A quick post this week. Above is a bit of a large isotelid trilobite my students and I found this past spring break on an expedition to the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of northern Kentucky. It was collected at a roadside outcrop of the Corryville Formation (Location C/W-740). It doesn’t look like the usual trilobite bit because it is a less common fragment from the underside of the cephalon known as the hypostome (meaning “under mouth”). Note on the left side of the image some branching white encrustations, shown closer below.
These are encrusting cyclostome bryozoans known as Cuffeyella arachnoidea. The genus Cuffeyella was named in 1996 by two characters you know from this blog: Taylor & Wilson. As you can see, these particular specimens are in terrible shape. We have far better images of well-preserved Cuffeyella elsewhere on this blog. One of the lessons of a paleontological education, though, is to learn how to recognize fossils when they are not at their best.
Wooster’s Fossil of the Week is now going to take a hiatus as the summer research and travel season begins. It will return later!
Reference:
Taylor, P.D. and Wilson, M.A. 1996. Cuffeyella, a new bryozoan genus from the Late Ordovician of North America, and its bearing on the origin of the post-Paleozoic cyclostomates, p. 351-360. In: Gordon, D.P., A.M. Smith and J.A. Grant-Mackie (eds.), Bryozoans in Space and Time. Proceedings of the 10th International Bryozoology Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 1995. National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd, Wellington, 442 pages.
