DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF WESTERN NEW YORK
EARTHCACHE REQUIREMENTS
Each cacher must send his/her own answers BEFORE logging a find. Enjoy the journey (learning adventure) as well as the destination (smiley earned). Remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints. To get credit for this Earthcache, complete the following tasks:
1. MESSAGE …. Based on the reading - The Devonian Period is also known as the ___________.
2. MESSAGE …. Based on your search of the talus ... a. How much time did you spend searching for fossils? ... b. How many did you find?
3. MESSAGE …. What fossils did you find? Use the picture to help you identify your finds.
4. LOG …. Post a picture of one of your finds. This picture is your log signature.
OPTIONAL - Please respect the time and effort involved in creating this earthcache by adding A and B to your log.
A. JOURNEY OF THE MIND ... Science explains what we observe. Relate (in your own words) something you found interesting in the reading. This adds to your learning adventure and your log.
B. JOURNEY OF THE HEART ... Art shares our personal experience of what we see. Share something special you found on site, and why it is special to you. This is a memorable addition to your log and will make other hearts smile.
Journeys of Heart and Mind ...
Stories to Touch the Heart and Puzzles to Challenge the Mind / Rainbow Tree Story
NOTE: Eurypterus is the official fossil of NY State.
18 Mile Creek County Park
Descend the path from parking to 18-Mile Creek. Walk along the creek to find fossil trilobites and brachiopods from the Middle Devonian ~385 Million Years Old. DO NOT DIG IN THE CLIFFS. DO NOT CLIMB THE UNSTABLE TALUS. Search only the talus (rubble) that has fallen at the base of the cliff. Because Western New York was once a shallow sea teaming with invertebrates, fossils are abundant in the shales.
During the Middle Devonian, a mountain building phase began when Avalon (ancient) collided into eastern North America (modern). This collision created the Acadian Mountain range. Rivers filled with sediments flowed into the Catskill Basin at the base of the mountains. The basin was flooded by the Kaskaskia Sea, which covered New York west of the Hudson river, as well as many other states down to the gulf of Mexico.
These sediments accumulated and formed the rock layers seen today in western New York. The most fossiliferous shale and mudstone is the Wanakah shale of the Ludlowville formation -and- the Windom Shale of the Moscow formation. Due to the warmer climate (New York was near the equator), the shallow sea was home to a flourishing fauna of trilobites, brachiopods, pelecypods, crinoids, cephalopods, and gastropods.
The Devonian period is also known as the "Age of Fishes." The fish of this time period were mainly cartilagenous so they rarely fossilized. However, the harder dermal armor, scales, and teeth did fossilize. These preserved parts are the major links to understanding fish of that time period and tracing the ancestry of most modern fish to this period.
ROCK-WATER RELATIONSHIP
The most common method of fossilization is called permineralization, or petrification. After an organism's soft tissues decay in sediment, the hard parts are left behind. Water seeps into the remains, and minerals dissolved in the water seep into the spaces within the remains, where they form crystals. These crystallized minerals cause the remains to harden along with the encasing sedimentary rock.
In another fossilization process, called replacement, the minerals in groundwater replace the minerals that make up the bodily remains after the water completely dissolves the original hard parts of the organism.
RESOURCES ,,, Fossil Guy http://www.fossilguy.com/sites/18mile/index.htm
Niagara Fossil Sites http://www.earlysunriserealty.org/fossils.htm ... "First, remember that the fossil record was almost completely scrubbed away by the advance and retreat of huge glaciers, which wore the soil and bedrock down to layers 350 million years old. This age, the Silurian/ Devonian, saw New York covered by the vast Potsdam Sea, dominated by trilobites and bivalves. People hiking or driving through Upstate New York will often encounter shale out- crops (the fossilized mud of the Potsdam Sea bottom). Dig a little! You never know what you'll find."