| INTERPRETATION: The label accom- panying the exhibit is not particularly informative, and certainly not designed for adult visitors, so the following is my inter- pretation. The slab at left is Phelps Waterlime, a finely-crystalline dolostone member of the Fiddlers Green Fm. found in the hills north of Illion, New York. The slab contains molted specimens of the eurypterid, Eurypterus remipes, that were most likely washed into a hypersaline environment during a storm event, and covered by saline dolomitic muds. The 'animals' are part of a windrow, a linear accumulation of animal debris produced during such storm events. The windrow is oriented from the upper right to the lower left. Such windrows are charac- teristic of all of the eurypterid deposits of the Late Silurian of New York State and adjacent Ontario, Canada. Salt hopper structures are often associated and are the principle upon which environmental interpretation is based. Similar alligned arthropods can be observed. on beaches today, eg. at Cape Cod, where crab shells accumulate in windrows along the shoreline. Molts of the horseshoe crab are collected together on the shores of Long Island. |
