This is the "Fossil Friday" post #65. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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This Friday we have some beautiful echinoderms from the Waldron shale in south central Indiana, with some additional exposures in Kentucky. These amazing specimens are part of the collection of long time ESCONI member and Paleontology Study Group leader John Catalani. John is also very active with the Mid-American Paleontology Society (MAPS). If you want to learn more about John's considerable contributions to paleontology have a look here. Thanks for the contribution, John!
The Waldron Shale Formation is Middle Silurian (Niagaran Series; Wenlockian Stage) in age and is exposed in several quarries in Indiana and Tennessee. This unit is exceptionally fossiliferous with echinoderms of several types well represented. This is the unit that we collect on ESCONI field trips to St. Paul, Indiana. The specimens pictured were collected in four quarries in Indiana. There is one representative blastoid and the rest are crinoids.
Decaschisma pulchellum (blastoid)
Eucalyptocrinites crassus
Eucalyptocrinites elrodi
Lyriocrinus melissa 1
Lyriocrinus melissa 2
Mariacrinus carleyi
Melocrinus obconicus
Periechocrinites whitfieldi
