Re: Hello!..and a question.

["Patrick Norton" <ptnorton@email.msn.com>]

Steve Brusatte wrote:

>Well preserved Ordovician nautiloids, corals, trilobites, crinoids,
graptolies, etc. etc. can be found in parts of Vermont and southern Quebec
(not quite New England). <

The Devonian Tarratine formation in Maine includes many documented
occurences of these taxa, except for nautiloids.

> The world's oldest known coral reef, a 500 million year old beauty, can be
seen on Isle la Motte in Vermont.<

Many taxa from this Mid-Ordovician reef can be seen in all their glory in
the black limestones used in the floors of the Maine State Capitol (see:
Norton, Patrick T. 1993. Fossils of the Maine State Capitol. Maine
Naturalist 1(4):194:203),

>Up in parts of northern Maine one may find the state fossil, Petralca
(sp.), which was an early vascular plant. <

The proper name is _Pertica quadrifaria_(Kasper and Andrews, 1972). It's
actually found in central Maine, in the Trout River formation.

PTN