Fossils from Kentucky

[drine]

Micropilot,
Don't think you got these.

[Norton]

cool.. what are they sea shells or something?

[drine]

I called them "bore worms" . Since Cumberland lake is down, these are everywhere. At first I saw just a few loose ones. I thought I found some minie balls since there is a Civil War battlefield about a couple miles away. Not lead when I picked 'em up. Cedar stumps and driftwood everywhere. Kentucky should encourage folks to take the wood. Looks nice and would clean out the place too. dr
The top pic right side looks like some little critter. Frog, bird, ?

[kevin]

they are called crinoids, a member of the echinoderm family. They are marine fossils, and can actually be found today living in some oceans. If you want to see some big ones i have ones that are a ft long stem segments and about the diameter of a quarter. I have yet to find a whole entact one however. If you find one with the head (calyx) entact please! let me know, ill buy it from you. I found one once, marked it with blaze paint, came back with a saw and it was gone!

I know because my degree is in Geology, and we have to know how to identify fossils for various reasons. I have a secondary major in Natural Resources and Environmental Science. I am just about finished with my masters in Geology

Here is a picture of one, the arms basicly capture food floating by in the water. The round segments with holes are actually what makes up the stem.
http://tolweb.org/tree/ToLimages/crinoid.gif

the other stuff i cant see well enough to identify, if there is something that looks like small porus pieces of twigs or windowscreen, they are likely bryozoans,

[kevin]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/kevin917z/CCCS112c.jpg

if you find something like this let me know!

[drine]

Again, this website is the coolest place on the WWW! Obviously we all like our firearms but most of us do have more than one interest. Thanks Kevin, that little doohickie in the top pic of mine, far right, looks like a frog or duck. What time frame could you place these in? Ducks and frogs around yet? David

[kevin]

can you take a closer pic of the object, soft bodied animals are rarely preserved so im guessing thats not it, maybe a partially dissolved shell? its hard to see it

[NavajoNPaleFace]

My ex wife is somewhat of a fossil. Anyone want her? :icon_biggrin:

Seriously....great information.

[MicroPilot]

No I didn't send pics of those. A State park entomologist told use the indians used them as beads for necklaces. They are everywhere here.

For everyone else here are some pics of a Cephalapod Orthocone that I found while splitting some field rocks for a wall.

http://www.users.kih.net/~micropilot/PostedPics/IMG_0441-1.jpg

Detail of right side:

http://www.users.kih.net/~micropilot/PostedPics/IMG_0442-1.jpg

Detail of right end:

http://www.users.kih.net/~micropilot/PostedPics/fossils%20001-1.jpg

Detail of middle:

http://www.users.kih.net/~micropilot/PostedPics/IMG_0443-1.jpg

Detail of smaller piece that didn't get destroyed:

http://www.users.kih.net/~micropilot/PostedPics/fossils%20002-1.jpg

This is what it might have looked like when alive:

http://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/images/cephs_intro.jpg

[rustypirate]

OK, I will get on the bandwagon.....

Megaladon teeth.....
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4921/Teeth13.jpg

Other shark's teeth:
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/8866/teeth2.jpg

[WildBillCody]

Ok, What's this?
I found it in the ocean while diving at Kwajalein?

[rustypirate]

could be a casting from a fossilized sea urchin, or maybe even a balast stone.

How big is it? I get no sense of scale.

[SteelCore]

Yeah, get tons of Chrinoids round here, and fossil corral. IN was an inland sea for a long time before the coming of the glaciers. We also get tons of brachiopods, etc...the Trilobite digs are ultra-secret and protected around here tho...

Did I mention my first major in college was Geology? Still a great hobby.

Here's a trick for the amateur paleontologist:

Get some dental tools (dentists throw old ones away all the time, sold also at gunshows for cleaning tools) and you can scrape around soem prominent features to bring them out of the stone a bit. Add clear nial polish or laquer to the ones you want to see since it gives the fossil a 'wet' look and makes it stand out from the medium.

Some also use weak carbonic acid or HCl acid to eat the limestone away around the fossils, but I don't do this.

Oh, if you're into gelology, especially Glaciation and Volcanization you MUST go to Iceland.:rockon:

[WildBillCody]

could be a casting from a fossilized sea urchin, or maybe even a balast stone.

How big is it? I get no sense of scale.

Sorry, not quite as big as a golf ball, also included the Jap fuze I found.

[SteelCore]

natural conglomeration of stones in limestones called a concretion.

http://www.priweb.org/ed/concretions.htm

http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/research/images/concretion.jpg

http://www.lougs.org.uk/images/hastings/Concretion%20'sculptures'%20at%20Rock-a-Nore.JPG

http://thrushsong.com/concretions.html

[kevin]

my guess without seeing it and breaking it open would be that its some type of nodule (more or less a concretion)

not knowing the geologic setting, it would be hard to say, its one thing seeing it in person and a picture

[g3shooter1]

Sorry, not quite as big as a golf ball, also included the Jap fuze I found.

Where did you find the fuze?

[WildBillCody]

Same place as the other thingy, Kwajalein, of course there are signs all over the place to not pickup unexploded ordnance, but I wasn't even sure what it was till I got it back to the boat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kwajalein

http://www.kwajaleinscubaclub.com/

[SteelCore]

Been to truck lagoon? I saw a great pictorial on that place in a Nat'l Geographic decades ago...lotsa vehicles, etc from WWII...

[WildBillCody]

Nope ever went there, I was on the CG Cutter Mallow when I went to Kwaj, we did a 1 month tour around the south pacific, we did go to Tarawa, (sorry that one person had to die for that place) Johnson Island where they were burning chemical weapons!! Phonpei, was cool, but too many mosquitos, Kwaj was the best, The Prince Eugen capsized there, lots of ships sunk,, I don't think that it is regulated the way that Truck is. The big day we had off to go diving I get a sinus block and couldn't go more then 1 ft underwater, so I swam around on the top and watched the guys swimming around the jap ships, I could watch them on the bottom 100 ft down, the water is so clear there.

[g3shooter1]

Is that how you were able to get the fuze back into the country?

That is really neat, everyone else gets all the luck an finding arty-related stuff. Ever net any other ordinance stuff?


Steelcore, a lady that posts over at another site I frequent (black-rifles.com) recently took a trip to the Truk Lagoon, she took some pics of the ammo and stuff that was on the sea floor.

[WildBillCody]

Is that how you were able to get the fuze back into the country?

I guess, I never really gave it that much thought.

[KMURPHY]

This is really cool

[SteelCore]

Sounds awesome.

G3shooter, you might wanna go walk the battlefields of Verdun. there are all sorts shells and other stuff buried just under the turf, farmers re-use the barbed wire from the wars and the curly posts that held them, and many shops in the area carry all manner of dug up WWI and WWII objects that local farmers have found.

I had a buddy go to Verdun, and Normandy, and find all sortsa cool stuff...you have to knwo how to treat customs to get things back thru...

Even Ghettysburg has an abundancve of Civ War minie balls and stuff from the battles there.

You just need to know where to look, but it ain't hard to find 'the good stuff' since ppl have fought all ofver the surface of this wonderful world.

[RandyCOG3]

My ex wife is somewhat of a fossil. Anyone want her? :icon_biggrin:

.

:ttiwwop:

Sorry, couldn't resist...

RandyCOG3