Leptestia sp. brachiopod & Cryptocrinites sp. cystoid from St. Petersburg

I'm always on the lookout for new brachiopods for my collection and this Strophomenid type caught my eye when posted on E-bay. It's from the Ordovician aged rocks near St. Petersburg in Russia. The seller had it identified as "Leptepsia sp." but as I had never heard of that genus I did some digging on Google. What I came up with was a paper written in 1969 by T.N. Alihova. Unfortunately it's mostly written in Russian (cyrillic alphabet) so I can't easily translate it but the names of the genera and species are in the latin alphabet.

The title of the paper is "СТРАТИГРАФИЯ И БРАХИОПОДЫ СРЕДНЕОРДОВИКСКИХ ОТЛОЖЕНИЙ МОСКОВСОЙ СИНЕКЛИЗЫ" which translates roughly (via Google Translate) to "Stratigraphy and Brachiopods of the Ordovician Deposits of the Moscow Syncline".

So, in summary, I believe this is Leptestia sp. from the Aseri stage, Middle Ordovician, Vilpovitsy Quarry, St Petersburg.

Oh, and there is a cystoid on the piece as well that was labelled as "Cyclocrinus sp." which I find suspect as well. A little looking around on the website Fossiilid.info gave me a possible match in Hemicosmites sp.. Update 5/14/15 - Thanks to the comments on this post I now believe this to be Cryptocrinites sp.

Giant Cylindrotheutis Belemnite from Russia

This a giant Belemnite from Russia that is called Cylindrotheutis sp. It's the largest that I've ever seen! It comes from near the town of Mikhailov in the Ryazanskaya Oblast region of Russia (south of Moscow). It is  Jurassic in age (Callovian stage) but I can't find much more info about them.

For perspective, this first specimen is 6.25" (16cm) long and 1" (2.5cm) wide at the open end.

You can see a trace of the Phragmocone left inside the former living area.

Odds and ends fossils from St. Petersburg, Russia

This is the last of my posts regarding fossils from the Ordovician rocks near St. Petersburg, Russia for now. The fossils I'm showing today are partials and lesser examples that don't merit a full blog entry.

First up is this odd looking piece which I believe is the interior of a pedicle valve from a strophomenid type brachiopod.It has the characteristic half-moon shape and I think that the relief seen near the one side of the fossil represents some muscle scars.

Next is this Graptolite which may only be a part of a larger colony. The rounded end does look like it is supposed to naturally occur like that but the other end seems to have extended farther at one time.

Lastly is this cast of a cephalopod. It is interesting because of the slanted or spiral like pattern. This could be an impression of the exterior decoration of the shell rather than the usual internal vertical chambers. Three sides are preserved with the fouth filled with Calcite.

Hopefully I'll get some more fossils from the St. Petersburg region in the future. I don't have enough to really compare to those that I've found in here in the US or Canada.

Lonchodomas and Illaenus trilobites from St. Petersburg, Russia

I'm winding down on my Ordovician fossils from Russia. Today we have some partial trilobites from the Ordovician aged rocks near St. Petersburg, Russia.

First up are three partial specimens of Lonchodomas volborthi from the middle Ordovician (Dapingian stage of the ICS, Volkhovian stage locally) of Putilovo quarry, St. Peterburg region, Russia. Two are thorax and pygidium specimens:

The third is a partial cephalon that is missing it's spines. There should be one on the tip of the glabella and one each coming off the side of the cephalon. I am very interested in the fact that there are two differently colored areas on the sides of the glabella that are mirror images of each other. It seems that this is not uncommon for this genus from this location either as evidenced by specimens that are posted on the PaleoArt.com (Saint Petersburg Paleontological Laboratory) website.

The chunk of rock that the cephalon is on has quite a few Ostracods preserved in it as well.

The second trilobite I have to show today is Illaenus sp. (Dapingian stage of the ICS, Kunda stage locally). I don't know the exact location for this specimen as it came mislabeled as Asaphus lepidurus. It is not in the best shape but I received it as part of a trade so it will have a place in my collection until I can afford a better specimen.

There are 30 different species for this genus listed on the Baltoscandian Fossils website here, so I don't know if I will ever be able to nail down the species on my specimen. Looking at the first picture of this specimen reminds me of the Thaleops cephalon I found in the Verulam fm. in Canada.

Leptaena sp. brachiopod from St. Petersburg, Russia

Another of my recently acquired fossils from Ordovician of St. Petersburg, Russia is this Leptaena sp. brachiopod.  Looking through the Baltoscandian Fossils website there are a large number of species listed for this genera. Based on the shape of the shell this could be Leptaena rhomboidalis.

Pedicle valve

Anterior (note that the left side of the valve is broken away)

Right profile

Posterior