THE STORY FROM A ROCK

The Story from a Rock was a science fair presentation that I created at the age of 17. For several years I had collected fossils from a hillside behind our house, and for this project I chose a rather large rock almost a meter in width to find all the fossils that were buried together at more or less the same geological time. See the explanation sheet.

With the help of my art teacher and friend of the family, Maude-Mary Wilson, I painted an imaginary reconstruction of the shallow sea with its animals based on the fossils, along with an identification key.

The project not only won an award at the Norman, Oklahoma, science fair in 1956, but also won an award at the 1957 National Science Talent Search for which I was invited to their celebration in Washington, DC. As a result I was invited to do volunteer work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

In the course of my work I had the opportunity to meet Professor A.C. Spring at the Rolla School of Mines in Missouri. With him, I described a new species of Setigerites brachiopods as shown here.

The geological formation in which this rock with its fossils was formed was the Keokuk chert of the Mississippian Period, about 270 million years ago.

Here are photos of all the fossils, accompanied by identification pages, listed by animal or plant phylum or sub-phylum.

Algae photo. Four fossil fucoids, no precise identification.

Blastoid photo, Metablastus bipyramidalis, internal and external mold.

Brachiopods. 23 different genera: Group one photo with identification page and close-up photo; Group two photo with identification page and close-up photo with identification page; Close-up photo of Orthotetes and Athyris; Close-up photo of Spirifer and Reticularia; Close-up of Orthotetes; Close-up photo of Setigerites, new species; Close-up photo of Spirifer; Close-up photo of Linoproductus . The last four include comparison to specimens from other rocks.

Bryozoa. 10 different genera: General photo with identification page and close-up photo; Photo of Fenestella along with close-up of attachment and close-up of encrusted Proutella; close-up of another Proutella.

Corals. 4 different genera: General photo with identification page and close-up photo. Close-up of Zaphrentis with comparison to a specimen from another rock.

Crinoids. 3 different genera as well as unidentified crinoid stems. General photo with identification page; close-up photo of Platycrinites head: close-up photos of crinoid stem plates and sections of crinoid stems.

Echinoids. Photo of echinoid plates up close. No identification possible.

Gastropods. 3 different genera: General photo with identification page and 4 close-up photos: Platyceras; Platyceras orthonychia; Straparollus and Loxonema; Straparollus serpulospira.

Pelecypods: 6 different genera: General photo with identification page and close-up photos of Aviculopecten, Conocardium and Cypricardinia.

Trilobites and Conularids: 2 different general of trilobites and an unidentified Conularid: General photo with identification page and close-up photos of Brachymetarus trilobite and unidentified Conularid.

Unidentified fossils: Photo up close. Those without numbers may be parts of crinoids. Number 4 is a mystery.

To provide further detail about some of the brachiopods, here are photos of six species with complete interior moulds (both pedicle valves and brachial valves) from other rocks along with an identification page. Also here is a photo of the lophophore brachidia from the inside of an unidentified brachiopod, something that is rarely preserved in the rocks that I have found.