Dry Dredgers Field Trip
April 28, 2007
Middletown, Ohio
Cephalopods
There were pretty good quantities of Cephalopods found, particularly at the
bottom of the hill cut and in the flat field. The preservation was mostly
internal molds, included some that preserved only the ciphuncle.
Bivalves
There was a large variety of Pelecypods (clams) on the first site. These
included Modiolopsis, Caritodens and Ambonychia. A couple of Amonychia are
pictured below.
Gastropods
There were lots of gastropods too. Mostly internal molds, but many of the
Cyclonema that were found had good external shell features in their calcified
remains.
Some of the gastropods were completely encrusted with bryozoans, evidence of
how sturdy the empty shells were on the Ordovician Ocean floor.
Before moving on to the second fossil site, there was plenty of time for
show-and-tell. This member showed us an interesting example of how fossil
crinoid stem columnals can be used to make necklaces.
Next Page: We arrive at the second site.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Page 1: Site 1 Introduction
Page 2: Site 1 Collecting Pics
Page 3: Site 1 Fossils Found: Trilobites and Brachiopods
Page 4: Site 1 Fossils Found: Cephalopods, Bivalves and Gastropods
Page 5: Site 2: The Site and Brachiopods Found
Page 6: Site 2: Inarticulate Brachiopods and Gastropods Found
Page 7: Site 2 Bivalves, Bryozoans and Cephalopods Found