A Productive Trip To The Napoleon – New Point Stone Quarry Last Sunday

[ZiggieCie]

Last Sunday ( May 24 2015 ) had a great time Fossiling at the Napoleon - New Point Stone Quarry, outside of Napoleon, Indiana, with the North Coast Fossil Club, out of Cleveland, Ohio. Everyone had a great time and I would like to thank the great people of the New Point Stone Quarry for allowing us access to this special fossil hunting area.

The Napoleon quarry is world renowned for its well preserved Silurian Diploporita, Holocystites and cystoids, which are very rare at other sites. These are apx. 430 million years old of the Silurian, Early Wenlockian age, in the Osgood member of the Salamonie Dolomite on the Ripley Island area of Indiana.

The "t 01" numbering, are temporary numbers, since these are not in my DB yet. The only prep on these is soap and water with a toothbrush.

Camera, Olympus Stylus 7040 point and shoot on macro mode with an OTT light for illumination. All of my photos are Photo shopped for color correction, sharpness, cropped and sized. I resize photos down to apx. 1280x960 which makes an apx. 220kb to 300kb file for posting.

t 01- Holocystites scutellatus

t 02- Holocystites ovatus

t 03- Holocystites clavus

t 04- Paulicystis densus

t 05- Holocystites scutellatus #2

t 06 Pentacystis gibsoni

I have more from last years trip there and after doing some prep on them I will add them in.

Reference link of the hard to find, full PDF:

The North American Holocystites Fauna

(Echinodermata: Blastozoa: Diploporita): Paleobiology and Systematics

T. J. Frest, H. L. Strimple, and C. R. C. Paul

http://www.museumoftheearth.org/files/pubtext/item_pdf_5615.pdf

Edited May 31, 2015 by ZiggieCie

[Jeffrey P]

Those are all beauties. Big congrats. I hope I can make it there someday.

[snolly50]

Nice, and special thanks for the details of the photography.

[jcbshark]

Nice finds Makes the stuff I find seem like it was lost yesterday lol

[Auspex]

These are really interesting, made all the more so by your detailed and informative data.

Congratulations, and thanks!

[JimB88]

Wow..Ive never seen so many cystoids..that is a special place! Congrats on the awesome finds!

[Shamalama]

Really great finds, I like the green color of the calcite in the Pentacystis.

[ZiggieCie]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments.

[PFOOLEY]

Top-notch photos of some very interesting specimens, Ziggie. I've never collected such things...thanks for sharing.

[ZiggieCie]

Thx PFOOLEY, I will have more sp and photos tomorrow.

[squalicorax]

Very nice dude! Love that quarry.

[ZiggieCie]

Updating with some of my additional Cystoids from Napoleon quarry from my 2014 trip.

Here is a beautiful, t 09 Paulicystis sparsus Frest & Strimple, n. gen.

A rare t 07 Finitiporus boardmani Frest & Strimple, n. gen., n. sp. Base/Stalk section, the base is the long piece, the Crown is the small section.

This is a partial Crown

The next one is a, t 11 Osgoodicystis bissetti Frest & Strimple, n. gen., n. sp.

These are all with my best interpretation of the reference work.

[Auspex]

I am trying to imagine what that sea floor looked like back then...it must have been pretty weird!

[amour 25]

Nice stuff indeed.

Thanks for sharing it.

[Shellseeker]

Ziggie,

Fantastic finds. I am also struck by the great photos and that number "430 mya". I talk to school children to introduce them to a span of time greater than human focused. Usually I use Megs and 2 mya as my example. I guess I have to expand my thinking. It is hard to conceptualize 430 million and how the earth might have looked then. Thanks for sharing. Shellseeker.

[ZiggieCie]

Thank yo everyone. Shellseaker, 430mya is an amazing number and mind numbing when you think that these guys were dead, fossilized, and embedded in rock for 200 million years before the first primitive dinosaurs started to roam the Earth. That is longer than the entire 163 million years that Dinosaurs existed. it is amazing.

Here are a few more of my Diploporan / Cystoid collection.

t 10 Holocystites (Holocystites) scutellatus Hall, 1864. #3

t 12 Holocystites (Holocystites) ovatus Hall, 1864. #2

t 13 Holocystites (Holocystites) scutellatus Hall, 1864. #3

This photo shows the top feeding pore, where the filtering fingers etc were located.

t 14 Holocystites (Holocystites) scutellatus Hall, 1864. #4

t 15 ??

[FossilDAWG]

You have an amazing collection from that quarry. I'd love to be able to get in there and collect one day, but I'm sure your material represents years of effort.

One very minor note, where you give "Frest & Strimple, n. gen., n. sp." (for the Paulicystis, Osgoodicystis, and Finitiporus) you should use "Frest & Strimple, 2011". "n. gen., n.sp." is only used in the publication where the new genus/species is described for the first time, after that you should use the year in which the description was first published.

Don

[Fossildude19]

Wow! Amazing collection, ZiggieCie!

Thanks for sharing these - I'm learning new things here.

Regards,

[ZiggieCie]

THX Don, I always take advice from the great members here. I will correct this in my records.

I have only been to the quarry 4 times in the last two years. I usually like to look at obvious areas that most people run right past. It usually pays off for me. Like the people that have to climb up the steep hills and kick many fossils down to the bottom, I find those.

For getting into the Napoleon quarry is if you are into research of the fossils there, or through a fossil club. Our great trip leaders make sure we stay in good standing with the quarries we go to. For newer people that means strict following of the quarries safety rules at all times.

Thank you everyone for stopping by and taking a look.

Edited June 10, 2015 by ZiggieCie

[Ludwigia]

Better late than never...WOW! Ziggie!