Cyrtospirifer whitneyi brachiopod from Iowa

A brachiopod that is well known from the upper Devonian is Cyrtospirifer. Below is a specimen of Cyrtospirifer whitneyi from the Lime Creek formation of Iowa (Devonian, Fransian stage).

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Several specimens together to show size difference between specimens.

I've found specimens of Cyrtospirifer in the rocks of the Lock Haven formation(PA)/Wiscoy formation(NY) but only as external shell molds in fossil shell hash.

Schizophoria iowaensis brachiopod from Iowa

Schizophoria appears to be a long lived genus with Paleodb.org listing occurances from the Silurian through the Carboniferous. The specimen below is Schizophoria iowaensis from the Lime Creek formation of Iowa (Devonian, Fransian stage).

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It's overall shape reminds me of a Rhipidomella sp. except that Schizophoria has a much more convex brachial valve.

Tenticospirifer brachiopod from Iowa

Tenticospirifer is a triangular shaped brachiopod that reminds me of Cyrtina a lot. These specimens came from the Lime Creek formation (Devonian, Fransian stage) near Rockford, Iowa. The planar shape of the posterior indicates that these brachs likely lay flat on the seafloor or other surface and just flopped the brachial valve open to feed.

Specimen #1

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Specimen #2

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I purchased these specimens from an auction on E-bay.

Platystoma gastropod from Iowa

My friend Nathan gave me a bag full of fossils from the Lime Creek formation (Devonian, Fransian stage) that he collected at the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve near Rockford, Iowa. Included in the sample were these two steinkerns (internal shell molds) of a Platystoma like gastropods.

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Specimen #2

Thanks Nathan for the fossils!

Strophodonta? from Iowa

Here are a couple of specimens from the Cedar Valley formation (Devonian, Givetian stage) of Iowa that I think are Strophodonta. I'm not entirely sure of the species or if I even have the genera correct.

Specimen #1

Specimen #2

There are a few different genera of Strophomenid type brachiopods that are found in the Devonian rocks of Iowa and some of them can be seen at my friend Nathan's Imgur page.

Pseudoatrypa and Independatrypa brachiopods from Iowa

The ubiquitous Pseudoatrypa makes an appearance in the rocks of the late Devonian (Fransian stage) Lime Creek formation of Iowa. It gets fairly large, as is typical of the genera,and a little wider than some.

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Different specimens to show variety of sizes and shape.

There is another species which looks very similar to Pseudoatrypa called Independatrypa independensis which has since been reclassified as Desquamatia (Independatrypa) independensis by Williams et al. in 2002. It's found in the Cedar Valley formation which is late Givetian stage of the Middle Devonian in Iowa.

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Some grew to very large proportions

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Sample of the largest Desquamatia (Independatrypa) independensis I have with a typical Pseudoatrypa.

All the specimens shown above were purchased from this seller on E-bay.