Quarry Picnic EarthCache
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This earthcache will take you to the Quarry Picnic area, one of several fossil areas at Hueston Woods State Park in Butler/Preble County, Ohio. Bring your wading shoes and your camera!
Park your vehicle and take a short walk down to Four Mile Creek. This area was named Quarry Picnic because of the gravel and rocks exposed by Four Mile Creek. There was never a quarry here.
What you see before you is a leg of Four Mile Creek that starts upstream in many small run-offs from farming land. It flows south towards Oxford and finally empties into the Great Miami River. The landscape here changes week to week due to rain and wind or lack of both. What you may see today will be changed the next time you pay a visit.
If you are quiet while you search you may look up to see a small Queen snake "eye-balling" you with her head sticking out of the water. She's harmless and will quickly swim under a rock when you approach. She's looking for local "crawdads."
You'll be looking for Ordovician treasures. The waters of the Ordovician sea was full of marine life. Some of these creatures would look familiar to us today, but others would look strange, for they have long been extinct. This abundance of life during the Ordovician period has made southwestern Ohio one of the best fossil collecting areas in the world. ~ -The Fossils of Hueston Woods, Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources.
We have Four Mile Creek's flow of water to thank for exposing layers of rock and soil which contain Ordovician fossils. This historic period began-according to some scientists- approximately 500 million years ago and lasted 75 million years. The climate of Ohio at this time may be compared to that of the Bahama Islands at the present time. The majority of Ohio's Ordovician rocks are limestones and shales, which accumulate under special conditions.
When these fossils died, the plants and animals were buried by mud, sand, or silt on the sea floor.
Buried bone and shell contain tiny air spaces into which water can seep, depositing minerals. Reinforced by these mineral deposits, bone and shell can survive for millions of years. Even if the bone or shell dissolves, the mineral deposits in the shape of the body structure remain.
See if you can one of the following fossils here along Four Mile Creek.
Brachiopods -- resemble clams, but their top and bottom shells are not identical; the top shell rises in the center, and the bottom shell is indented. The shells are wing-shaped, and have deep ridges.
Mollusks are most often represented by two members; pelecypods -- are similar to modern clams with two identical shells. Their fossils may include an impression of both shells, just one shell, or just the nut-shaped interior of the clam; and gastropods -- look similar to modern snails. Cephalapods -- are most often shaped like long cylinders wrapped in coils. Some are curled in a spiral like their modern relative, the nautilus.
Bryozoans -- were tiny individual animals that formed colonies often shaped like small twigs. Some bryozoan colonies are flat or fan-shaped with interesting textures.
Cnidarians -- are best represented in Ordovician limestone by the horn corals. These ancient corals lived alone, rather than in colonies like modern corals, and are shaped like a bull's horn. The horn coral was attached to the sea floor by the small pointy end and the top part had long tentacles that flowed in the water and caught food. It's these fossils that excite the little fossil collectors because the shape resembles what they picture as a dinosaur tooth!
Arthropods -- are best known in the fossil record through the trilobites. They ranged in length from a little over one inch to nearly one foot. Their oval bodies featured large bulging eyes and deep horizontal ridges along their backs divided length-wise by two deep grooves. Some trilobites are found rolled up, with their tails tucked close to their heads.
Echinoderms -- are most often found as a body part of a crinoid, or sea lily. The crinoid stem resembles a stack of disks forming a column. A five-pointed star shape may be visible at the end of the column, in cross-section.
The Ohio Division of Parks and Recreation does not usually permit collecting of any kind within state park boundaries. However, because Late Ordovician fossils are so abundant at Hueston Woods, collecting of fossils by individuals is permitted for their personal collections. Commercial collecting is strictly prohibited. Please employ good conservation practices while collecting; don't disrupt the landscape. This care will ensure that the collecting areas remain in their natural condition.
Karl E. Limper Geology Museum website (visit link)
To log this Earthcache, you must search the site & find at least one fossil specimen, and;
( a ) Email me with a description of your specimen.
( b ) Identify your specimen.
( c ) Tell a little about your fossil adventure.
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