Museum Main Lobby
www.Lockport-NY.com
This is a
specimen of the Glyptocrinus family of the crinoid group in Rochester Shale.
These were filter-feeders as evidenced by the fan-like branches attached to
the crinoid head.
This particular specimen had to be carefully "teased" out of the rock using a dilute hydrochloric acid solution. Great care was needed in applying the acid solution to to the fact that specimen itself is composed of almost pure calcium carbonate which is soluble in the acid.
Such specimens might be found in the greater Lockport area wherever Rochester Shale has been freshly exposed.
Brachiopods are marine invertebrates in which the soft parts are enclosed by two deposits of shell, termed valves. They superficially resemble clams. They differ in that their shells are unequal in size and shape. These are extremely common fossils in both Lockport Dolomite and Rochester Shale. Pictures here are specimens from several different families, all found in the greater Lockport area. The reason Brachiopods are found as common fossils is because the "valves" originally were made of a composite material composed of Calcium Carbonate and Chitin as a layered structure with very high strength.
On exhibit
here is a relatively rare Brachiopod specimen which has broken free, complete, from
Lockport Dolomite. The reason for this rarity is that Lockport Dolomite usually
breaks through complete specimens. This particular specimen was found in the
Lockport Gulf, an area now preserved in the Grant Wilderness Park. The rock exposure where this
specimen was found is at a old railway rock cut formed by blasting, about 1957.
Pictured here is a relatively rare trilobite, the exact identification could not be made due to incompleteness of the specimen.
It is distinguished by its fairly unique pygidium (tail).
This is another specimen found in Rochester Shale which is common throughout the Lockport area. However, fresh exposures are difficult find.
These
three trilobites are of the family flexicalymene and are among those
trilobites found in the Rochester shale in the Lockport area. Their time
frame worldwide is the Paleozoic Ordovician-Silurian period. These, like some of
their cousins had the ability to roll up in a defensive posture and are
occasionally found fossilized in this position. Many trilobite fossils were
not the animal itself, but rather casts which were shed in order for the
animal to grow. It is thought that some species actually became extinct due
to an inability to shed the cast easily. Modern crabs, crayfish, lobsters and
horseshoe crabs all have well defined lines on their shells which split at the
appropriate time allowing the animal easy exit. This apparently was a feature
somewhat less developed in the trilobites.
Click Below...
To Go On...To The Next Fossil Gallery
or
To Return To Museum Main Lobby &
Reception Area
Lockport's Service Site On The
World Wide Web
www.Lockport-NY.com
THE PICTURE OF LOCKPORT