At these coordinates you will find a monument in honor of Winter M Green. This monument is chock full of fossils and rocks. To get credit for this earthcache, please send me the answers for the following questions:
1. Measure the largest horn coral fossil you observed. I need the size in length and width.
2. What is the approximate age of these fossils?
3. Are these fossils tabulate or rugose coral?
4. What other fossils do you see? Name at least one other.
5. Please post a picture with your log of yourself, your gps, or another personal item with the church in the background. This is for confirmation that you were there.
6. Submit your answers BEFORE you log the cache.
HORN CORAL FOSSILS
Based on these fossils, we know that the corals began their evolutionary history in the Middle Cambrian, more than 510 million years ago. In Kansas, they are fairly common in Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks, deposited from about 323 to 252 million years ago.
Two groups of corals were important inhabitants of the Pennsylvanian & Permian seas - Tabulate and Rugose Corals. Tabulate corals were exclusively colonial and produced Calcium carbonate skeletons in a variety of shapes (moundlike, sheetlike, chainlike, or branching). Tabulate corals get their name from horizontal internal partitions known as tabulae.
A common characteristic of rugose corals (from which they get their name) is the wrinkled appearance of their outer surface. These corals may be either solitary or colonial. Because solitary rugose corals are commonly shaped like a horn, these fossils are sometimes called horn corals.
Tabulate and rugose corals are common in eastern Kansas. Rugose corals are especially common in the Bell Limestone Member of the Lecompton Limestone in the vicinity of Sedan, Kansas.
TABULATE CORAL
RUGOSE CORAL