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This
specimen was found by John R. Keryk L.S.H.S. Class of ‘60 in Rochester shale of
Silurian period. The shale was dumped at the Lockport canal Dry Dock below the canal when
the locks were upgraded in 1910.
The specimen is that of a rare crinoid of the Ichthyocrinus family and is composed of almost pure calcite. This, like most fossils in Rochester shale, is a fossil formed by replacement of the original material calcium carbonate. In fact the "glue" that holds Rochester shale together is calcium carbonate.
When Rochester shale is exposed to acid, the carbonate ion in the rock is
changed to carbon dioxide leaving behind essentially clay (which is a lot like mud).
This process happens when the shale is exposed to even weak acid-like rain, so
Rochester shale exposed to the weather becomes clay and most of the fossils contained in
it just disintegrate.
Found in Rochester Shale formations near excavation
material for the Lockport Locks. This material had been dumped near the Lockport Dry
Dock along the north side of the canal in the Lowertown area between the two branches of
18-Mile Creek that come out of the canal at that point.
Seen on the left is a primitive attached echinoderm of the family Caryocrinites. This family lived from the middle Ordovician-Middle Silurian period. This period was approximately 450 million years ago!
This is a relatively rare fossil found in this condition. This of the starfish family and lived attached to a stalk with a root structure buried in mud. Crinoids still live in deep seas today.
The
specimen at the left is a pretty typical Trilobite which is a sub-group
of a group of animals called Arthropods.
Arthropods are invertebrates of highly varied form, distinuished primarily by a segmented organization of hte body and the possession of a hardened external covering with no backbone. Approximately 75% of all known animals, vertibrate and invertebrate, are Arthropods.
The specimen in the collection was found along the north bank of the Erie Barge Canal system at Lockport near the Dry Dock area in Lowertown. It was recovered about 1959 from rock debris that had been removed digging the new larger locks in about 1910.
The rock debris is still there with some of it having been distributed at various sites (usually bridge sites) along the canal. The exposed material, of course, weathers quickly (within three to five years of exposure) so that fossil prospectors would need to expose fresh rock from any debris collections they encounter.
The specimen shown is of the family Dalmanites. It came from Rochester Shale, of the Middle Silurian period. Specimens of this completeness are quite rare.
This
is a trilobite of the family Trimerus also found along in rock debris along the
canal in Rochester Shale.
This illustrates the size differential of this spieces. The smaller specimen is about two inches long.
The specimen on the left shows the manner in which shale splits along its bedding plane, splitting around the fosssil to reveal it relatively undamaged. This in apposition to fossils found in limestone which have a weak bedding plane and tends to split through the fossils.
As
the Pygidium is a structure which was cast off all in one piece, specimens of Pygidia of
various spieces are relatively common and therefore relatively easy to find in the greater
Lockport area.
They are even seen commonly in Lockport Dolemite rock (which forms the hard cap of Niagara Falls).
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