This fossil occurs as a limonite crust on an iron-rich chert nodule. The nodule was found in a creek bed about 1.5 miles southeast of Berea, Madison County, east central Kentucky. It is most likely from the Lower Mississippian Borden Formation. However, there is a remote possibility that it could have come from the Devonian New Albany shale that outcrops in the creek bed a few hundred yards downstream to the east of the approximate collection site. The location of the collection site is not adequately known to rule out Devonian age. Multiple views are supplied in pairs: one with the centimeter scale and one without.
The Mississippian Borden formation consists of a series of red-green-gray shales and siltstones deposited generally in a prodelta setting. The Nancy Member, the most likely unit from which the specimen is derived, is primarily a greenish-gray to light olive-gray silty shale with few fossils (mostly scarce crinoid columnals and a few bryozoan impressions).
The Devonian New Albany is a thin laminated, fissile, black carbonaceous pyritic shale. Fish plates, conodonts, a few brachiopods, and plant fragments are the most common fossils. In general, the New Albany is generally considered to have been deposited in an anoxic basin. The equivalent Ohio shale in the Appalachian Basin eastward seems to be much deeper water, while the Chattanooga shale to the southwest along the Cincinnati Arch seems to be shallower water.
Current responses include:
If you have a guess as to what this might be, contact Brandon Nuttall
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