The material enclosed was collected from a road cut at the top of Robin Hill Road in Nashville Tennessee, from what is considered to be the Leiper's shale.  This corresponds to the Maysville group of the upper Ordovician, and has been dated using volcanic tuff to about 454 million years ago.  The sample was prepared in the following way:

1.  Roadside sediment was collected and filtered to remove material from .2 to 1 mm in size.
2.  The material was soaked several times in 10% acetic acid.
3.  Residues were then boiled in dishwashing soap to remove clay and clean the specimens.
4.  The resulting material was filtered and washed again, then mixed with sodium metatungstate at a specific gravity of about 2.8 -- to float off lighter materials, removing about 50% of the sample

This unstudied sample contains about 6 conodonts per gram, mostly large specimens, as well as a large amount of other biological materials representing microfauna in the shallow sea estimated at less than 30 meters in depth.  Species of conodonts may include Plectodina and Ozarkodina and other unidentified specimens.   Have fun!  -- JD