Metro Center - Lower Catheys Formation
2025 Rosa Parks Blvd. Park either in the Maxwell House (lot or in the McDonalds lot and walk
to the sidewalk on Rosa L Parks Boulevard.
Almost all of the fossils found here are corals Tetradidium fibratum or Columnaria aveolata.
You can also find examples of Stromatocerium pustulosum, an extinct class of reef-building animals
that was once considered a coral but is now classified with the sponges.
This is also an excellent site for finding calcite and gypsum crystals!
 
Colonial Coral:
Tetradium fibratum |
Colonial Coral:
Columnaria aveolata
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Brysoan
 
Bryzoan |
Calcite
Gypsum
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Ancient seas left behind "evaporates" that were leached away by groundwater to produce stable salts. Calcium Sulfate can appear in two forms -- as snow-ball like crystals of Gypsum, or flat plate-like flakes of Selenite.
Calcium carbonate can also accumulate as rhomboid crystals of Calcite.
The calcium in these all of these minerals was originally derived from the shells of marine animals that lived 440 million years ago.
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Selenite |
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TnFossils.com -- Fossils and Identification per Nancy Stetton |
