This quarry is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is the closest quarry to downtown Louisville. It is closed to collectors (don’t even ask) since late 2009.
The bottom of the quarry is Laurel Dolostone (Middle Silurian) and in ascending order: Waldron Shale, Louisville Limestone, Jeffersonville Limestone (Middle Devonian), Speed Limestone, North Vernon (= Sellersburg) Limestone, Beechwood Limestone, and basal New Albany Shale.
Unless noted, these photos were taken during a geology club visit on July 2004.
Looking west from the top of the quarry in 2004. Note slabs of New Albany Shale in the foreground.Fossil rich chert (rock made of quartz) near the top of the quarry. This chert is rich in fossils including brachiopods, mollusks, and trilobites.Deep weathering of Devonian limestone forming a clay-rich subsoil. Limertone weathers red – it’s called terra rosa (red earth).Atkin’s Quarry had deep weathering solution features in the North Vernon (Sellersburg) Limestone. These features were created by sulfuric acid formed by ground water + decomposing pyrite located in the basal New Albany Shale. Pseudoatrypa brachiopods are seen weathering out of limestone. They are an abundant fossil in Clark County.Thin Tropidoleptus carinatus brachiopods in subsoil – notice how they were buried and eroded together.For a short time, a rich deposit of Aulocystis corals were found eroding out of the limestone. These were still attached and uncollectable, but plenty of loose specimens were found. These are Aulocystis frutecosa (Davis). The area was blasted through not long after our visit in 2004.Mud-covered fossils collected directly from the subsoil where the limestone decomposed.The same tray after spraying the mud away with a hose. There are some spectacular corals here! We we fortunate to visit when this coral-rich area was exposed.At the quarry road entrance: Walnut Ridge Cemetery with a “Dead End” sign! How’s that for appropriate? The roads were improved and this sign no longer exists. Too bad.
Annotated with site information, including geological / paleontological / mineralogical. Many quarries listed are closed or no longer allow collectors. This album serves to document geological locations – not to provide locations for you to visit. Assume all active mines to be closed to casual collecting.
Atkin’s Quarry in Jeffersonville, Indiana, was visited between 1994 and 2009. Access was curtailed with new management and policies in late 2009. Click on photo to see more.
Photo of the Waldron shale in the Atkins Quarry pre-2009
Speed Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana (Operated by Louisville Cement, then Essroc, then Italicementi, and now Heidelburg Cement, it will be closing soon if not already.)
View of expansive Speed Cement Quarry
Annabel Lee Mine – A fluorite mine in Hardin Co., Illinois that I visited with Chris Anderson in May, 1987. We spent an 8-hour shift documenting the mine operations and geology.
Fisheye lens photo of the Annabel Lee mine headframe in 1987. Chris Anderson photo.
Coral Ridge / General Shale Brick Company, Jefferson Co., Kentucky – The type locality for the Coral Ridge pyrite-replaced fauna described by James Conkin in his master’s thesis published by the Paleontological research Institute in 1957. Many fossils were found over the years. The site became inaccessible in mid-2010 as our contact and many employees were laid off due to the 2008-9 recession and the lack of home building.
Looking for pyrite-replaced fossils at the General Shale Company outcrops.
Additional locations – when I have time!
Boyle Co., Kentucky geode hunting – An area with geodes from smaller than an inch to bigger than 2-feet across. Mostly quartz with minor calcite, hematite, etc.
Cedar Creek Quarry, Bardstown, Kentucky – a limestone quarry (now closed) famous for trilobites in the Laurel dolostone. It also had brachiopods, crinoids, cephalopods, pyrite, calcite and sphalerite.
Carroll Co., Kentucky road cuts – in the Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, they contain brachiopods, bryozoans, graptolites, mollusks, trilobites, and trace fossils.
Corydon Quarry, Harrison Co., Indiana – famous for superb pink dolomite with calcite of various shades of tan to white, often with inclusions of iron, rarely with millerite or MnO2. Quarry is active and closed to collecting.
Elizabethtown Quarry, Kentucky – a long-closed and now privately owned quarry that we collected 900 crinoids between 1990 – 1994. The scientific papers naming 9 new species were a result. The quarry had diverse Muldraugh, Harrodsburg & Salem Formation faunas.
Hardin Co., Kentucky road cuts – on Hwy 313, from the New Providence Shale to the St. Louis Limestone, Middle Mississippian age. Various fossils and geodes of calcite or gypsum.
Illinois side of the IL-KY fluorspar district (excluding Hastie’s & Annabel Lee mines)
Irvington Quarry, Breckinridge Co., Kentucky – famous for fluorite, calcite with minor quartz and other minerals. Locality owned by Liter’s, Inc. Closed to collectors, though the last time I visited, collecting was hardly worth the effort.
Kentucky side of the IL-KY fluorspar district – numerous old mines primarily dot Crittenden and Livingston Counties. No active mines since the 1960s.
Lebanon Quarry, Marion Co., Kentucky – Multiple quarries in various stages from long to recently abandoned to recently opened. Calcite and Ordovician fossils primarily. Oldest quarry has some Devonian fossils, largely weathered too much to be interesting.
Salem Quarry, Washington Co., Indiana – this closed quarry was famous for geodes with celestine and calcite. Fossils were known but not widely collected in the Mississippian formations.
These are photographs representing many of the species I have collected over the years. I have 629 species, 373 genera of brachiopods in my collection.
Pseudoatrypa decorated with manganese oxides from the Speed Quarry, Clark Co., Indiana.
These pages illustrate a lot of different kinds of fossils. Within 60 minutes of the Louisville, Kentucky, area, geological time periods represented include: Upper Ordovician, Silurian, Middle – Upper Devonian, and Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous). The Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) is a bit beyond. The Pleistocene is represented by sand & gravel, loess and cave deposits.
Consider all guides to be “works in-progress. Images and information will be added.
Cambrictites greenei – a small pyritized goniatite from the Mississippian Coral Ridge fauna of Jefferson Co., KY. Goniatites are ammonoids with undulating sutures.
I’ve collected or traded for a lot of miscellaneous fossils that aren’t diverse enough to list by category. These include fossil plants, vertebrates (mostly fish bone pieces from local bone beds), worms, graptolites, and problematic fossils that may belong to other phyla but are odd examples.
Photos – See each category
Annularia galoides in an ironstone nodule from northern Illinois.
Preservation Key : C = Calcified, Ph = Phosphatic, P = Pyritized, S = Silicified, 1= w/o, matrix, 2 = w/
Trilobites and crustaceans are arthropods, the group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, millipedes, and the like. Arthropods molt as they grow. The result is common fragments and rarer complete animals. (Updated Feb. 10, 2022)
Photos of Trilobites and Other arthropods
Calymene breviceps Hall from the Waldron Shale of Clark Co., Indiana.
TRILOBITES Period Location Preservation
p = pygidium, t = thorax, c = cephalon
Arctinurus occidentalis (Hall) – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2
Arctinurus occidentalis (Hall) pygidium resembles a palmetto leaf
Bumastus sp. – Laurel Formation, Middle Silurian, Bardstown, Nelson Co., KY – C,2
Bumastus pygidium, a steinkern encrusted with sphalerite crystals
Calymene breviceps Hall – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2
Calymene breviceps Hall with pyrite – this was found attached to the floor of the Atkin’s Quarry
Cheirurus dilatatus Raymond – Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, Clark Co., IN – C,2
Cheirurus dilatatus Raymond has a spiny pygidiumCheirurus dilatatus (Raymond) has a large glabella
Cryptolithus bellulus Ulrich – a blind trilobite from the Kope Formation, Upper Ordovician, Carrol Co., KY – C,1,2
Cryptolithus bellulus Ulrich – cephalon interior with genial spines
Eldridgeops sp. (was Phacops) – Sellersburg Limestone, Givetian, Middle Devonian, Clark Co., IN – S,1,2
Eldridgeops sp. – complete, flat and made of quartzEldridgeops sp. – front of molted cephalon on trace fossil showing compound eyes (chert replacement)
Trace fossils are evidence of action by living creatures. Examples include locomotion, feeding, nesting, excretions, etc. The division of paleontology that studies trace fossils is called “ichnology.”
Mollusks are the most abundant “shell” on a beach or riverbank. Modern cephalopods include squid, octopus and nautiloids. They are (and have always been) strictly marine. Gastropods (snails) live in the greatest diversity of ecosystems – marine, fresh & brackish water and on land. Clams are similar except for land. Monoplacophorans & scaphopods are exclusively marine. Rostroconchs are the only extinct class of mollusks.
Mollusk Photos (organized by class)
Bembexia sulcomarginata (Hall) – an exceptional specimen of a common Devonian species.
Preservation: C = Calcified, Ph = Phosphatic, P = Pyritized, S = Silicified, 1= w/o, matrix, 2 = w/ matrix
CEPHALOPODS Period Location Preservation
NAUTILOIDS
Dawsonoceras amycus Middle Silurian IN C,2
Michelinoceras sp. is generally found in small segments. This is the largest I found.
Michelinoceras sp. – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1
Ovoceras oviforme (or Acleistoceras?) – Sellersburg = North Vernon Limestone, Clark Co., Indiana – S,1
Small, somewhat egg-shaped nautiloid
Treptoceras duseri (Hall & Whitfield) – Ubiquitous in the Upper Ordovician of the Tri-state area (IN, KY, OH), C,1,2
To be determined – large Devonian coiled nautiloid. Extremely rare, this specimen was found at the Speed Quarry in the Jeffersonville Limestone, Middle Devonian.
Large Devonian nautiloid
GONIATITES
Cantabricanites greenei (Miller) – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1
Cantabricanites greenei (Miller) range from a few millimeters to a centimeter wide.
Polaricyclus ballardensis (Work & Mason) – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1
Polaricyclus conkini (Work & Mason) – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1
AMMONITES & BELEMNITES
Actinocamex verus (1) Cretaceous United Kingdom C,1
Baculites sp. Cretaceous Texas C,1
Belemitella americanus Jurassic Wyoming C,1
Hastites sp. (baculites) Lias, Early Jurassic Portugal C,1
Hildoceras bifrons ” ” ” Portugal C,1
Unidentified ” ” ” Portugal P,1
GASTROPODS/MONOPLACOPHORANS Period Location Preservation
Bellerophon gibsoni Middle Mississippian KY C,1
Bembexia sulcomarginata Middle Devonian IN S,1,2
Cyclonema sp. Upper Ordovician IN, KY C,1,2
Crytolites carinatus (Monoplacophoran) Upper Ordovician KY C,1
Glabrocingulum ellenae (Conkin), Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1 (type locality)
Glabrocingulum ellenae (Conkin) is a common pyrite-replaced snail
Globularia umbilica Upper Cretaceous MS C,1
Liospira macula Upper Ordovician KY C,1,2
Lophospira medialis Middle Ordovician KY S1,2
Lophospira biseriatus? Upper Ordovician KY C,1,2
Loxonema sp. Middle Ordovician KY S,1,2
Loxonema sp. – Coral Ridge Member, New Providence Shale, basal Middle Mississippian, Jefferson Co., KY – P,1
Loxonema sp. often shows fine growth lines
Paupospira bowdeni Upper Ordovician KY C,1,2
Natica tigra (1) Miocene Poland C,1
Naticonema lineata Middle Devonian IN C,1
Platyceras (Orthonychia) acutirostre Middle Mississippian KY C,1,2
Echinoderms are a phylum of marine animals that include sea stars, urchins, sand dollars, and the like. They are an ancient group going back to the Cambrian if not the Ediacaran. A number of classes existed for a short geological interval before going extinct. The most common echinoderm fossils in my region are crinoids and blastoids.
I’ve been involved in research in Middle Mississippian crinoids with Dr. William Ausich and Dr. Thomas Kammer. I will eventually post that research and photos of specimens. Most of the important ones were donated to the Smithsonian (U.S. National Museum) and the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University.
Echinoderm Photos (organized by class – Crinozoa, Blastozoa, etc.)
Talarocrinus patei Miller & Gurley mass mortality collected by me from Sample, Kentucky
Euryocrinus veryi – top view, originally pyrite, now “limonite” (goethite) which is more stable.Euryocrinus veryi – bottom view
Euryocrinus veryi Ausich & Meyer # – from the pyritized Coral Ridge fauna, basal New Providence Shale, considered early or mid-Mississippian depending on reference. KY, IN? – Goethite,1
Granatocrinus kentuckyensis – side viewGranatocrinus kentuckyensis – top view
Granatocrinus kentuckyensis (Conkin)# – from the pyritized Coral Ridge fauna, basal New Providence Shale, considered early or mid-Mississippian depending on reference. KY, IN? – P,1
Hadroblastus sp., – side viewHadroblastus sp., – upper view
Hadroblastus sp., [H. kentuckyensis (Shumard)?] – same data as Granatocrinus kentuckyensis, though extremely rare instead of very rare. KY, IN? – P,1 Coral Ridge fauna article will be posted under articles… eventually.
Fragments of Metablastus from the Muldraugh Fm. in Hardin Co., Kentucky
Metablastus sp. # – rare, Middle Mississippian, KY – C,2
Pentremites is restricted to the Mississippian Period, primarily in North America. There are dozens of names in Galloway & Kaska’s monograph Genus Pentremites and its Species (1957). However, Dr. Alan Horowitz considered them to be overly split and that most were variations on a hand full of species.
Pentremites buttsi
Pentremites buttsi Ulrich?# – rare, Indian Springs Shale Mbr., Big Clifty Fm., Upper Mississippian, Crawford Co., Indiana.
Pentremites conoideus is an index fossil for the Salem Ls.
Pentremites conoideus Hall – Salem Ls., Middle Mississippian, IN,KY – C,1,2
Pentremites godoni (Defrance) – Upper Mississippian formations, IL,KY – C,S,1,2 This species has been further sub-divided. Two examples below.
Subspecies: Pentremites godoni pinguis Hambach (L) & abbreviatus Ulrich (R), Renault Fm. near Shetlerville, IllinoisSubspecies Pentremites godoni major, Renault Fm., Hastie Quarry, Hardin Co., IllinoisPentremites ovoides
Pentremites ovoides Ulrich# – Ste. Genevieve Ls., Mississippian, Hastie’s Quarry, Cave in Rock, Illinois. Collected ~1987, at the Oxford-West Morrison cut that no longer exists.
A deformed Pentremites patei from the Sulphur road cut, Crawford Co., Indiana
Pentremites patei Ulrich# – Indian Springs Shale Mbr., Big Clifty Fm., Upper Mississippian, Crawford Co., Indiana.
Pentremites platybasis
Pentremites platybasis Weller# – Indian Springs Shale Mbr., Big Clifty Fm., Upper Mississippian, Crawford Co., Indiana
Pentremites pulchellus
Pentremites pulchellus Ulrich# – Renault Fm., Upper Mississippian, Shetlerville, Illinois
Pentremites pyramidatus
Pentremites pyramidatus Ulrich# – Renault Fm., Upper Mississippian, Shetlerville, Illinois
Pentremites pyriformis should be the Kentucky state fossil instead of the brachiopod
Pentremites pyriformis Say – Upper Mississippian formations, IN,KY – C,1,2
Pentremites robustus – a large species
Pentremites robustus Lyon# – Glen Dean Fm?, Upper Mississippian, Madison Co., Kentucky
Pentremites springeri
Pentremites springeri Ulrich# – Indian Springs Shale Mbr., Big Clifty Fm., Upper Mississippian, Crawford Co., Indiana IN,KY
Pentremites symmetricus
Pentremites symmetricus Hall – Upper Mississippian formations, IL, IN, KY – C,S,1,2
Pentremites welleri growth series
Pentremites welleri Ulrich – Indian Springs Shale Mbr., Big Clifty Fm., Upper Mississippian, Crawford Co., Indiana
Pentremites growth series available
Tricoelocrinus woodmani – large, slightly compressed. Prepped by Tom Johnson.
Tricoelocrinus woodmani (Meek & Worthen)# – extremely rare, this specimen found on the family farm near Lanesville, Indiana, shortly before it was sold. Salem Ls. (Somerset Shale Mbr.), Middle Mississippian, IN, KY – C,1
Troosticrinus reinwardi
Troosticrinus reinwardi (Troost)# – from the Waldron Shale, Middle Silurian, in Tennessee. Similar to Decaschisma.
Comments about Pentremites
It’s possible to find more than the theca (body) and other features – including brachioles (feeding “bristles”), internal hydrospire folds (part of the respiratory system), and growth defects. No specimens like these are available for sale. Here are some examples:
Two Pentremites with columns and brachioles. Crawford Co., Indiana.3 cm view – embryonic Pentremites from holdfast to brachiolesEmbryonic Pentremites with brachioles
Perhaps the smallest complete embryonic Pentremites ever found. It will be featured in an upcoming monograph on blastoids written by the world’s experts. Found at the Sulphur exit road cut, Crawford Co., IN. Indian Springs Member of the Big Clifty Formation, Chesterian, Upper Mississippian.
Hydrospire folds on this interior of Pentremites conoideus.Hydrospire folds on this interior of Pentremites welleriHydrospire folds on this interior of Pentremites from Sulphur, Crawford Co., IndianaDeformed Pentremites welleri from Sulphur, Indiana.Deformed Pentremites symmetricus with lump near base. Sulfur, Indiana.
Photographing Echinoderms
The simplest technique is to get them wet. The problem is that they reflect light. Compare these Pentremites platybasis below.
