 

But the ones in the first photo under where you say "Miscellaneous brachiopods not yet identified" look like them to me, but it's difficult without scale or the items in hand. 

It's interesting that the Glenerie is not only massively brachiopod dominated but that nearly all of the common species seem to be spire-bearers.