Ordovician in Tennessee (Help!)

[DWhatley]

Almost like an episode of Star Trek when the transporter malfunctions

More like a fossil recording of The Fly IMO

 

[Hajar]

A fine Gonioceras here (with an amazing chiton).

 

[Terri]

Amazing Gonioceras specimen in that link Hajar!

 

[Hajar]

Perhaps there's a better one waiting for you in your outcrops! I'd never seen these before.

 

[Terri]

Here are a few more fossils found on my last outing, I'm always excited to find any ceph sign at this location, no matter how broken and battered..

 

[Terri]

...and this taken from the top left corner of the last pic. posted, tiny little gastropods and brachiopods, only a couple of mm. across (I'm still confused when I see septal lines on gastropods)

 

[DWhatley]

At the top about 1/3 of the way over starting from the left is a swirled shell. Is that ceph or snail? If ceph is the little string like relief potential soft preservation of just some unrelated noise?

 

[Terri]

The next two pics. I just think are cool, the first a gastropod and the second...ummm , a cross section of a brachiopod?

 

[Terri]

At the top about 1/3 of the way over starting from the left is a swirled shell. Is that ceph or snail? If ceph is the little string like relief potential soft preservation of just some unrelated noise?

D, the coiled shell in the top, left corner I am going to assume is a gastropod (until Kevin comes along and tells me otherwise) it appears to have a few septa, which some gastropods do, but this one seems to have more than I would think such a tiny gastropod would have, it could possibly be a coiled nautiloid. Hopefully Kevin will clear it all up for us in the morning!

I hadn't noticed the "string like" thing till you pointed it out probably "noise". The pic. above this one (just above the ruler) is a little orthocone, I cropped the above pic. out of the left top of that one.

 

[DWhatley]

I think the shell towards the middle is the same as the one on the left so, just a snail then. I do enjoy it when you do all the work and I can just look .

You might have discovered this and it is really easier to see specific parts if you crop like you have been doing but FYI, if you click the thumbnails once it will present a larger picture. If the uploaded photo was larger, clicking the first enlargement will blow it up to the original size. Be careful though and use the back button to get out if no close option is displayed. The navigation on the second click is a little odd.

 

[Terri]

The work is so much FUN though! I'm very annoyed right know with the weather that's moving in, it will be a while before I can go back out.
The low is supposed to hit 0 tommorrow night and the wind chill will make it feel like 10 below along with a little snow, it's unusual for us to get this kind of extreme weather before Christmas.

 

[DWhatley]

Now you know why I suggested spring for a rendezvous

 

[Terri]

 

[Architeuthoceras]

...and this taken from the top left corner of the last pic. posted, tiny little gastropods and brachiopods, only a couple of mm. across (I'm still confused when I see septal lines on gastropods)

It is very hard to tell if those are septa or something else separating different parts of the internal mold of that shell. They could be shell bits that washed into the shell or just different times of the shell filling with mud with time in between for some kind of surface to form. The spacing seems to be a little distant for a cephalopod, and they are not all concave adorally, there is no sign of a siphuncle, but the fossil would have to be ground down to expose it, if it's there. My first guess would have to be gastropod, just because there are so many others in your rocks with the same shape and without septa.

At the top about 1/3 of the way over starting from the left is a swirled shell. Is that ceph or snail? If ceph is the little string like relief potential soft preservation of just some unrelated noise?

Just "noise" on the little string like dooflinky. These rocks were formed in water much to turbulent for any soft parts to be preserved.

The next two pics. I just think are cool, the first a gastropod and the second...ummm , a cross section of a brachiopod?

Internal mold of gastropod on top, and a very detailed internal mold of a brachiopod on bottom, the shell itself either dissolved or just broken away. Like these cephalopod shells, the internal structure of brachiopods is complex. All those hinge structures and the Brachidium (Lophophore support) are used in classification. Not usually seen, the fossils are sometimes cut in sections to expose these internal structures.

The work is so much FUN though! I'm very annoyed right know with the weather that's moving in, it will be a while before I can go back out.
The low is supposed to hit 0 tommorrow night and the wind chill will make it feel like 10 below along with a little snow, it's unusual for us to get this kind of extreme weather before Christmas.

It has been about a month and a half since I was out, while there are many things for people to do in the snow out here, looking for fossils is not one of them.

ps: Don't you folks back east ever sleep at night?

 

[Architeuthoceras]

a very detailed internal mold of a brachiopod on bottom

On closer inspection, it is the inside of the brachiopod shell, not an internal mold