Fun with Flourescence

[I_gotta_rock]

A couple months ago, the Mollusk Collection Manager at at the museum where I volunteer introduced me to Architectonica shells under black light. This afternoon, the two of us rummaged through the spare shell cabinet to see what else might fluoresce nicely. What's in your closet?

 

 Architectonica sp., Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Arcinella cornuta, Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Cymatosyrinx acinica, Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Scaphella sp., Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Turritella plebia, Miocene, St. Leonard, Calvert County, Maryland

[Pumpkinhead]

Spooky

[Mediospirifer]

Cool stuff!

 

I'll have to paw through the fossil drawers with my UV lights. I know I have a few fluorescent fossils (amber, oreodont teeth, Mercenaria clam with calcite, some Australian gastropods); I'll have to check things out and see what else is! Then I'll have to play with the (frequently uncooperative) camera to (try to) get some decent photos.

 

This will take a while.

 

Hmm. On a quick check of my "Fluorescent Minerals" layout (from our mineral club Open House), I find amber (yellow and blue), copal, three different coral fossils, the aforementioned oreodont teeth, Merceneria, and Australian gastropods, a Leptomeryx (rabbit-sized deer) skull, a Carpopenaeus (shrimp) fossils from Lebanon, shark teeth,

Petosky stone, and petrified wood!

 

Here's a (normal light) image of the entire layout. Most of these are minerals:

 

 

They're not all highly fluorescent, but they all do something under one or the other of my lights.

 

[Miocene_Mason]

Cool little experiment!

[Fossildude19]

Very cool!

Thanks for posting this. 

I had no idea.  

[erose]

The Scaphella is beautiful.

[JohnBrewer]

18 hours ago, I_gotta_rock said:

A couple months ago, the Mollusk Collection Manager at at the museum where I volunteer introduced me to Architectonica shells under black light. This afternoon, the two of us rummaged through the spare shell cabinet to see what else might fluoresce nicely. What's in your closet?

 

 Architectonica sp., Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Arcinella cornuta, Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Cymatosyrinx acinica, Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Scaphella sp., Pliocene/Pleistocene, Florida

Turritella plebia, Miocene, St. Leonard, Calvert County, Maryland

They're cool! Maybe we can see the fossils under white light for comparison?

[I_gotta_rock]

1 hour ago, JohnBrewer said:

They're cool! Maybe we can see the fossils under white light for comparison?

Here are two for a start.

[JohnBrewer]

Wow, what a difference. I use blacklight and UV of different spectrums at work. I can see some procrastination soon. 

[thelivingdead531]

I'm curious to know what camera and lens you used for these photos. The photos are amazing! 

[Ludwigia]

Very interesting and also beautiful. I understand that fluorescent light brings out different colors depending on a number of factors like mineral substance, etc., but would you be able to explain the various phenomena in a bit more detail?

[I_gotta_rock]

19 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

I'm curious to know what camera and lens you used for these photos. The photos are amazing! 

 

Cannon 80D with a 28-80 stock lens and an extension tube for the close-ups of smaller shells. The important thing is not so much the camera model as the fact that I have a camera that can be set manually. I have it set for a 5-second exposure at f/14 at ISO 1600 (?). The aperture is important. You need a wide depth of field because the UV light does not focus in the same range as visible light. You need some leeway. Any camera should work for a fair-sized shell, as long as you have a tripod and the manual controls.

Edited September 7, 2017 by I_gotta_rock
added detail

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Jean-Michel Pacaud has written several publications on this subject : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Michel_Pacaud

 

Papers are in french language, but pics speak better ! I believe to remember myself that he uses some bleach on the fluorescent shells before crossing them under the UV lamp, what strengthens the reactions of the shells which have this faculty to be fluorescent.

 

Coco

[thelivingdead531]

Thank you @I_gotta_rock. I haven't photographed anything like this before. Thank you for providing me with details on your process. I figured aperture and ISO would be the biggest factors. I have a tripod, but have still yet to get a remote, it's been on my Christmas list for a few years now lol.  And you're right, camera models don't matter so much, as long as you know how to use them. I was just curious as I'm a Nikon user myself.

[I_gotta_rock]

7 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Thank you @I_gotta_rock. I haven't photographed anything like this before. Thank you for providing me with details on your process. I figured aperture and ISO would be the biggest factors. I have a tripod, but have still yet to get a remote, it's been on my Christmas list for a few years now lol.  And you're right, camera models don't matter so much, as long as you know how to use them. I was just curious as I'm a Nikon user myself.

If you want to avoid camera shake and don't have a remote, put it on the self-timer. That will delay the exposure long enough for the camera to stop shaking from pressing the button.

[thelivingdead531]

Thanks, I've only done that a few times in the past for things like lunar shots. I never thought it would work for fossils too. 

[I_gotta_rock]

56 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Very interesting and also beautiful. I understand that fluorescent light brings out different colors depending on a number of factors like mineral substance, etc., but would you be able to explain the various phenomena in a bit more detail?

I wish I knew. I am new to this aspect. I can tell you a few observations from what I've done the last two days:

1) The only shells that showed any real patterns were the Plioscene/Pliostocene shells plus one Miocene, the turritella and a couple Chesapectens that had retained some of their visible light coloration.

2) Of the other Miocene shells I tested (all from the same formation and locality), the few that glowed at all either glowed solid yellow, glowed yellow on certain distinct parts, or glowed a mottled red and yellow. Two teeth glowed yellow on the enamel.

3) Miocene clams seem to glow pretty consistently at the attachment points and to a lesser extent anywhere the animal sat inside the shell.

4) Most of the gastropods that glowed were brightest yellow where the animal rubbed against the shell. 

5) Of the Cretaceous shells I tested (all from the same formation/locality), only three oysters and the insides of the belemnites glowed at all. Pycnodontes and baby Gryphias glow inconsistently yellow. Exogyras glow yellow where the inner shell material is exposed from breakage, but anything exposed to the environment/matrix long-term did not. One mold glowed yellow, probably from shell residue.

6) There was one Miocene Ecphora that glowed a vivid orange over one side. It was not from my collection and I have no idea where it came from. My Echporas are dark. I don't know what the stand-out might have been sitting on or in to glow like that.

 

I'll post pictures in my Florescent Fossil album as I take more.

 

 

[Adam86cucv]

Very cool never would have thought about shells reacting.  We saw the florescent minerals display at the museum when we were there back in July.    

[I_gotta_rock]

@JohnBrewer, this is what your new barnacles will look like under blacklight.

 

I spent a happy afternoon photographing more fossil shells. Most of what I observed above is not holding up. Hey, it was only one day and a small sample. What I found was a lot more beautiful! More going in my album when I finish playing.

[I_gotta_rock]

@thelivingdead531,make sure you set your color balance for daylight. Otherwise the camera may ty to correct the colors back to white.

One more, just for laughs, while I process the rest.

[Nimravis]

I always bring a black light with me to fossil shows when I am looking to purchase White River Mammal material- the black light will show if the item- i.e. Skull, has had any type of restoration.

[thelivingdead531]

Thank you for the advice. Stunning photos! I look forward to seeing more.

[sTamprockcoin]

I check everything I collect  with my dual wavelength UV light often. I've had to work hard to convince my neighbors I'm not totally crazy. I had a "friend" try to sell me a beautiful assemblage of ammonites prepped out on matrix. My blacklight revealed that the whole thing was a construction using lots of glue mixed with rock dust and I passed and lost an acquaintance. Unfortunately my UV fun sometimes reveal other distortions of the truth - we won't even talk about the "diamond" and "rubies" in my wife's engagement ring. I recently have been collecting in an old Lead/Zinc area and some of what looks like iron stains have been shown by my SW UV to actually be sphalerite washes. Manny of the fossils I collect flouresce since they're calcitic replacements. Sorry for rambling but I love areas where hobbies overlap and UV happens to be one way many can.

[Pagurus]

Do any of you have a recommendation for a UV light? I've seen cheap ones for about $40. Do these really work, even 3 or 4 inches from the specimen? Are there 120 volt models that work well and are reasonably priced?  I have some fluorescent minerals I collected in the Franklin NJ area that I'd like to show off now and then. I'm also curious about some of my fossils. I had a good hand-held plug-in light for a long time, my dad bought it for me about sixty years ago, but it disappeared with my baseball cards and most of the rocks in my parents' basement quite a long time ago.

[I_gotta_rock]

Just found a good article descibing some technique.  Not much to add about recording flourescence, but he does soak his shells in a 50% bleach (Chlorox) solution overnight and has some interesting explanations of some of the things influencing coloration. He also takes it further by digitally reversing the colors to get something resmbling the original patterns in a natural color.

 

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120924