New Paris Quarry, Bedford co. PA

[SharkySarah]

I was super lucky the other week to be invited to the New Paris Quarry in Bedford co. PA. The owner of the quarry is super nice and knowledgeable. He handed out a geology and ID sheet specific to his quarry. 
 

 

according to that sheet, I spent the day in the Old Port formation. The rock was a very hard limestone. I tried to get some of these brachiopods out of the rock but my rock hammer just dented the rocks. (Keyser fm. Is also present in the quarry along with calcite and fluorite) 

 

Here are some calcite pieces: 

 

some of the fossils I couldn’t get out:

 

 

at the end of the day, it was a lot of work for only some reward. Limestone is very hard and the preservation is lack luster. A majority of the finds are brachiopods with the most being Leptaena. Trilobites were super hard to come by, as a group only finding 4 of them. Some  of my finds:

 

a worn brachiopod of unknown genus

Crinoids 

 

my favorite brachiopod rock that sadly isn’t on the ID sheet so I don’t know the name 

 

The best find- Symphoria trilobite 

 

Leptaena brachiopod 

 

this is a weird one. Either coral, mud ripples or something else ?

 

either bryozoan or minerals 

 

 

[NickG]

Is the contact between the Old Port and Onondaga accessible there?

[SharkySarah]

@NickGnot that I’ve read or seen. 

[EMP]

12 hours ago, NickG said:

Is the contact between the Old Port and Onondaga accessible there?

I think in that part of PA the limestone of the Old Port directly underlies the Oriskany Sandstone instead. 

[NickG]

16 minutes ago, EMP said:

I think in that part of PA the limestone of the Old Port directly underlies the Oriskany Sandstone instead. 

Do you mean the Ridgeley Member (sandstone) is exposed there? My understanding is where the Ridgeley Member isn't present, that the Shriver Chert is instead. Is this reflective of what you mean? The matrix and some of the fauna definitely looks similar to what I've seen in the New Creek Limestone in the type section. I'm not 100% familiar with the Old Port vs its southern lateral equivalents in western MD/WV/VA. 

 

#22 looks like messed up sponges. I've seen similar preservation in the New Creek Limestone at the type section.

 

#24 resembles Strophodonta. Get these papers tho:

Bowen, 1966, Brachiopods and stratigraphy of the Elbow Ridge Sandstone (Lower Devonian) of Pennsylvanian, Maryland, and West Virginia: Journal of Paleontology 40, 1051--1062.

Bowen, 1967, Brachiopoda of the Keyser Limestone (Silurian-Devonian) of Maryland and adjacent areas. Geological Society of America Memoir 102.

 

Nick