Identification of Vertebrate Fossils from the Middle Devonian in Central-Eastern Kentucky

Identification of Vertebrate Fossils from the Middle Devonian in Central-Eastern Kentucky

Biology

Flatt, Amanda

2019-2020

Falk, Amanda (Mentor)

English

Central Kentucky is home to the Boyle Formation, dated to be from the Middle Devonian. While vertebrate fossils have been identified in the geologically younger rocks of the knobs regions of Kentucky, and invertebrate fossils have been identified from the Boyle Formation, there are no vertebrate fossils described from the Boyle formation. The purpose of this research is to determine if vertebrate fossils exist in this locality as well as identify these vertebrates. This will inform our understanding of the environment in central-eastern Kentucky during the Middle Devonian. The identification of the fossils was performed by qualitative comparison of the extracted fossils against the known fossil record. This led to the tentative identification of the first fossil as a placoderm, as well as possible identification of the second fossil as a rib or neural spine fragment.