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Box of the week-University collections


LabRatKing

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Well, it’s Friday again so I’m digging though more ancient stockroom finds as I slowly get the new earth sciences lab put together.

 

Today, I found this gem of randomness. 

Guess I have to spend the day identifying and categorizing...:heartylaugh:

 

This part of my job is almost as fun as being in the field!

 

I do wish my predecessors had kept even basic records, but as you can see there is some fun stuff in there. The Chiplodocus and Fragmentadon bits are likely The missing Orella member bits from another inventoried box!

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5 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

Chiplodocus and Fragmentadon 

 

BAHAHAHA! I blew a gasket at that description!

Sounds like you are having fun in the stockroom. I love that your predecessor didn't take the time to provide locality, etc., but did see fit to write "Keep Upright!"

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The coral looks like it might be an Acrocyathus (previously called Lithostrontion/Lithostrontionella).  Silicified material like this can be found in Mississippian formations across Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc, and also in the West in several Rocky Mountain states and Canadian provinces, so an actual locality is impossible to guess from the specimen alone.

 

Don

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24 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

 

BAHAHAHA! I blew a gasket at that description!

Sounds like you are having fun in the stockroom. I love that your predecessor didn't take the time to provide locality, etc., but did see fit to write "Keep Upright!"

Yeah, it’s actually about five small universities worth of slackers over a fifty year period. As they closed up our crew had the presence of mind to grab everything before it went to the land fill. To date nothing has topped the 8gallon bucket labeled “spine,human, complete” witch actually contained that...in pure formalin!

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3 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

The coral looks like it might be an Acrocyathus (previously called Lithostrontion/Lithostrontionella).  Silicified material like this can be found in Mississippian formations across Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc, and also in the West in several Rocky Mountain states and Canadian provinces, so an actual locality is impossible to guess from the specimen alone.

 

Don

Sadly most of what I find here is like this, so it gets a basic ID. Very few of the specimens will likely ever have provenance, but I can turn them into excellent teaching displays!

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I coined both Chiplodocus and Fragmentadon after seeing @Troodons “chunkosaurus” term a while back. We also have quite a few spacklecephalus and Epoxysarus rekt specimens too.

 

there is so much cool stuff hidden away here I bet I can do a box of the week for the next few years.

 

I’m desperately trying to find a box listed in the old inventory binder that was labeled “Intro to Paleontology- GEO 305- Trex/Dieno/Tri Teeth” but I bet it was “borrowed” decades ago. There’s an old photo of that one being used in class and there is at least a dozen really nice specimens visible on the lab bench.

 

Afew of the older professors swear the is a near complete cave bear skull somewhere in this mess too!

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There is also about 2000 of the old Ward’s Science geology and paleontology specimens. Good news is most still have their numbers on them. Bad news is the label bases were all pot in a separate crate. I plan to make my minions(undergraduates) sort those out this winter.

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Also just a semi-educated guess, but the larger high-spired snail might be a Turritella mortoni.  a closer photo might (or might not) make an ID more solid.

 

Don

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Thankfully that one has a number on it, so eventually I should be able to confirm that! I’m saving what I judge to be the best of the unidentified stuff for future posts, and have permission to trade from the bulk specimens for other stuff in the future too. There are literally coffe cans full of blastoids and belemnites and shark teeth here. There are also Crown Royal bags of corals, crinoids and such. I was given full reign over the whole mess and am even allowed to ad a few to my personal collection. I’m limited I’m my overtime, so the department head said I should compensate myself accordingly which makes me feel guilty and giddy...but my request to hire a couple of techs has been ignored for years.(I have 5 labs right now, a greenhouse and arboretum complex under construction and a electronics/robotics/applied physics lab that starts construction in January I run solo with a few federal work studies)

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Check this out from another unlabeled box: prep work needed...had to go outside to get decent lighting! EDIT: found notecard under box flap that says “weeping water 1 of 6” 

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47 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

Check this out from another unlabeled box: prep work needed...had to go outside to get decent lighting! EDIT: found notecard under box flap that says “weeping water 1 of 6” 

 

what are we looking at?

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On 10/23/2020 at 2:01 PM, jpc said:

what are we looking at?

Me posting the wrong photo due to clumsy fingers on a new, unfamiliar mobile phone!

 

I'll fix that later today.

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"weeping water"? :headscratch:

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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2 minutes ago, daves64 said:

"weeping water"? :headscratch:

Weeping Water is a small town south of here (and a local colloquial name for the Deer Creek Shale formation) known for fossil echinoderms and such from the local limestone quarries.

 

The previous photo being a bad picture of something else I have yet to identify and cannot get good pictures of until this snow melts as it is in a 1.5 x .8 meter block and I need to do some matrix removal to expose more...

 

 

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