Early Donations for the Fossil Teaching Sets

This past Friday I attended the monthly Dry Dredger meeting here in Cincinnati. I always enjoy these meetings, lovely people, great discussions, and people always bring interesting specimens to look at. The members of the Dry Dredgers are wonderfully generous people. They have on three separate occasions now, provided funds for my graduate research projects, various members are always giving me new outcrop localities to check out. Last night, members of the Dry Dredgers showed me overwhelming support for my Fulbright and some even donated some  fossils from their person collections to help with my Mobile Fossil Teaching Sets.

I wanted to take the time to thank these individuals and share with you all some of the early specimens that will be included in this set. The majority of the images below are of fossils donated by Jack Kallmeyer, President of the Dry Dredgers. In addition Jack, a number of other Dry Dredgers including Ron Fine and Steve Felton have offered to help fill in gaps in the teaching sets. I am extremely grateful to all of you.

Beautifully articulated Flexicalymene retrorsa donated by Jack Kallmeyer

Enrolled Flexicalymene retrorsa donated by Jack Kallmeyer

Cephalon of what I believe is an Allolichas or Amphilichas trilobite although I have never found one before myself. Specimen donated by Jack Kallmeyer

Pygidium of an Acidaspis trilobite donated by Jack Kallmeyer. I may have found a form like this once in the Waynesville Formation. Dr. Holland does confirm its presence there on his page.

Cephalons of what was labeled as a possible Achatella trilobite. It certainly has the eyes but I need to do more research. One of the added bonuses of this outreach project is I myself get exposed to some of the rare fossils and will be able to improve my own understanding of the local paleontology. Donated by Jack Kallmeyer.

Wonderful specimens of Isorophus cincinnatiensis, an Edriosteroidea and the Cincinnati city fossil. I have certainly never have found one of these myself. I don't think they have been reported from the Wayenesville but I will keep looking! Specimens donated by Jack Kallmeyer

A selection of Ectenocrinus simplex pieces. This is just one of a number of genera of crinoids that Jack Kallmeyer donated.

Aside from these specimens there are a number of others that I have added to the set myself including a number of Cincinnetina meeki, Vinlandostrophia ponderosa, Grewingkia, and Solenopora.

I also of course want to thank the friends and family who have donated monetarily on my Go Fund Me page. At the time of this post we are up to $230. These funds and any additional funds that people may donate will be vital in setting up worthy displays for these specimens.

Thank you everyone for you continued support and generosity and I welcome you to contact me if you have any questions about what this project is about and how you can help.