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Showing results for tags 'microfossils'.
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From the album: Harding Sandstone
Magnified 40x. -
From the album: Harding Sandstone
A closer view of the micromatrix in the vial. -
From the album: Harding Sandstone
Concentrated microfossil matrix from the Harding Sandstone. -
Back in May or so I got my hands on some micromatrix from the Harding Sandstone, CO, USA. This formation dates back to the Ordovician: ~450-475 mya. It's chock full of some really cool and important fossils. It has some of the earliest vertebrate material, and some of the earliest steps in the evolution of teeth! I hope this is an informative and fun look into an important period in life's history. If you feel I have mischaracterized something or have left out pertinent information, please do speak up! I do also plan to post more pictures as I sort through material. If there's something specific you would like a better view of, let me know. So without further ado, let's dive in! All the matrix I have came in this small vial (not all of it is in the vial - this is just what I still have to go through). It's been heavily concentrated. What you're seeing is a mix of shells, some sandstone bits, and vertebrate remains. The majority of the vertebrate material is from ostracoderms - armored fish whose skin was made of bone. They had no jaws, teeth, or fins. They look to me like a cross between an armadillo and a potato. Most of the fossils are of their skin-armor which was studded with "tubercles:" little bumps and ridges. These are important and we'll talk about them later. Also in the mix are scales from potentially the earliest sharks. It seems there is still debate on this, as they could also belong to another class of fish named the thelodonts. There are also the well-preserved "teeth" of conodonts. Conodonts were jawless, bug-eyed, hagfish-like animals.
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I am just wondering. Have anyone on here found microfossils from Flowerpot Shale/Formation? The age is Permian. I dug up a few kilograms of micromatrix from this formation in Woodward county, Oklahoma a couple months ago. I'll be using this topic to post any finds as time goes: although it would take me several months or years to go through it completely, depending on how busy I am. I still have three other different micromatrices to go through.
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So I make slides of microfossils from ~ <1mm - 2mm. I use a glue that I make with food grade gum tragacanth and water as was recommended to me when I first started. However, I have always found it a bit annoying to make, get the consistency right and keep properly, especially as I haven't been able to find any definitive guides to this. I'm wondering whether any of you use gum tragacanth as well and have a ratio/recipe/advice for me? Or if anyone has had good success (long lasting, dries clear, secure, fossil safe) with any other type of glue? Thanks!
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From the album: Post Oak Creek
I first identified this as P. mortoni, then Polyacrodus sp. And now that I have a full tooth of P. mortoni, I'm confident that this is P. mortoni.-
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I have very stubborn matrices from Kiowa Formation that I am trying to break down to look for micro-fossils and fossil teeth. I have tried vinegar baths and ultrasonic cleaner to break it down quicker but it's not helping much. Anyway, I am trying the freezing and thawing cycles this time to further break it down. For the last few days, I had it soaked in water for about 24 hours and then I put it into the freezer bag to freeze it, and then thawed it out after overnight. Before freezing, should I add extra water into the bag or are the matrices being damp good enough? Are there more efficient ways to use the freezing and thawing cycle method? Thank you.
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I'm in need of some of those small round coin "jars" that have the foam inserts. I don't have a lot of micros to display but I want to buy these in some reasonable quantity such as 50 to 100. I may not be searching with the proper name because I am having a hard time finding them online. Would someone share with me their source(s)? Thanks in advance, ER
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I try to identify any fossils on my own before I post it on here, that's how I learn! Anyway, I found these three shark teeth while pre-washing the matrices from Kiowa Formation (Location: Ellsworth county, Kansas. Age: Albian). A couple of them came loose during pre-washing and I found another one still in the matrix. Tooth #1: Is this tooth from Meristodonoides sp.? The views are from front and back of this tooth. Approximately 2mm long. Tooth #2: Is this also from Meristodonoides sp.? Approximately 3mm long. Tooth #3: Is this from Leptostyrax sp.? Front and back views of this tooth. Approximately 6mm long.
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- albian
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So recently I took a trip to the Jurassic coast in the nearby county of Dorset and I decided to share it with you and record it which I haven’t done before. The location I chose was Bathonian, Jurassic and was the Forest Marble formation. I’m sorry if my fossils seem a bit crude because I haven’t cleaned all the rock off them yet. Most of the fossils in this location are found by either processing the rock or looking on the big limestone boulders which are crammed full of brachiopods and bivalves. As I said, there are plenty of shells but the eventual vertebrate remains do turn up. Particularly sharks, fish, reptiles, amphibians and I know that this location is famous for its mammal remains. Here is a picture looking towards Eype and Thorncombe Beacon and I think that’s Seatown, Charmouth and Lyme in the distance .
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Help request! I am putting together a tool for judging rock age based on very crude, whole-rock, hand-sample observations of fossil faunas/floras -- the types of observations a child or beginner could successfully make. I view this as a complement to the very fine, species-level identifications commonly employed as index fossils for individual stages, biozones, etc. Attached is what I've got so far, but I can clearly use help with corals, mollusks, plants, vertebrates, ichnofossils, and the post-Paleozoic In the attached file, vibrant orange indicates times in earth history to commonly observe the item of interest; paler orange indicates times in earth history to less commonly observe the item of interest. White indicates very little to no practical probability of observing the item of interest. Please keep in mind that the listed indicators are things like “conspicuous horn corals,” purposefully declining to address rare encounters with groups of low preservation potential, low recognizability, etc. Got additions/amendments, especially for the groups mentioned above? Toss them in the comments below! Thank you..... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tVm_u6v573V4NACrdebb_1OsBEAz60dS1m4pCTckgyA- 5 replies
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- algae
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http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/neoproterozoic-fungi-microfossils-08049.html
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- 715 million year old
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Scientists use ancient marine fossils to unravel longstanding climate puzzle by Cardiff University https://phys.org/news/2020-01-scientists-ancient-marine-fossils-unravel.html Ancient marine fossils reveal how rising sea levels trapped carbon in the oceans preventing extinction-level global warming 14 million years ago. Fossil records suggest high levels of carbon was captured in ocean sediment. Significant volcanic activity had previously led to extinction level events. RyanMorrison, Daily Mail, January 9, 2020 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7869605/Ancient-marine-fossils-used-study-previous-global-warming-events.html The Open Access paper is: Sosdian, S., Babila, T.L., Greenop, R., Foster, G.L. and Lear, C., 2019. Ocean Carbon Storage across the middle Miocene: A new interpretation for the Monterey Event. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13792-0 Yours, Paul H.
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- antarctic glaciation
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Hello everyone, Recently @Shamalama showed me great kindness and generosity when he sent me some samples of matrix from three Devonian sites. This package arrived yesterday and I have slowly been picking out all of the tiny fossils. I want to use this topic to show off my finds. Here is everything I received:
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- devonian
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Nannodiamond plant microfossils created by extraterrestrial impact (open access paper)
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Shumilova, T.G., Ulyashev, V.V., Kazakov, V.A., Isaenko, S.I., Svetov,S.A., Chazhengina, S.Y., Kovalchuk, N.S., Karite – diamond fossil: a new type of natural diamond,Geoscience Frontiers, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2019.09.011. (open access) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987119301768 Yours, Paul H.- 1 reply
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- astroblemes
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From the album: Post Oak Creek
Micro shark teeth fossils found in micromatrix collected 9/28/19. Clockwise: The upmost orange one is nurse shark (Cantioscyllium sp.) with intact root, goblin (Scapanorynchus sp.), crow (Squalicorax sp.), Hybodus sp., and either Cretodus sp. or goblin. -
Hey y'all. I haven't seen anyone post about POC microfossils, so last time I was there I filled a sandwich bag full of gravel. I looked through it yesterday and found a bunch of neat stuff: sawfish oral teeth (see gallery), tiny sharks' teeth, vertebrae, fish teeth, mastodon ivory (?), bone, etc. There's this one tooth that I can't i.d. I'm not sure if it's sawfish, I don't think it's a shark. Thank you!
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From the album: Post Oak Creek
Tiny oral teeth from extinct sawfish. I haven't seen many posts about POC microfossils, so I decided to see what's there. I filled a sandwich baggie with gravel last time I was there and found these and a ton of other neat stuff. Scale bar ~ 1 mm.- 2 comments
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The first 8 are echinoids and echinoid spines, I have seen plenty of photos of them while researching forams. Doctor Mud.....I can not confirm it but I do think you may be right about the last two being some sort of echinoid, This thing is only about a half a millimeter in size, I can't find anything online that looks like it but will keep at it.
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How to properly dissolve matrix to reveal microfossils? Tips & tricks needed
ziggycardon posted a topic in Micro-paleontology
Hi, a few days ago I went on my first ever fossil hunting trip to Eben-Emael, a Limestone quarry in Belgium that dates to the Maastrichtian and is part from the type location (the historical ENCI quarry being only a 3,5 km to the north. The trip was orginized by the BVP (Belgische Vereniging voor Paleontologie) and a short report of the trip with phot's and some of the finds can be found in this topic by @Manticocerasman who I was lucky enough to tag along with, cause I doubt I would have found many mention worthy fossils without the guidance of Kevin. But since I am into microfossils I decided to collect some samples of the limestone without the obvious fossils home to later be able to look for microfossils as it should be quite rich. I think I have around 1 - 3 kg of matrix left to look for microfossils. But I have never myself dissolved matrix, and although it seems easy, I don't want to make any mistakes. During the trip they advised me on two different approaches, depending on what kind of fossils I wanted to find. One approach was dissolving in water and the other in vinegar, but now the seeming obvious question. How exactly do I do that? Should I just take a bucket of a glass, fill it halfway with said liquids and just wait? Or should I use a sieve and lay the block there so only fossils remain in the sieve and the rest goes to the buttom. Does the limestone just dissolve or does some kind of putty residu where the microfossils will be in? If so, how to properly remove the fossils when you pour out the liquids without pouring out the fossils? I know I have many questions and some might be very obvious and straigh-forward, but I really haven't done this before and I would like to do it the right way from start. So thanks in advance for any tips & tricks, I would really appreciate any help!- 4 replies
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- brachiopods
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These things are very small and difficult to find but I came across a stone that was littered with hundreds of forams and these spicules. I don't recall seeing anything that look like a sponge so I'm very curious as to why there were so many of these spicules being found in this stone that was found in a desert.
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Hoping some of the pros here are willing to share microfossil prep techniques or suggestions to journal articles on the subject. I have been hunting conodonts and the like for quite some time, but the glacial acetic acid digestion and pan and scan techniques have failed me. I experimented with HCl and H2SO4 in various concentrations, and even tried some ion exchange extractions ( which work on paper, but are lousy in practice)! This sort of fossil hunting has become vendetta for me and I suspect I am using the wrong search terms in the academic data bases. I'll be on an excursion until the 26th of July, but I'm going to try and check in here from Spanish Fork or Delta. (And hopefully have some non-nebraska samples to work with and turn my students loose on!)
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Another day hunting in Wyoming's Lance formation proved more successful than yesterday. Due to the high amount of rain Wyoming has been facing this year, many would be exposures were grassed in. We started at a channel deposit which was producing a number of bone pieces. Although bones were relatively plentiful, there were no spectacular finds with the best being a thescelosaurus vertebra found by another member of the group. My best find from this hillside was a section of Triceratops jaw, a partial crown found in the conglomerate where the fossils were eroding from. and some variety of small animal limb bone (reptile or mammal). Here are some pics from this site A hadrosaur spit tooth A piece of softshell turtle shell A bivalve The Triceratops crown After most of the people had left the site, I explored the surrounding area and found an anthill which proved to be very bountiful in the microfossils it produced. I found several small crocodilian teeth, a tiny myledaphus tooth, a gar tooth and a potential mammal tooth.
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