PFOOLEY Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Scott--- VERY nice leaf/nut combo Agreed. Quite spectacular. "I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" ~Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) New Mexico Museum of Natural History Bulletins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Paul, Carmine, Mike, Thanks! Here are a couple of fun Eocene plant fossils from two formations with names that sound like a matched pair. It's not very often that you can mention the Chuckanut and Chickaloon in the same sentence, so there you go. Sabalites ungeri Chuckanut Formation Northwestern, Washington Mixed Fossil Flora Chickaloon Formation South-Central, Alaska 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nala Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Spectacular collection Scott! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Thanks Gery! More Autumn-colored Oligocene flora from Oregon: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 I love the way you save both part and counterpart. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted February 21, 2014 Author Share Posted February 21, 2014 Thanks Roger! Although I don't collect minerals, this spectacular large mass of conjoined fluorite is a centerpiece in my fossil room. This massive mineral measures 18" x 12" x 10" and tips the scale at 65 pounds. It was excavated from the Cave-in-Rock District of southern Illinois by the W.L.Davis / Deardorff Mining Company, which operated from the early 1930s to the early 1960s. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Scott, I hate to see you suffer with such a large mineral on display, basically distracting from your extraordinary fossil collection. Since I collect both, I'm willing to give that fluorite a good home. Does it fluoresce? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Scott, I'm still working with just the 2nd drool rag.....Associated acorn beautifully preserved, meg chunks of fluorite....So, I'm think'n I'm gonna need some medication after these last sets of installments! Gonna have to hit the dang creek again tomorrow to assist in relieving the condition! Thanks for the continuing show! Very NICE stuff!! Regards, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 That is amazing sir! The display cases, lights, and even a DINOSAUR!!!! I love your fish, trilobites, amphibians plants… they are all spectacular! It's hard to find a museum with such a fantastic display where I live. Wait…come to think about it.…THERE ARENT ANY!!!!!! Great collection!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Gus, Chris, TRex, Thanks! The next update is a wonderful assortment of Paleocene plants from the Fort Union Formation of Montana. The most unusual and fascinating plant is the compound floating water foliage of Trapa angulata which is a member of the water chestnut family: Trapaceae. Also attached for comparison is an identification key from Brown, 1962, and a photo of a typical modern habitat for Trapa that is regarded nowadays as an invasive species. Eucommia serrata Taxodium olriki Platanus reynoldsii Carya antiquorum Metasequoia occidentalis Trapa angulata Brown, R.W. (1962) Paleocene flora of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. USGS Professional Survey Paper, 375:1-119 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyrannosaurusRex Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Oh my goodness they are beautiful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Thanks TRex! Now I'd like to show a few of my best volcanic items of interest. This ropy lava is called Pahoehoe (pronounced: pa-hoy-hoy) from the Hawaiian word meaning, "smooth and unbroken". The first group was collected from private land just outside the Craters of the Moon National Monument along the Snake River Plain in southern Idaho. The most recent lava flows from COTM are estimated to be 15,000 - 2,000 years old. pahoehoe (photo scale all = actual size) Next is a two for one special; Volcanic Ventifact. One of the volcanologists at UO evaluated the composition and confirms it to be a dense mafic-intrusive that cooled slowly within the magma column. Once it became exposed at the surface, wind erosion and sand-blasting etched the two distinct facets which designates this as a Zweikanter (two-faceted) ventifact. Other ventifact types include Einkanter (one-faceted) and Dreikanter (three-faceted) that are typically pyramidal in appearance. Large, stable ventifact formations, not subjected to movement, in conjunction with confident dating methodology, can be utilized as paleo-wind indicators to interpret the differences in prevailing winds over time. The next two are very colorful and interesting pieces; the green gem is peridot / olivine encrusted in a vesicular basalt bomb. The blue specimen is another example collected on private land just outside of the Craters of the Moon National Monument along the Snake River Plain in southern Idaho. This type of lava specimen is called blue-glassy or Blue Dragon pahoehoe. The blue-glassy lobes form 10-14 days after the base of inflation and 5-10 °C cooler than adjacent silvery lobes of pahoehoe. Other distinct differences are a dense crystalline interior and fluorine-deficient surface that indicate blue-glassy pahoehoe was stagnant for a considerable period within the lava tube system allowing vapors to separate before extrusion. (photo scale all = actual size) volcanic ventifact peridot / basalt blue-glassy pahoehoe The last group of classic volcanic bombs (ejecta) are sure to please the hardcore volcanology enthusiasts. The first one is the elusive breadcrust bomb and named for the cracked upper surface that is a solid cooled outer shell in flight but is shattered as hot gasses continued to expand from within during flight or upon impact. The next one is a textbook fusiform (spindle) bomb characterized by the elongate and streamlined aspect as formed and solidified during in-flight orientation. The spindle also has an explosion feature; the hole shown in spindle photo 1 represents a hollow chamber where hot gas inside the bomb blasted out. These really are... Da' Bomb! (photo scale all = actual size) breadcrust bomb spindle bomb Craters of the Moon - Lava Types 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Fascinating! Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Nice specimens, and I like the Lava Types chart - informative things like this are always appreciated as well as your own showcase! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NZ_Fossil_Collecta Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 the dinosaur is definitely an example of your golden drool bucket award..... drool drool drool i went for 5 minutes. I'm CRAZY about amber fossils and just as CRAZY in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Hey Scott, Yep, more wonderfully great plant material and then you had to pull me into extrusive igneous rocks...No, No, No. I wont go willingly! Dont you dare show pillows and aa... Just kidding, though I did have to fight off a sudden unpleasant flashback of drawing minerals in microscopic thin section using colored pencils and a not so well executed igneous rock exam, but I'm ok now! Fantastic stuff! Regards, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Thanks again to everyone for all the great comments. More to come as I continue to get everything updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexx Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 This collection blew me away in 2010. Meanwhile I have seen my share of high quality fossils. But guess what? This eclectic high quality collection still blows me away! Congrats Piranha, this is quite an achievement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Anyone heard much from Scott lately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoWilliam Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Great collection!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 Anyone heard much from Scott lately? is Scott the man known as 'piranha'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 is Scott the man known as 'piranha'? Yes, sir. ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cris Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 He posted HERE yesterday and I was just reading some of his excellent posts on the Tyrannosaurus/Nanotyrannus thread from not long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bone guy Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 On 11/11/2010 at 10:58 PM, piranha said: Here's the gar - old picture but I'll repost a new one when I get to that shelf. It's only 47cm but easily one of the best and a hands down top 10 favorite. The E.O. Wiley monograph has a outline drawing of an oblique lateral skull (AMNH P.4302) that I swear is the doppelganger of my fish. (attached) this one came directly from Jim Tynsky in Kemmerer and has less than 1-2% resto. (half of a scale(X2) and a few mm of a fin ray) His shop is next to the original JC Pennys store - a great place to check out if you ever make the trip RE: Wiley, E.O. 1976. The phylogeny and biogeography of fossil and recent gars (Actinopterygii: Lepisosteidae). University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Miscellaneous Publ. 64:1-111. Crimmy! That's a stunner! I've always considered GRF gars as amazing fossils. It's simply incredible how many cool things come out of that lake! Gars, stingrays, and fish, oh my! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted August 22, 2018 Author Share Posted August 22, 2018 I have some new displays and odds and ends to add to this thread. I'm always busy with other research projects, but hopefully in the near future I will find some time to post all the updates. Thanks again everyone, for all the great feedback over the years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now