Return To The Pennington Formation

[JimB88]

Decided to go out and drive today to test my car

Drove down to where the Pennington Formation (Chesterian, Upper Mississippian) is exposed. Mostly I wanted to photograph it for my notes, but I did some fossil hunting too. The defining feature of this site is thinly bedded siltstone 'hash plates' which show a turbid depositional environment. Nothing is articulated in these layers and most fossils are not complete. But they are very plentiful. Collected some examples which had interesting fossils on them and then briefly looked for the dun colored dolostone(?) which is crowded with the productid diaphragmus elegans. Unfortunately not much of that material falls and I didn't find any. Here's some shots of the formation:

There is a lot of shale at this location, but other than some ichno fossils there isn't much in it. It forms the greenish and grayish sediment at the bottom of the cut. In the second pic, looking past the car is a whitish cherty limestone with not much in it.

As it was very hot (and in the sun) I didn't stay at that site long. I moved up the road a bit to a spot that I had believed to be the Raccoon Mountain Formation. I now have my doubts (thanks Archimedes )it may turn out to be the upper part of the Pennington. At any rate it was in the shade at least. Ive collected Lindstromella brachiopods (fossil crop circles ) from this site as well as Artisia and one lone tiny goniatite. I was struck how quickly the paper shale (which was all exposed last summer) had broke down into sediment. Heres some pics of that site:

[JimB88]

oops

Here's some pics of that site:

Theres a coal seam around 6 inches thick present. Which will occasionally have plant impressions in it.Below that is a paper or very thinly bedded shale.

I'll post the fossils tomorrow after I clean them up a bit.

[Auspex]

Great stuff! I have one question, though: did the car pass all the tests?

OK, two questions: What are the plant impressions in the coal seam like?

[Fossildude19]

Jim,

Nice to see some of your productive outcrops!

Thanks for showing them to us!

Regards,

[JimB88]

Great stuff! I have one question, though: did the car pass all the tests?

OK, two questions: What are the plant impressions in the coal seam like?

The car didnt run as well as I had hoped

The plant remains are unidentifiable stems and some kind of wood.

[howard_l]

The Pennington Formation in Kentucky does not have a large amount of fossils but there is a well known area where you can collect golfball size blastoids (Pentremites) southeast of Berea, KY.

Edited August 21, 2011 by howard_l

[JimB88]

I spent an hour yesterday taking photos of some of my finds only to discover that I didnt put the card back in the camera! D'oh

With no sun yet today I tried some indoor shots of two little nautiloids or goniatites I found at the second spot.

heres the smaller of the two. They occur in ironstone that grades into shale or mudstone.

and a slightly larger one.

the sutures seem very simple and one shows some bumpy decorations near the aperture.

Edited August 21, 2011 by JimB88

[JimB88]

some more schtuff...

These are some brachs found in the ironstone along with the nautoloids.

they seem to be of the cleiothyridina type

another view of the sutures which makes me believe these are nautiloids not goniotites.

a lot of ichno fossils can be found in the shale and the upper level of the ironstone.

from my first stop an example of the hash plates found there. Though I haven't on this trip, trilobite pygidiums can be found on these plates.

[GaRockhound]

Are the roadcuts along I-40 ? About 4 years ago I took a vacation and was traveling along I-40 to Cookville Tn. Looks like some of the places I stopped. You had more luck with the fossils. I did bring a few specimens of coal home thou. Thanks for Sharing !! Frank

[trilobiteruss]

<br />I spent an hour yesterday taking photos of some of my finds only to discover that I didnt put the card back in the camera! D'oh <img src='http://www.thefossilforum.com/public/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='<img src='http://www.thefossilforum.com/public/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />' /> <br />With no sun yet today I tried some indoor shots of two little nautiloids or goniatites I found at the second spot.<br /><br />heres the smaller of the two. They occur in ironstone that grades into shale or mudstone.<br /><br /><br />and a slightly larger one.<br /><br /><br />the sutures seem very simple and one shows some bumpy decorations near the aperture.<br />

Great Carboniferous goniatites you found as we discussed in the ID section. Edited August 21, 2011 by dinoruss

[JimB88]

Are the roadcuts along I-40 ? About 4 years ago I took a vacation and was traveling along I-40 to Cookville Tn. Looks like some of the places I stopped. You had more luck with the fossils. I did bring a few specimens of coal home thou. Thanks for Sharing !! Frank

Nope not I-40, the state troopers are touchy about stopping on I-40.

[JimB88]

Great Carboniferous goniatites you found as we discussed in the ID section.

thank you! Its really difficult to get them out of the ironstone they occur in, but worth it as far as Im concerned.

[howard_l]

Great stuff, those are ammonites for sure, I will have to look harder in the Penington around here.

[Missourian]

Nice cephalopods. When you say they have simple sutures, do you mean the grooves that occur every quarter revolution or so? Some of my ammonoids have those along with elaborate suture patterns.