Ordovician in Tennessee (Help!)

[Architeuthoceras]

Looks like a breviconic cyrtocone to me, very nice find.

You've found a Honey Hole.

I just downloaded a paper on the Coon Creek Fossils, very interesting, I'll comment later.

 

[Terri]

Cool, my first breviconic cyrtocone!

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Sorry I don't have any references to help with the ID. There is also the possibility it is the bulbous apical end of an endocerid.

A very interesting read about Wade and The Coon Creek Science Center, thanks for the tip Terri

 

[Terri]

Finally a decently sized nautiloid at my new site, decently sized compared to the few tiny ones I have found there. It took me 3 hours to find this one. I think this is Lebanon limestone from the Stones River Group. We know it's Ordovician, but how do you determine what stage of the Ordovician Anyway.. this fossil is in pretty rough shape but I think theres enough there to get some ideas

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Later this week I may be able to get a copy of This Paper, it may shed some light on the age of the Lebanon Limestone. Maybe then we can compare with the attached chart and narrow down a stage assignment. It may even help with the cephalopods.

In the end view it looks like the siphuncle is crushed, if it is crushed it was hollow and so not an endocerid.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

The Lebanon Limestone contains conodonts
of the Belodina compressa Zone (Sweet, 1984) and comprises
the M3 depositional sequence of Holland and Patzkowsky
(1998).

from DANIEL GOLDMAN, SHANNON M. CAMPBELL, JEFFREY M. RAHL (2002) THREE-DIMENSIONALLY PRESERVED SPECIMENS OF AMPLEXOGRAPTUS (ORDOVICIAN, GRAPTOLITHINA) FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN MID-CONTINENT: TAXONOMIC AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC SIGNIFICANCE. Journal of Paleontology: September 2002, Vol. 76, No. 5, pp. 921-927. [SIZE=-1]

(The Lebanon Limestone of Tennessee)

Puts the Lebanon Limestone in the late Sandbian Stage of the Late Ordovician Epoch.
[/SIZE]

 

[Terri]

That's great! Thanks Kevin

 

[DWhatley]

Have you done any reading about Coon Creek? Interesting story about the geologist that mapped that area (a long time ago).

Terri,
Have you a direct link, I can't find your referenced story. I found an off-road vehicle park, Piggly Wiggley mogual's pink palace (and bankrupcy), a little about geologist Wade working in Mexico and spending a long time dying in a hospital at the age of 84 but no "interesting story".

 

[Architeuthoceras]

a little about geologist Wade working in Mexico and spending a long time dying in a hospital at the age of 84 but no "interesting story".

I found that quite interesting, maybe not sensational, but interesting.

Parts 1 & 2 and plates 1-5 from HERE.

Terri, if there is a more interesting story, please post a link.

 

[Terri]

Sorry guys, thanks for posting the link Kevin! I am always curious about the "human" story behind the story. What puts a persons feet on the ground in just the right spot to make the discoveries that they do, and in that aspect I found it interesting.

 

[DWhatley]

feet on the ground in just the right spot to make the discoveries

... but I did not find that, all I found was less than a paragraph that said he was forgotten, died after long illness and had produced what became an important document but nothing about his exploration. Do you have a link that talks about how he came to explore in TN?

 

[Terri]

Hello Kevin! These first two I don't have clue on, at first I thought they were cephalopodish, but am unsure. The first one is about 5 cm. The second one about 3cm.( I have misplaced my ruler) These are from the same location as the last fossils posted.

Sorry about the quality of the first, the sun was really glaring off of the rocks. If you enlarge it you can see how the ?septa extend outwards..

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Nice finds Terri! The first looks like an Actinocerid. if you can look at it through a magnifier or something and see the shape of the septal neck, it may be possible to ID it a little better. To bad the shape of the outer shell isn't visible, that would help too. Still a very nice find!

The second is a trilobite
It is the inside of the exoskeleton (trilobite morphology here). The axial lobe has the curved parts and one pleural lobe is below, the other pleural lobe is just visible on top, the pygidium (tail) (with small nodes?) is on the right. Very cool, nice to see one that well preserved from the inside.

 

[Terri]

Wow! How cool, That is the first trilobite I have found, I looked around hoping to find more pieces of it but couldn't find them.

Check this one out, another one I'm unsure of..

 

[Terri]

Well, that's a really bad pic. I'll try to get a better one tommorrow. I also found a few nautiloid sections that the pics. didn't come out well on, I'll take more tommorrow. Thanks Kevin