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The Earth Science to Dumpster Intercept


Biotalker

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Imagine working for a year in a small college science department and there was a room you vaguely knew was there but didn’t have the keys to and never saw anyone going in or out. Then one day, campus grounds workers open the door, and you inquire what is going on. You discover it is an old earth science storage room (earth science hadn’t been taught there in many years) and everything is to be discarded the next day into the dumpster to make room for some new purpose. It’s a room about 15 feet by 20feet packed with boxes on shelves filling the space up to the ceiling. It is a dusty disordered mess. You don’t have the authority to put off the clean out. What would you do?

 

Exactly, cancel all plans and stay up all night sorting out the room and triaging the best stuff.

 

So that’s what I did. Not heroic like running into a burning building to save children, but someone had to do it.

 

Even with several trips I could only take a small percentage of the material but most of the fossils. Most were labeled, some had numbers on them but there was no accompanying key, and many had no identification at all. Perhaps 2% of the material was fossils, and it was scattered throughout the room, like some sinister easter egg hunt with every minute ticking down until the morning workers showed up.

Here then, are some of the unlabeled and unidentified fossils I recovered. Some are obvious, others less so. I thought TFF members might have some fun with this.

 

# 1

61776041_unk1a.jpg  854328388_unk1b.jpg

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I would love to know the location of that dumpster. Did you call in reinforcements? I can only imagine the pressure you experienced 

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Hi,

 

I can't help you, but with all these pics, it would be good to numerote them... And on some fossils there’s a number, which probably means there was a catalogue somewhere at some point.

 

Coco

----------------------
OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici

Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici
Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici
Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

Badges-IPFOTH.jpg.f4a8635cda47a3cc506743a8aabce700.jpg Badges-MOTM.jpg.461001e1a9db5dc29ca1c07a041a1a86.jpg

 

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Firstly I congratulate you in rescuing these fossil from the landfill. Please number the specimens on this post so when your reading or writing a replies it is easy to know what is been talked about.  
 

I am also known to go dumpster diving in my time . I have rescued Bell jars, 1950s science posters, metal tripod stands, filling cabinets and even some art work from 1960 that was very popular with the ‘A’ list celebrities  John Lennon, Jaqui Dupre, Thora Hird, Haley Mills, Jack Palance and Charles Bronson or collected here work. 
 

cheers Bobby 

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Okay. Got a big chunk of half rotten spruce rolled in that should keep my brush fire going a while. Let's get the mall out and start here.

Top down, by specimen.

1 - Metasequoia 

2 - The texture underneath looks a bit like lung fish tooth. The piece looks like it's being processed somehow.

3 - I see the geometry of syringopora, but the texture is so obscured it has the look of a feeding trace at the same time. I think a closer look is called for.

4 - I pigeon hole as a helispiral gastropod.

5 - Angiosperm leaf.

6 - Neuropteris  

7 - Lacking context I have to say ostracod is the likely candidate.

8 - Psaronius type tree fern.

9 - Bivalve. Mussels 

10 - Tree fern. I'm thinking a dryer ground species.

11 - Herbaceous Paleozoic plant ?

12 - Stigmria 

Ta da 

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1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

Hum . . . If you can keep your, , , while all others are, , , 

Am I missing something ?

 

I sometimes find your posts a bit confusing.  

 

6 minutes ago, jdp said:

No way is 2 a lungfish tooth.

 

3 looks like graptolites

 

I agree with # 3 being graptolites: 

 

Cropped, rotated, black and white reversed, and back-lit. 

 

 

1195325686_unk3.jpg.fa83d0bbbe7ef57b2208c083764398ac.jpg

 

 

 

 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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# 4 looks like Turitella agate. 

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    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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29 minutes ago, jdp said:

No way is 2 a lungfish tooth.

 

Didn't say it was. Said it had the texture of one. I see now that a spiral (serpulid/gastropod) shell appears on what ever it is.

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45 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Don't you like a challenge ?

I do.  Sometimes more than others.  :P

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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