Show us your most colorful fossils

[Denis Arcand]

I have started this discussion to get some answers to the following questions, but we can have also have some fun if you show us your most colorful fossils.

 

Can you explain why some fossils are gray and some are colored?

What are the process that give fossils  colors?

Can we deduce something about the environment the organism was living in ?

 

For example, the following fossils were found about 1 km apart in the Lorraine Group portion of the Nicolet River Formation near Montreal, Quebec. As you can see, the bottom plate is gray, very different from the colored fossils we see in the triangular plate. I read somewhere, that in this formation the color comes from the red clay, but I couldn't find much more information. I wonder if the colors of the fossils can give any hints about the environment the living organisms lived in, for example, although I found the two plates in the same formation, the two environments look different, the fossils found in red clay are usually different species and smaller but also in greater numbers.

 

Please feel free to post your most colorful fossils, I'm curious to see what color you have come up with

 

 

The following examples are taken from the same formation

Edited May 23, 2022 by Denis Arcand

[Denis Arcand]

The following link explain the the basic process of fossils colorization

 

Why Do Fossils Come In So Many Colors?

 

Some types and patterns of colors are highly sought after by collectors and greatly increases the value of a fossil. A mottled red shark tooth from the “Fire Zone” in Bakersfield will be much more valuable than a similar jet black tooth from South Carolina. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Denis Arcand

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

A few of my colorful shark teeth. One set from Colorado. The other is from Georgia. USA

 

 

 

[aldo66]

Already presented in identification but it also has its place here:
schizasteridae from the South of France

[Yoda]

One of my favourite Stromatolites - Mary Ellen Jasper 

 

 

[RJB]

  Here's a fossil with some color.  A friend of mine found this about 12 years ago.  I think he said it was Jeletkites?  Something like that.  anyways

 

RB

[mr.cheese]

This is my woolly mammoth scapula from the North Sea, there is quite a few colours in there. The back is just plain beige colour so the front has has something going on with it on the seabed!

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Slabs from the Cambrian age Conasauga Shale here in Georgia tend to be really colorful split by split. A lot of that has to do with Iron Oxides present in the rock IIRC. I know that for fossils in general their color is often determined by the mineral environments they get deposited in. These minerals can tell you a decent bit about where certain fossils were deposited (I recall that fossils with a lot of pyrite on them indicates that they were deposited in oxygen-poor environments). 

 

This is one of my better (and most colorful) slabs that I picked up at the old Murray county site of the Conasauga years ago. I'm beyond pumped I found another exposure for this.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by MeargleSchmeargl
Addition

[Kikokuryu]

Dinosaur teeth are generally not very colorful, and while the Kem Kem is known for beautiful colors, the teeth from Niger are also quite pretty with a mottled color of red and blue. I personally love the cookies 'n cream colors even though the black sections is just the matrix holding the tooth together. They somewhat remind me of Bone Valley shark teeth.

 

The big blue tooth is supposedly Jurassic without much context that I bought quite a while ago, but the small red tooth was mixed in with a bunch of Cretaceous Suchomimus along with a couple other red teeth. The preservation is very similar, so one of those ages is probably wrong. I'm leaning towards Jurassic.

 

[Rock Hound]

[Rock Hound]

[Rock Hound]

[Fin Lover]

I mainly find frags in this particular spot, but they are all pretty. Found 3 of these yesterday, the other 3 a couple of weeks ago.

[Bobby Rico]

Caloceras Johnstoni 

Watchet, Somerset, UK

 

The colour is created by Nacre a compound in the sea creatures shell like in a pearl . Nacre appears iridescent because the thickness of the aragonite platelets is close to the wavelength of visible light. These structures interfere with different wavelengths of light at different viewing angles, creating the beautiful  rainbow colours. Much like a light prisms.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Bobby Rico

[nala]

Eusphenopteris Carboniferous Northern France

Cavenderichthys talbragarensis Jurassic. Merrygoen Ironstone, Purlawaugh Formation. New South Wales.Australia

TRYBLIOCRINUS FLATHEANUS
Lower Devonian -
- Asturias - SPAIN

Isurus Planus mid Miocene Round mountain silt Form. Bakersfield California

orbignyiceras trezeense ( gerard et contaut 1936)Callovian  Montreuil-Bellay France

Edited May 22, 2022 by nala

[nala]

Glossopteris browniana. Permian. Illawarra Coal Measures, . New South Wales.Australia

 

Pachypteris crassa Halle, (Townrow, 1956) Middle Jurassic, Purlawaugh Formation. Merygoen Ironstone Farrs Hill, New South Wales Australia

Isurus hastilis and Carcharias taurus. Late Oligocene, Batesford Limestone.Batesford, Victoria.Australia

Productus sp Hikoroichi Form.Carboniferous Viséen Ofunato city Japan

Edited May 22, 2022 by nala

[Rock Hound]

[Kane]

Cross-section, pyritized nautiloid (Widder Fm). 

[opalbug]

A few bits of Opalized Wood from the Virgin Valley, Nevada

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by opalbug

[Lone Hunter]

Not sure how the gastropod hash ended up with pastel green but it's one of my favorites.  The Cretaceous bivalves are original shell, not very flashy with exception of a little gold nacre on one but color none the less in the sea of drab grey's.

[Bobby Rico]

Asaphiscus wheeleri from the Middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale (Red Beds) House Range, Utah.  It is a really interesting piece with the red mineral circular staining combined with a cast and the inside view of the shell of the trilobite showing . 

[Missourian]

Color patterns preserved on gastropods:

 

Euconospira sp.

Winterset Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Kansas City, Missouri

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: I adjusted each image to show a more natural appearance

[Coco]

Hi,

 

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

Asaphiscus wheeleri from the Middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale (Red Beds) House Range, Utah.  It is a really interesting piece with the red mineral circular staining combined with a cast and the inside view of the shell of the trilobite showing . 

Oh! Trilobites in orbit !

 

Coco

[Yoda]

Another of my favourites. 
 

Glossopteris

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

38 minutes ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Oh! Trilobites in orbit !

 

Coco

Haha very good