Dry Dredgers Field Trip
April 23, 2005
Maysville, KY

Page 4: Trace Fossils

The shale itself had some very interesting trace fossils on it. Unidentified nodules that are weathering out in interesting ways. Can you tell what made these traces? Please excuse the water drops on the camera lens. (Next 3 pictures below.)
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   Image36.jpg  Image38.jpg
Was the traces above made by trilobites? Probably not, but they make you look twice!

There was a layer on this site where the shale is COVERED with trace fossils. The traces are of varying shapes and types. On the sample below, the tracks of some animal, have a square-shaped profile or cross-section. These tracks are usually short in length. What soft bodied animal had that shape? A better question: Will we ever know?

A close-up (below) of same rock

We found some wonderful examples of millimeter ripples in laminate shale surfaces. Some say this is the actual ocean bottom (sediment-water interface) which would show us a beautiful snapshot of time. It may be, though, that it's the result of shearing of layers of sediment under the ocean floor, caused by storms or seismic events (see Pflueger 1999, Brett 1999).

The rock below doesn't show it well, but there is strong evidence of seismic (earthquake) activity on this site. It has caused deformations called Seismites. The rock below is broken  and shows a cross-section of what I think are some of these deformations.
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Next Page: More Fossils Found: Trilobites


T A B L E   O F    C O N T E N T S

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Fossils Found: Brachiopods and Bivalves

Page 3: Fossils Found: Bryozoans

Page 4: Fossils Found: Trace Fossils
Page 5: Fossils Found: Trilobites


Photos From Past Field Trips to Maysville, KY
September 2003

April 2001
April 2000

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