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2200 E. National Road
Richmond, IN 47374 |
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| Walking
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| (765) 983-7275 |
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A Fossil Hunter's Guide
Whitewater Gorge Park
The Whitewater River has cut the Whitewater Gorge into an
ancient limestone and shale layer named the Whitewater
Formation. Most of the recognizable fossils in the Whitewater Formation are from
skeletons of animals that lived about 435 million years ago on the bottom of a warm
shallow sea that covered this area. Wave action in this ancient environment broke
many skeletons before they were buried in the soft muds and later turned to rock.
Where to Look for Fossils
The Gorge Park sites labeled on this map (34K) are easy to find
and have produced many very nice specimens. Other favorite sites include the large
US 27 road cut one mile south of Richmond.
Look for the best and cleanest specimens in
rubble piles near the bottoms of slopes along roads and creeks where nature and time have
gently washed them from the hard rock. Excellent, delicate specimens can be found
firmly attached to small collectible slabs in these rubble piles. It is never a good
idea to hunt fossils too near roads, to steep banks or to crawl or hunt on or below
cliffs.
Fossil hunters must be careful of automobile
traffic and should always obtain permission before exploring private property.
Fossils may be collected from rubble piles in Whitewater Valley Gorge Park.
There were many kinds of animals living in
Richmond's ancient ocean. Some fossils, like clams, snails, and corals, are familiar
to us because they are common animals in modern oceans. Other types, like the water
filtering brachiopods and twig-like or sheet-like colonies of tiny bryozoan individuals,
are not so familiar to us because they are not obvious animals in modern seas. Still
others, such as the bug-like trilobites, have become extinct, and it is hard for us to
understanding what they were like or what they did in ancient seas. No fossil of a
backboned animal has yet been found in the Whitewater Formation.
Common Gorge Fossils
|
Brachiopods
(Brack/-ee-oh-pods)
- Many kinds are found in
the Gorge's Whitewater formation. fossils have two, hinged shells and many
specimens show a small round or triangular hole in the shell near the hinge. A stalk
protruded through this hole and fastened an individual to something on the sea floor where
it filtered food particles from the water.
|
 |
| Bryozoa
(Bry-oh-zoh/-ah) - Are related to and fed like brachiopods, but individuals were
much smaller and lived in tiny, pin-sized pores which can sometimes be seen in the smooth,
ridged, or bumpy surfaces of the best twig-like or sheet-like fossil colonies. |
 |
| Bivalves (By/-valves) - or Clams, most of which wandered around filtering food from
water, were very common. There were many kinds. Most did not have an easily
preservable shell; thus most fossils are impression on the bottoms of bryozoan colonies
which grew over them, or mud filings which hardened after seeping into a shell that was
not quite closed at burial. |
 |
| Snails - Like bivalves, most had shells that dissolved soon after burial.
fossils are mostly shell fillings or impressions. Cyclonema was one local
snail which had a preservable shell. Fossil snails, like their modern cousins,
crawled around the bottom scraping algae and other small food particles from rocks and
plants. |
 |
| Corals - Were common, but there were not very many kinds. Most were
large, horn-shaped shells, but some lived in Colonial, encrusting sheets, like bryozoa.
colonial corals have star-shaped pores which are much larger than those of bryozoa.
Fossil corals, like modern ones, did not move around, but captured larger food
particles from moving seawater. |
 |
| Trilobites (Try/-low-bites) - Were mostly small, bug or crab-like scavengers that found food
on and in the bottom muds. Sometimes trilobite tracks and burrow fillings are found.
Like modern insects and crabs, trilobites shed many jointed skins as they grew, but
these fragile skeletons were easily broken apart by wave action. Usually only pieces
are found. |
 |
Material from the Whitewater Valley Gorge Park "A Fossil Hunter's
Guide" brochure distributed by the Richmond
Parks and Recreations department
.
|
