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The Paleo Times Volume 15 Number 10 October 2016

The Official Publication of the Eastern Missouri Society for Paleontology

Rick Poropat, Editor

President’s Corner

A big THANK YOU to Carl for the interesting

update of this summer’s Paleotrek expedition in

Montana! A number of nice trike and T Rex parts

were found. Another big THANK YOU goes to Pat

for a report on her family trip to Maine and Nova

Scotia.

I want to call your attention to our fall field trip to

Mark Twain Lake. Look elsewhere in this issue for

information. It’s a lot of fun and is kid friendly! I’m

looking forward to seeing you there! Abby

October Meeting

Our next meeting is Friday, October 14, 2016 at 7:30 pm in the second floor classroom of the Earth and Planetary Sciences building on the Washington University campus. Our program for the evening will

be presented by EMSP member Rick on the geology

and paleontology of the Floraville locality in St. Clair

County, Illinois (sometimes called Millstadt or

Prairie du Long Creek). The now-overgrown site

was once an annual trip for our club and, at its peak,

produced some incredible Mississippian fossils.

Please join us for an exciting and informational

program!

Bonus! Carl will give us an update on the GSA

meeting and the Denver Show.

Science Center Update

Saturday, September 24, the St. Louis Science

Center held its second annual Rock, Fossil, Quake: A

Celebration of Earth Science event. If you missed it,

you missed out! Center stage were a number of 30

minute presentations on such topics as Minerals in

Your Foods, The Pleistocene in Your Backyard,

Thumbs-spikes and Duck-Bills: Evolution of the Most

Successful Plant-Eating Dinosaurs; The How, When,

Where and Why of Megathrust Earthquakes and

Tsunamis; and Missouri’s Supervolcano, the Geology

of Southern Missouri. Other activities featured

EMSP members Mike, Carlton, Carl, Mark and Rick restoring dinosaur fossils in the prep lab and identifying fossils brought in by visitors. Still more activities included programs by the Earth Science staff, University of Missouri, St. Louis Community College, the New Madrid Historical Museum, Missouri Geologic Survey, Southern California Earthquake Center, the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) and the Missouri Seismic Safety Commission. Next year don’t miss out!

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Fossil of the

Month

The fossil for October is the Mississippian crinoid Synbathocrinus dentatus (Owen & Shumard) from the Upper Burlington Limestone of northeastern Missouri. Placed in the order Disparida (Moore & Laudon, 1943), this extinct crinoid was a stationary, intermediate-level, epifaunal suspension feeder characterized by five long arms attached to a simple cup. The pictured specimen is approximately 4 1/2 inches long and was collected in the late 1980s from the Continental Cement Co. Quarry near Hannibal, Missouri. The quarry was once the focus of an annual EMSP field trip but is currently closed to collectors.

Treasurer's Report A detailed report is available by request from the treasurer.

Calendar Oct. 22 Mark Twain Lake Field Trip Nov. 12 Dake Mineral & Fossil Auction Missouri S&T, Rolla, MO. Nov. 18-20 Mineral, Gem & Fossil Show & Sale Affton White Rogers Com. Center Dec. 17 Fossil Club Christmas Party Kirkwood Community Center Know of any special events our club members might be interested in? Email a club officer with the info and it will be put on the calendar.

Rick's Ramblings

There are several events on this month’s calendar that I want to call your attention to. One is the annual C.L. Dake Geological Society Mineral Auction to be held November 12 in McNutt Hall on the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla. The auction is operated by student members of the Society with proceeds going to fund various club activities. Check-in for those selling items begins at 7:30 am. The auction begins at 10:00 am and runs until the last lot is sold. This event is an opportunity to sell your surplus fossils, minerals and associated items such as books, maps or tools. There will also be a silent auction and a children’s auction and food will be available for purchase. A second event to be aware of is our annual field trip to Mark Twain Lake on October 22. Please see the trip announcement for details. Because of the trip, the Burlington Limestone and its fossils is our theme for this month’s newsletter. I hope you enjoy the trip related articles! Finally, make a calendar note on Saturday, December 17 to attend our annual holiday party. This year it will be held at the Kirkwood Community Center in the second floor meeting room. This is the same room we used several years ago. More information will be included in the November newsletter. It is not too early to start planning for our participation in the 2016 St. Louis Mineral & Gem Show at the Affton White-Rodgers Community Center. The show will be held November 18-20 and is the second major fund-raiser for our club. We will need volunteers to work our sales booth and help take down tables on the last day. No experience is necessary to participate! Speaking of volunteers, we are looking for a young (or not) energetic person with fresh ideas to represent our club at the Association (Machinist Hall Show) meetings. The group meets the third Monday of each odd month. If you are interested in helping out, please contact a club officer. Faye Whobrey is trying to distribute the latest club shirt order and also has some extras shirts for sale. If you ordered a shirt and haven’t received it yet, please contact Faye or come to the October meeting to pick it up. Your cooperation is appreciated! Those attending the September meeting had the

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opportunity to see the fossil Oreodont skull donated to the club by Addie Bolser. It will be auctioned off at the October meeting, but you must be present to win! Mike Fix has also donated a number of really great geology and fossil-related books which will also be auctioned off at the meeting. The skull and books will have appropriate minimum bids. Cash is King! Finally, thanks to EMSP volunteers Mike, Carlton, Carl and Mark who helped make the St. Louis Science Center’s second annual Rock, Fossil, Quake: A Celebration of Earth Science, a great success!

Did You Know? Echinoderms are members of the phylum Echinodermata, which is Greek for “spiny skin,” and are characterized by their pentagonal (5-part) symmetry. This group of marine animals live only in salt water today and include crinoids, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sand dollars, sea urchins and starfish. Fossil echinoderms have not been recovered from known fresh water marine sediments. The earliest possible echinoderms appeared in the late Proterozoic, but there has been very little fossil material recovered from sediments older than the early and middle Cambrian. Some paleontologists feel this is because early echinoderms were possibly soft bodied organisms and did not readily fossilize. Echinoderms began to appear in greater numbers during the lower to middle Cambrian. By the beginning of the Ordovician many groups of echinoderms flourished, especially the crinoids. The earliest fossil crinoid may have been Echmatocrinus, from the famous Burgess Shale of the middle Cambrian. Some paleontologists, however, don’t feel that Echmatocrinus was a true crinoid. The crinoids were the most abundant group of echinoderms from the early Ordovician to the late Paleozoic when they, along with the rest of the echinoderms, nearly went extinct during the Permo-Triassic extinction. Only a single genus of crinoid is known from the early Triassic, which eventually gave rise to the extant articulate crinoids of today.

FIELD TRIP Our October field trip to Mark Twain Lake is scheduled for Saturday, October 22. This is a members-only field trip and participation will be limited to 20 people. Those interested in attending should contact trip leader Tom, no later than the night of the October meeting. This is a children-friendly trip. We will rent pontoon boats in order to visit some of the many limestone outcrops around the lake. The cost of the boats, plus gas will be shared by those attending; usually $20-$25 per person; the final cost determined by the number of members who attend and the number of boats we need. Attendees should be prepared to sign a waiver and pay Tom prior to boarding. We will meet no later than 9am at the Indian Creek Marina, located on the north side of the lake. Please consult a map (page 1) or go online for travel directions. The drive is about two hours from St. Louis. This will be a fair weather trip. In the event of rain or high water level, it will be cancelled. We will be collecting Mississippian-age fossils from the Burlington Limestone and possibly also the Keokuk Formation. Collecting will consist of walking short distances and climbing over (sometimes steep) rock formations to extract fossils from hard limestone and chert using hand tools. Fossils to be found include: crinoids, blastoids, brachiopods, corals, bryozoans, rare trilobites and shark teeth. Recommended equipment: 4lb. crack hammer or a geologist hammer (no carpenter's hammers!), chisels, eye protection, heavy gloves, backpack or 5-gal bucket, newspapers to wrap your fossils in, sturdy boots or shoes (no flip flops or boat shoes), lunch/snacks, water, hat, camera, sunscreen and insect repellant. Life vests are provided but you might want to bring your own if you have one. Dress for October weather. Long pants are recommended.

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The Burlington Formation By: Richard Gottfried (former EMSP member) The Burlington Formation is a marine limestone found in rock layers laid down during the Mississippian Period (325-360 million years ago). The Mississippian Period was relatively short-lasting by geologic standards, only 35 million years, and its fossil record indicates an almost entirely marine environment. (Thompson, 1982) This is due to the flooding of what is now North America (called the Kaskaskia Transgression), which began during the Devonian Period (380-450 million years ago). The transgression was interrupted at the end of the Devonian Period by a partial regression, but deposition continue uninterrupted into the Mississippian Period. The Kaskaskia Sea reached its greatest extent about the middle of the Mississippian Period and late Mississippian sedimentary rocks of the basin mark its recession. This recession also marks the boundary between the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods in North America (Clark and Stern, 1960). These two periods now comprise the Carboniferous. The Mississippi Valley was covered by a clear, shallow, warm inland sea that advanced from the south. During this period, limestone was deposited to a total thickness of more than 2,000 feet in some areas. These limestone deposits occur almost continuously from Iowa to Alabama. The high bluffs along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis are typical of this deposit (Shourd and Wegenek, 1969). The Kaskaskia Sea extended from the west, eastward into the Mississippi Valley. The early Mississippian marine deposits are far in the west and they seem to represent a much longer record of the limestone deposition than anywhere else on the continent (Moore, 1958). From Kansas, eastward to the Ohio Valley, the early Mississippian deposits are relatively thin and lithologically somewhat variable. The prevailing lack of coarse sediments indicates that the adjacent lands were low. Shifting seas, oscillating sea level and the instability of the sea floor at the close of the Devonian Period and the beginning of the Mississippian resulted in a sequence of rock units that are interlayered and vary from one to another. As a result, geologists have found it difficult to make precise correlations between regions. Some beds with definite characteristics at one locality are considerably different even a short distance away. Also, some beds lack distinctive fossils and some contain no fossils at all, making age determinations difficult (Unklesbay and Vineyard, 1992). Thompson, (1986) has completely revised the Mississippian succession with new definitions of old units and the introduction of new ones. Throughout most of the mid-continent, the Mississippian is divided into four series; the Kinderhook, Osage, Meramec and Chester. In the Mississippian of Missouri, the oldest series, the Kinderhook, is followed by a thick limestone section comprising the Osage series. The Burlington Limestone is its most prominent formation. It was recognized in the mid 1800’s and named by James Hall (Moore, 1928) for its occurrence in the bluffs along the Mississippi Valley at Burlington, Iowa. It includes the beds which had been called the “Encrinital Group of the Burlington” and the reddish-brown “Encrinital group of Hannibal.” Present in nearly all major Mississippian outcrop regions in Missouri, the Burlington Limestone is widespread throughout the mid-continent region. It is known from Iowa to northwestern Arkansas and from western Illinois to western Kansas. It is present throughout Missouri, except in the Ozark Uplift where it has been removed by erosion. Differentiation of the Burlington with overlaying, lithologically similar Keokuk Limestone is often difficult or impossible, so the entire sequence of Osage limestones is sometimes identified as the Burlington-Keokuk Limestone (Thompson, 1986). In Missouri, the Burlington Limestone is exposed at the surface in Lewis and Knox counties, covers the larger portion of Shelby and Marion counties and is exposed in numerous places in Monroe, Ralls, Pike, Lincoln and St. Charles counties. On the south side of the Missouri River, the formation is found in the vicinity (west) of St. Louis and southward into Jefferson, St. Genevieve and Perry counties. North of the Missouri River, the Burlington forms an almost continuous south-facing escarpment. The outcrops of Burlington in Warren, Montgomery, Callaway and Boone counties are irregular and there are numerous outliers. The formation makes high bluffs along both sides of the Missouri River a short distance west of Jefferson City, extending up-stream to a point 2-3 miles south of Glasgow in western Howard County and is found in numerous other areas within the state (Moore, 1928). As observed in most exposures, the Burlington Limestone is an unusually coarse-grained, crystalline, crinoidal limestone. Its texture is sufficiently distinctive and persistent to permit recognition of the formation commonly on this

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Basis alone. The Burlington is almost entirely composed of the remains of various fossils, by far the most important of which are crinoids. Some portions of the Burlington, however, are not so evidently crinoids, for example, the so called “white ledge” quarried in northeastern Missouri. Parts of the Burlington also consist of thin, uneven cherty beds and cherty nodules (Moore, 1928). A large portion of the crinoid species are restricted to the Burlington Formation. The crinoids began to assume a front rank in the beginning of the Osage, as shown by the rich fauna in the Fern Glen and other beds. The Burlington contains a record of the continuation and acceleration of crinoid development; the clear, shallow waters of the Mississippi Valley being apparently a region of maximum differentiation and dispersal of crinoids exhibiting evolution along several line-species of Burlington-age, broadly distinguished from those of the Keokuk and the Warsaw. The Osage epoch marks the culmination of the great division of the crinoids known as the Camerata and it is remarkable that immediately following this maximum deployment, the group vanished. Crinoids flourished because they were filter feeders and most of the particles in the clear oceans would have been bits of food. They also needed warm water to produce their elaborate skeletons, since warm water can hold more dissolved calcium than cold, making it easier to precipitate (Thompson, 1982) One can imagine the crinoids growing in expansive marine meadows, rippling in the currents on their long, thin, graceful columns like garden flowers in the4 wind. On rare occasions, they were preserved whole, flattened to the bottom by a storm and quickly covered with lime mud. Unfortunately, the organic matter connecting the plates and columns of the stem nearly always rotted in the water and the pieces were scattered and sorted by the currents to form crinoidal limestone (Clark and Stearn, 1960). The Burlington Limestone contains more species of crinoids than any other formation in the Mississippi Valley. About 260 different species have been identified, some of which may be descriptions studied only casually. Brachiopods are next in abundance with about 110 species identified. Bryozoans are abundant in some beds but only a few species have been recognized. Blastoids are more diverse and abundant in the Burlington than in any other formation in Missouri with 33 different species identified. Colonial corals declined in some area but solitary corals were diversified and abundant. Gastropods, bivalves and cephalopods are rare. Sharks greatly increased in number and variety, which may have contributed to the decline of the trilobites as only a few “bug” species have been recorded (Shroud and Wagenek, 1969). Shark teeth are widely distributed, but rare in some beds. About 100 species are described from the Mississippi Valley but only 20 are described from the Burlington of Missouri. Additional Reading Branson, E.B.; (1944), The Geology of Missouri, Vol. XIX, The University of Missouri Studies No. 3. Clark, Thomas H. and Stern, Clint W., (1960), Geological Evolution of America, 2nd Edition. Moore, Raymond C., (1928), Early Mississippian Formations in Missouri, Missouri Bureau of Geology & Mines. Thompson, Thomas L. (1986), Paleozoic Succession in Missouri: Part 4 Mississippian System, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey.

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The Eastern Missouri Society for Paleontology (EMSP) is a Missouri registered not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the enjoyment of fossil collecting. It is open to all individuals interested in learning about the history of ancient life on earth. The club membership includes professional paleontologists as well as amateur hobbyists. The EMSP provides an open forum for the exchange of information and access to expertise on collecting, identifying, preparing and displaying fossils. EMSP meetings are held on the second Friday of every month (except July, August and December) at 7:30pm in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Building on the campus of Washington University. Each meeting includes an informal exchange of information and speakers on a variety of fossil-related topics. Weather permitting, field trips to fossil collection sites are held each month. Led by experienced collectors, these trips are a fun way to augment discussions at the monthly meetings. The club participates in joint field trips with other paleo clubs, visiting fossil sites throughout the United States. EMSP is also proud to be involved in partnerships with the St. Louis Science Center and the Greater St. Louis Association of Earth Science Clubs, Inc.

Eastern Missouri Society for Paleontology (EMSP)

P.O. Box 220273

St. Louis, MO. 63122

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