To the Ohio Valley and down South Part 3

[Jeffrey P]

My annual excursion to visit my family which migrated to Kentucky years ago took place at the end of October into November, lasting two weeks. Of course, the planned trip took me in the vicinity of some excellent fossil bearing sediments and though quality time with family was the primary purpose, I did hope to add to my collection. All of the spots I visited were ones I've been to before; however, the first stop was a new one for me- Paulding, well known and documented on the Forum for its Middle Devonian marine fauna.  I drove from the suburbs of New York City for almost eleven hours, raining most of the way, arriving at and spending the night at a hotel in Defiance, Ohio. Paulding was about fifteen minutes away. Drove there the following morning, It was a brisk forty degrees, mostly cloudy, but sunny at times. A TFF member I was supposed to hook up with there unfortunately had to bail last minute. A nearby quarry which exposes the famed Devonian Silica Shale had, years ago, stopped allowing collectors to hunt there. There was a big outcry and the quarry set up a fossil park dumping fossiliferous rock onto a property they owned which the public were free to collect from. Much of it is now overgrown and much of the rock has been reduced to gravel. However, there are still many fossiliferous chunks out there if one is willing to look. 

[Jeffrey P]

This Devonian Scholar spent the entire day- 7 hours, breaking rocks, much of it pretty tough, but workable. Those who think this is a wonderful trilobite site, well. I only saw one very tiny thorax and it flew off the rock and disappeared in the great beyond. What are common are brachiopods and corals. Here are a few examples. Most of the brachiopods would benefit from some air abrading. Most were single valve and most were broken, but a lot of work was able to produce a number of complete examples. I really was hoping to find an Orthospirifer, which would be new for my collection. Unfortunately, I didn't, but I did find a an excellent Mediospirifer which was my overall favorite brachiopod from this site. The corals were similar to those from Upstate New York and Hungry Hollow, Ontario. I really like the branching tabulate coral. 

[Jeffrey P]

The only surprise for me, were the bivalves. I wasn't expecting to find any and I found four specimens representing three species. One, I think, resembles Gosselettia triqueter, a pteriomorph bivalve I've only seen from the Marcellus Shale from only two locations, both within a quarter mile of one another north of Morrisville, N.Y. 

[Jeffrey P]

From Paulding, I drove 2 hours and spent the night in a hotel in Anderson, Indiana. From there it was a relatively easy four hour drive to Elizabethtown, Kentucky where my family resides. I spent the next two days with them hanging out. I then went off on a solo excursion, first to a rural Amish store to do some food shopping, and then on the way back, stopped at the Leitchfield site. The Leitchfield site is an open roadcut exposing the Upper Mississippian Leitchfield Limestone, Glen Dean Member. I visit this site every time I go to Kentucky,. Crinoids, blastoids, and bryozoans are the most abundant fossils, but there are also other things as well. Didn't do as well as my last two visits with Fossilnerd (Wayne), but still managed to find some interesting material, including a bivalve, only my second from this site. For reference, the crinoid stem is about three and a half inches long.

[Jeffrey P]

The next day I went up to the Falls of the Ohio State Park. I checked out the exhibits in the visitor center and the exposures by the river of the Middle Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone that is incredibly rich in fossils, especially rugose and tabulate corals. There was also the remnants of a pile of Silurian Waldron Shale that proved to be exceptionally hard and unproductive. The corals in the bedrock were neat. 

[Jeffrey P]

Saturday, I went to meet up with my buddy, JimB88 at Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee, a two hour drive south from Elizabethtown. We stopped at a number of Lower Mississippian exposures of the Fort Payne Chert. One exposure which I visited last year and the year before, proved to be productive again. Crinoids were by far, the dominant finds. Found a number of calyxes. Jim gifted me the Alloprosallocrinus on the top. Also found some good crinoid root bases. Most of the stops were not that productive since the highway department had removed the rock that had fallen from the cuts. On the way back we stopped (just fifteen minutes) at another site near Burkeville, Kentucky- exposing the New Providence Shale (Lower Mississippian), and found a few brachiopods.  

[Jeffrey P]

On this trip, I hooked up with my long time fossil hunting pal, Herb, also a long time TFF member. We planned another three day trip to Tupelo Mississippi to visit Blue Springs and other sites we had visited in previous years. The first stop was just north of Parsons, Tennessee, Lower Devonian Ross Formation Birdsong Shale Member. It is comparable in age and fauna to the Kalkberg Limestone in Upstate New York. We had visited this site twice before. The fossils are incredibly well preserved though a bit on the delicate side. Brachs are, by far, the most abundant fossils, but I also managed to score an excellent Pleurodictyum, tabulate coral less than a half inch across. 

[Jeffrey P]

Several miles south of Decaturville, we stopped at a roadcut exposing the Middle Silurian Bob Formation Brownsport Group, which we visited two years ago. It was drizzling and very muddy. Soon my boots were caked. Fossil brachiopods, most of them tiny, had weathered from the limey shale. There were also partial trilobites. I kept a pygidium and a partial cephalon. 

[Jeffrey P]

Before nightfall, we reached our hotel in Tupelo. Everyone was in shock because the temperature was 50 degrees. It did fell a bit chilly, totally unexpected for Mississippi. The next morning we headed out to the Blue Springs site, stopping at a couple of Upper Cretaceous Prairie Bluff Chalk oyster sites on the way. The Blue Springs site is only 15 minutes west of Tupelo. It is Upper Cretaceous Ripley Formation, Coon Creek Tongue Member. We visited there last year. The site is famous for its fossil decapods (crabs, shrimp, lobsters), but I'm also excited by its rich gastropod fauna as well as the bivalves. Vertebrate fossils including marine reptiles are found here occasionally. Herb gifted me the big Crassatella vadosa which had the imprint of an ornate gastropod on the back. I was able to save a number of the more fragile shells which would have likely crumpled like a number of my specimens did last year when they dried, by applying a coat of nail polish base. My favorite find of the day was a crab carapace with an attached leg appendage and claw. By the way, its worth mentioning that Herb found a large cast of a nautilus 3-4 inches wide. 

[Jeffrey P]

After spending a few days of quality time with family, I went out with Fossilnerd (Wayne) to collect along the Joe Prather Highway. A number of Mississippian formations are exposed in the tall roadcuts along this route. Crinoid stems are abundant in some places and bryozoans, and occasional brachiopods and gastropods can be found as well. We had an excellent time.  

[Jeffrey P]

Sunday I began my long journey home. I stopped along the way at St. Leon, Indiana, an Upper Ordovician, Richmond Group site. It is notable for the sheer abundance of fossils and the preservation. It was my fourth time there. Found the usual cast of characters- mostly brachiopods which I kept, but there are also gastropods, corals, bryozoans, bivalves. Trilobites were notably scarce. I found only one pygidium. Unlike my three previous visits, there were other collectors there and I got to meet TFF member Newbie1971 who seems to have a knack for finding complete trilobites there when nobody else can. I was experiencing the beginning of a cold and had very bad laryngitis. So, I was only able to give Newbie1971 a very partial greeting. I could only spend a few hours this time there since I had a hotel reservation in Columbus, Ohio that night, which is where I stayed. The next day was a lot of driving again and I arrived back home by early evening. 

 

Though I didn't much new stuff- though when I go through my finds more may turn up, it still felt pretty productive and some nice specimens were added to the collection. I got to visit  a number of places and Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, and Cretaceous sites. Seeing JimB88, Herb, and Wayne were also highlights and the quality time I got to spend with family made it all worthwhile. I'd like to thank Herb, JimB88, and Wayne for their company and help making this a successful trip. That's about all for now. Until next time. .

Edited November 15, 2023 by Jeffrey P

[Jeffrey P]

P.S.- I forgot to include- on the way back from Tupelo, Herb and I stopped at a site near Decaturville, Tennessee where the Middle Silurian Beech River Formation is exposed in open glades. It was our third visit there. I collected a number of crinoid calyxes, brachiopods, a blastoid (only my second Silurian blastoid- the other was from the same site two years ago), bryozoans, and a sponge with a very tiny trilobite pygidium on its back. 

[Wrangellian]

Great find and nice photg job... again!

I'm always a little envious of your (and others') being able to access so many sites across so much of the strat column, and the fossils that just fall out of the matrix, more or less. 

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for sharing, Jim. Reminds me in a way of my regular outings during my family visits to Canada up to a few years ago.

[jpc]

Looks like another great trip, Jeff.  Thanks for taking us along.   Great little crab you got there.  

[erose]

Fun report!

[FossilNerd]

Nice report and finds Jeff! Glad we were able to get out together. Thanks for being the excuse that convinced my wife to let me come out and play. Ha! 
 

Look forward to seeing you next year! 

[Nimravis]

Great report, very thorough with great pics.

[Newbie_1971]

Looks/sounds like you had an amazing trip! Congratulations on your finds, and hope you get to feeling better. It was great meeting you. If you are interested,  and find your way back here in that general area, let me know and maybe we can hook up and do some searching around.

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 2:39 AM, Wrangellian said:

Great find and nice photg job... again!

I'm always a little envious of your (and others') being able to access so many sites across so much of the strat column, and the fossils that just fall out of the matrix, more or less. 

Thanks. It is fortunate that the Ohio Valley where my family lives has so many exposures of sediments that are unavailable where I live in New York and that I'm able to take advantage of this. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 4:09 AM, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for sharing, Jim. Reminds me in a way of my regular outings during my family visits to Canada up to a few years ago.

Thanks Roger. Hopefully we can get together again on one side of the Pond or the other. Best wishes. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:03 AM, jpc said:

Looks like another great trip, Jeff.  Thanks for taking us along.   Great little crab you got there.  

Thanks JP. Glad you enjoyed it.  That crab was my favorite find of the trip, partly because much of it was revealed through prepping. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 11:23 AM, erose said:

Fun report!

Thanks Eric. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 5:26 PM, FossilNerd said:

Nice report and finds Jeff! Glad we were able to get out together. Thanks for being the excuse that convinced my wife to let me come out and play. Ha! 
 

Look forward to seeing you next year! 

Thanks Wayne. Glad you were able to be a part of it. Will be returning there in May. Hopefully we can get together then pending your lovely wife's permission. 

[Jeffrey P]

On 11/15/2023 at 7:54 PM, Nimravis said:

Great report, very thorough with great pics.

Thanks Ralph. Your trip reports also set a high standard. Look forward to more of those.