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Adventures In Microscopy


Missourian

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Ostracod mass mortality
Paraparchites sp.
Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian
Knob Noster, Missouri

2295-Knob-Noster-ostracods.jpg

2302-Knob-Noster-ostracods.jpg

The largest are about 1.5 mm in length.

Edit: This appears to be Paraparchites sp. (possibly Paraparchites mazonensis). It is virtually identical to specimens shown in a publication on a Mazon Creek species:

 

Mazon-Creek-Paraparchites.jpg

 

(Sohn, I. G., 1977. Paraparchites mazonensis n. sp. (Ostracoda) from Middle Pennsylvanian ironstone concretions of Illinois.)

Context is critical.

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Fish regurgitation or coprolite

Muncie Creek Shale, Pennsylvanian

Kansas City metro

 

This phosphatic concretion contains a jumble of fish bones, scales, plates, spines, and whatever else:

 

2355-Muncie-coprolite-hand-scale.jpg

 

The detail is exquisite:

 

2332-Muncie-coprolite-jumble.jpg

 

A close-up of a complex skeletal element of some kind:

 

2324-Muncie-coprolite-detail-cells.jpg

Context is critical.

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More....

 

A jumbled mess:

 

2347-Muncie-coprolite-plate-pile.jpg

 

Stack of 'plates':

 

2368-Muncie-Coprolite-plate-stacks.jpg

 

Close-up of some intriguing details:

 

2372-Muncie-coprolite-plate-detail.jpg

Context is critical.

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Thats a great regurgitate/coprolite.... Very detailed... These puzzle me to....masses of preserved organic matter some displaying parts of insects or shells, that have all ended up mashed up in a pile in some form of phosphatic blob in a nodule.... Some look like coprolites and have a form but some dont and these we attributed it to fish, regurgitating the undigested parts of a meal.... I know sharks can do this...The problem with this idea though is if it was carried out under water... perhaps the waste material regurgitated would be very quickly diluted and maybe even have spread out more thinly by the time it reached the bottom of the river system, and wouldnt end up in a 'localised spot ' tofossilise...so then we thought possibly lungfish in the margins or possibly even amphibians...I know amphibians very often regurgitate when frightened... maybe they could even be coprolites that have 'spread and opened' after being soaked in the slow moving margins of the river system of a levee...... the great regurgitate mystery...Ive found one containing a spider body,arthropod & millipede bits, bivalves and an amalgamation of allsorts...

I ran it by Joe Botting and he told me this....

The problem, as you say, is how to keep them in intect masses (whether coprolites or regurgitates), but there are a couple of options:

1) they were deposited under very quiet conditions, and bound together by bacterial or fungal material, so that when the current increased enough to deposit lots of sediment, they stayed intact. Such biofilms are known to have happened around, for example, some graptolites under different conditions.

2) The deposition of sediment was rapid enough that the structures didn't have time to break up. Once buried, they should be relatively intact until the nodule grew, I'd have thought.

I reckon the key will be in the phosphatic surrounding material - if it's made of minute, but ground-up particles, then it probably was coprolite. If it's simply phosphatic mineral material, then it may well be caused by microbial growth over the remains, which makes it more likely to be a pile of regurgitated bits.

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Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... :)

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On 1/22/2013 at 4:57 AM, Terry Dactyll said:

I reckon the key will be in the phosphatic surrounding material - if it's made of minute, but ground-up particles, then it probably was coprolite. If it's simply phosphatic mineral material, then it may well be caused by microbial growth over the remains, which makes it more likely to be a pile of regurgitated bits.

 

Some of the phosphatiic matrix near the fragments does have a granular texture. This can be seen in the second image.

Context is critical.

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Like the ostracods!

Collecting Microfossils - a hobby concerning much about many of the little

paraphrased from Dr. Robert Kesling's book

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Hi Missourian, very cool stuff, I wonder if you've ever tried using your loupe over the lens of your cell phone. Works great.

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On 1/22/2013 at 10:07 AM, turtleguy said:

Hi Missourian, very cool stuff, I wonder if you've ever tried using your loupe over the lens of your cell phone. Works great.

 

I haven't tried that yet.

Context is critical.

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Cross sections of sponges

 

Fissispongia sp.

Argentine Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Clay County, Missouri

 

The sponges are 3 mm across:

 

2379-Argentine-sponges.jpg

 

Close-up:

 

2404-Argentine-sponge-Tubiphytes.jpg

 

The white encrustation is probably Shamovella sp. (a.k.a. Tubiphytes). According to one source, this problematic organism could be cyanobacteria, a sponge, or a hydrozoan.

Context is critical.

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Great stuff Missourian! I'm really enjoying your images and your fossils, keep em coming! :popcorn:

"They ... savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things."

-- Terry Pratchett

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A couple more spiders....

8 mm body:

post-6808-0-26141000-1358496700_thumb.jpg

10 mm body:

post-6808-0-11276100-1358496707_thumb.jpg

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

Very nice!!!

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Preserved gut contents of an Ichthyosaurus communis.... Possibly fish teeth and squid hooklets...

post-1630-0-20061400-1358952285_thumb.jpg

Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... :)

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On 1/23/2013 at 8:45 AM, Terry Dactyll said:

Preserved gut contents of an Ichthyosaurus communis.... Possibly fish teeth and squid hooklets...

 

Nice. What's the scale?

Context is critical.

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Nice. What's the scale?

Average hooklet length 2 - 3 mm....

Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... :)

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Fern frond details

 

Neuropteris sp.

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

 

411-Knob-Noster-Neuropteris-2-marked.jpg

 

2430-Knob-Noster-Neuropteris-1.jpg

 

2442-Knob-Noster-Neuropteris-3.jpg

Context is critical.

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Very nice... I havent looked at my plants yet... blimey... Its like having a new collection....

Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... :)

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On 1/24/2013 at 0:05 PM, Terry Dactyll said:

Very nice... I havent looked at my plants yet... blimey... Its like having a new collection....

 

Indeed, though up close, most fossils look like a worn highway surface.

Context is critical.

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Crustacean tails

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

 

Acanthotelson sp. (~15 mm wide):

 

2472-Knob-Noster-Acanthotelson-tail.jpg

 

Paleocaris sp. (5 mm wide at base):

 

2478-Knob-Noster-Paleocaris-tail.jpg

Context is critical.

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Juvenile eurypterid

Adelophthalmus sp.

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

post-6808-0-14781100-1356512602_thumb.jpg

post-6808-0-11911100-1356512598_thumb.jpg

It is 17 mm from head to telson.

Oh my gawd! Too cool!

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine

"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else."

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Arthropod?

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

 

I'm hoping some Mazon Creek fans recognize something here....

 

2498-Knob-Noster-undt-1.jpg

 

2549-Knob-Noster-undt-4.jpg

 

The fossil is 23 mm in length.

Context is critical.

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More of the same specimen....

 

Close up of 'head':

 

2514-Knob-Noster-undt-2-head.jpg

 

2531-Knob-Noster-3-head.jpg

 

Close up of 'legs':

 

2556-Knob-Noster-undt-5-legs.jpg

Context is critical.

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Insect

Gerarus sp.

Upper Cherokee Group, Pennsylvanian

Knob Noster, Missouri

 

31-Knob-Noster-Gerarus-1.jpg

 

Thorax and wings. The head may be buried in the nodule on the right:

 

2567-Knob-Noster-Gerarus-1.jpg

 

Abdomen and wings:

 

2586-Knob-Noster-Gerarus-2.jpg

Context is critical.

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Gerarus sp. continued....

 

Combination of the two images above:

 

2567-2586-Gerarus-whole.jpg

 

Nodule counterpart:

 

2598-Knob-Noster-Gerarus-3.jpg

Context is critical.

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Polished slab of fusulinid hash

Beil Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Osage County, Kansas

 

048-Beil-Triticites-polished.jpg

 

This area of the slab is outlined by the green box in the first image above:

 

2662-Beil-polished-3.jpg

 

A section on the other side of the slab:

 

2628-Beil-polished-2.jpg

 

The Beil fauna is relatively diverse. Visible in this sample are fusulinids, a possible sponge, coral, bryozoans, crinoids, and mollusks including gastropoods and pelecypods.

 

Fusulinids are prominent on the weathered side of the slab:

 

2676-Beil-polished-side.jpg

 

The fusulinids average about 2 mm in width.

Context is critical.

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