Bigby-Cannon Limestone

[Terri]

Mostly weathered away.

[Terri]

Here's the one I tried to post last night (hopefully). Yay, my computor wants to cooperate! This fossil not nearly as weathered as the one above and a slightly better photo.

[Terri]

These next two are reposts (post 11,pics. 3&4). The first one I'm wondering if it could be the outer shell of an orthcone and the 2nd is just a better picture, and on the right just above the end of the hammer are a couple of interesting bits. I hope my recent posts aren't to dull, I've been under the weather in a couple of different ways, so I'm stuck inside with a lot of photos and a lot of time! Personally I've never met a fossil that I thought was boring but that's just me.

[Architeuthoceras]

Get well soon Terri, it will cool off in a while.

Looks like a nice Endocerid? (bottom pic #83), the two bits on the right look like a section of the outer shell and an endosiphocone (or the replaced siphuncle of an Ellesmerocerid). Again, without sectioning and looking at any internal structure it is hard to tell if it is the siphuncle of an Ellesmerocerid or the Endosiphocone of an Endocerid. An Endocerid would have endocones or some other internal structure like that ?Allotrioceras in post #10.

The upper pic is indeed the outer shell of an orthocone and another ?endosiphocone on the right.

The one in post 82 is nice. Hard to tell about the siphuncle, it looks wide but not well preserved.

I'm beginning to think the fossil in post 76 is a high spired gastropod, it just don't fit in with the rest of these.
(just had to use that new smilie )

[Terri]

Get well soon Terri, it will cool off in a while.

Thank you Kevin!

Cool to everything explained about pic. #83!

Again, without sectioning and looking at any internal structure it is hard to tell if it is the siphuncle of an Ellesmerocerid or the Endosiphocone of an Endocerid

I have to get over my fear of breaking or ruining fossils! I have access to a lot of tools but access to the people who can operate them without losing limbs is limited, I do have hammers and chisels and I guess I'm just going to have to learn by smashing a few up. And really it's not like I am going to run out of them to practice on. I could probably do something with the first one in post 83 (when I finally get out of the house) it will be interesting to see whats inside.

[Terri]

I'm beginning to think the fossil in post 76 is a high spired gastropod, it just don't fit in with the rest of these.
(just had to use that new smilie )

Awesome! That explains everything, seeing no signs of, well anything(2nd pic).It would have been a decently sized gastropod if it is indeed that, cool.

[Terri]

Here's one more ceph from this location, found amidst the rubble covering my picnic table , pretty sure this is the last one from this location (until I get to go back out). I feel sure there's more to find..

[DWhatley]

There better be! I have to bring at least ONE home when I finally get there (shooting for early fall).

[Terri]

Sounds good to me! This location is small but the predominant fossils seem to be cephs, unlike "the quarry" (Lebanon Limestone), which is so fossilliferous it's crazy, but there are cephs, just have to do a lot of looking.

[tonmo]

added to front page slideshow

[Terri]

Cool! Thanks Tony, it's not too bad for a 460(ish) million year old fossil!

[Terri]

Haven't been back to this location in a while, I'm anxious to go back before the weather gets bad, I did find this orthocone last time I was there, I find little suprises going through the fossils on my picnic table from time to time. Kind of hard to id. cant see the siphuncle and there's a lot of goo. Fairly closely spaced septa, maybe Ellesmerocerad?

[DWhatley]

Prehistoric underwater termites at work on the right half?

[Terri]

I'm thinking Trypanites (worms again). It's kind of odd they just bored into the soft stuff.

[DWhatley]

I wonder if the worm holes are more present day happenings rather than historic.

[Terri]

I was thinking the same thing the white stuff is sort of soft, almost like chalk, I've seen it on fossils before but I'm not sure what it is. Kevin probably knows. I think I'll try scraping some of it off tommorrow.

[Architeuthoceras]

I don't know which filled the chambers first, the white stuff, or the gray stuff. The gray stuff looks like the matrix of the main rock, so it probably filled some broken chambers. The white stuff is different, and it looks like it filled the chambers completely, so those chambers were probably not broken. The question is whether the chambers were filled just after the animal died or after the shell was buried for a while. I don't know of any worms that drill rock in Tennessee, so the holes were probably made before the white stuff was lithified. There also seems to be a few holes right around the white stuff in the gray stuff so it was all probably soft when the holes were drilled.

More study needed

[Terri]

There also seems to be a few holes right around the white stuff in the gray stuff so it was all probably soft when the holes were drilled.

Yes, I noticed that last night when I was taking a closer look after D's question, I scraped around a little on one of the chambers and it is soft but if I scrape it all off the interesting holes will be gone. I think they do look a lot like Trypanites borings. The white stuff is really chalky in texture, any ideas on what it is, I browsed around some but didn't come up with anything conclusive, some sort of phosphate? Is any form of phosphate that soft?

[Terri]

Same white stuff in the chambers of the fossil in post #87.

[DWhatley]

chalky like dusty or more like clay?