More West Va Stuff

[fosceal2]

I love little plates like these with multiple items...also from road cut This one is from my sisters place. Then my favorites good ole West VA Chert ( they call it) used as road fill and comes from "Down the mountain" Beautiful colors, occasional small fossils. Someday I dream of finding the fabled "Down the mountain" in situ location! I dreamed of making a patio of this beautiful rock but here in GA it grows a green covering in one season, and cracks even in our mild winters but I still like it.

Fosceal

[mommabetts]

I like the smorgasbord of fossils, nice.

[mstreman]

A bit of trivia but plates like the first 4 which contain eco assembliages are nick named "Dudly Plates" after the early English palentologist that collected them.

Of course the fist 4 are bracks and bryazoans.

Plate 5 is a fossilized "Mud crack" or contraction crack. Mud cracks usually are high in clay and tend have 6 sides owing to silicate chains which can be highly distorted in the folding processes encountered in the Applachian westward basins.

Square contraction plates frequently were high in salt and represent drying surfaces as above.

In both cases the shape occurs in open fractures as subsurface wetter mud oozes up to fill the voids. These tend to be preserved when sand dunes blow in over the mud flat.

Eman

[MOROPUS]

In the last rock, I think we can see something really interesting: Two (or may be three) one valve brachiopods or Lingula like ones. Are they from the same shales? a more detailed pic will solve the question.Nevertheless, good hunt! LINGULA INFO

[Auspex]

A bit of trivia but plates like the first 4 which contain eco assembliages are nick named "Dudly Plates" after the early English palentologist that collected them.

I never knew that. "Dudley Plates"; I like it! Sounds so much better than "hash"

[fosceal2]

In the last rock, I think we can see something really interesting: Two (or may be three) one valve brachiopods or Lingula like ones. Are they from the same shales? a more detailed pic will solve the question.Nevertheless, good hunt! LINGULA INFO

THe red/white "chert" also occurs in greys and browns ( which is denser and harder) I look at all that I see and have only found 5 fossils in this stuff. One small scallop looking shell, two more like these and a weird empty knot whole thing. The red/white quickly grows a green covering in Ga, like algae on land- the grey/brown not so fast.

I find a little in the creek- usually very small. Most I find on the road side where they have used it for road fill

[barefootgirl]

Really nice finds! Good luck with the patio idea.