Phyllograptus c.f. densus Graptolite Fossil Rarity from Utah

Description: This is the first and only good quality specimen of this genus found at the Giza digging site. It is complete and well preserved. I believe the genus to be correct for this specimen. The species declaration is only for comparison to a similar looking one found in the Lower Ordovician. of Slemmestad, Norway.

Without question the most productive graptolite area in the United States is the Fillmore Formation located in the Ibex area of Utah. Our quarry, the Pyramid Ridge Quarry has an abundance of graptolite genera. So far we have discovered about five genera. Published information is difficult to find and we are still in the middle of our research. We hope to involve interested academics in this process. Though our trilobites garnish the most attention, our graptolites should not be overlooked. The specialist collector will certainly be interested in our diversity of offerings of these enigmatic creatures.

Graptolites (literally translated "writing on rock") are an extinct group of Paleozoic colonial organisms, most often found as thin carbonized films in various shales or limestones from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous. It is believed that they were either planktonic (floating) or benthonic (bottom dwelling) in habit. They are classified in the hemichordates due to their affinity to a modern group of hemichordates, the pterobranchs, and it is believed that they were filter-feeders as are their modern counterparts. An entire graptolite colony is termed a rhabdosome, composed of a variable number of stipes diverging from the initial individual of the colony, the sicula. The small "sawtooth" like structures along the stipes are termed thecae (singular theca.

Millard County, Utah is famous for the quality, and quantity of its Middle to Upper Middle Cambrian period trilobites. The Ordovician period is also well known, but far fewer trilobites are known and available from these areas. The associates at Fossil Mall have recently leased the most famous and productive of the Ordovician quarry sites. We have named it the Pyramid Ridge Quarry. It is almost guaranteed that any Utah Ordovician trilobite in the world today has come from our quarry site. The trilobites are not common, and intense labor is required to extract quality specimens. We hope to provide you now and in the future with some of the spectacular fauna to be found at the Pyramid Ridge Quarry.