RICHMOND, INDIANA–This is the first day of what upper midwesterners hilariously call “spring break”, so it is time to get some students in the field. I can’t say this is the first Wooster geology fieldwork of the year because that crazy Greg Wiles lab was out on the ice in deepest January. I spent today in eastern Indiana exploring field sites for a new generation of Independent Study students. Tomorrow and Monday Coleman Fitch (’15) and William Harrison (’15) will be joining me to collect specimens for their I.S. projects on Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) fossils. We’ll highlight their work in the next couple of days.
Above is one of the best known fossil sites in southeastern Indiana. It is the Southgate Hill section (sometimes called the St. Leon roadcut) at N 39.33899°, W 84.95287°. Exposed here are (from bottom to top) the Oregonia, Waynesville, Liberty, Whitewater and Saluda units of the Cincinnatian Group. It is a rich site — and incredibly muddy today. I suppose I’ll take mud over ice. Note the blue sky. By the end of the day it was as gray as the rocks, making the search for tiny fossil details difficult. Tomorrow promises to be much sunnier. 
The brachiopods at the Southgate exposure are incredibly abundant and well preserved. These are strophomenids. 
Bryozoans (the twiggy bits) and crinoids (the circular fossils with star-shaped central holes). Can’t go wrong with this combination. More tomorrow and Monday as Coleman and William get to work. Meanwhile I’m wondering how I managed to get a motel room right next to an active railway …
I miss this outcrop! I am glad to hear that a new generation of I.S. students will be clamoring through the Cincinnatian…I certainly loved my opportunity to spend time searching for epibionts while one of your students!
It was a pleasure working with you, Russ!