Late-Pleistocene & Holocene Macrofossils

[Peat Burns]

Here are a few pictures of late-Pleistocene and Holocene macrofossils recovered from lake and wetland deposits in the southern Great Lakes Region (sorry, not all photos have scales for size).  Hoping that @Doctor Mud will add a few from his investigations in New Zealand.

 

Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort) achene

 

Myriophyllum exalbescens (milfoil) turion in silt

 

 

Ephippium of a cladoceran (water flea)

 

 

Achene of Potamogeton  (pondweed)

 

 

Picea (spruce) body fossil with Castor canadensis (beaver) gnawing (ichnofossil) and beetle borings (ichnofossil)

 

 

Planorbella campanulata (snail)

 

 

Perca flavescens (yellow perch) scale

 

 

And just in time for Thanksgiving...

 

Oxycoccos macrocarpon (cranberry) fruit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[doushantuo]

Great post,pretty awesome photography! 

[Fossildude19]

Interesting and informative post!  

Great pictures.

Thanks for posting it.  

 

Although I may have to disagree with your ID of Ephippium of a cladoceran (water flea).

Sure looks like an alien skull, to me.  

 

 

[Peat Burns]

11 hours ago, doushantuo said:

Great post,pretty awesome photography! 

Thanks Doushantuo.  

6 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Interesting and informative post!  

Great pictures.

Thanks for posting it.  

 

Although I may have to disagree with your ID of Ephippium of a cladoceran (water flea).

Sure looks like an alien skull, to me.  

 

 

 

Hahaha.  Very clever. I am very embarrassed to say that I spent a couple hours flipping through seed identification manuals trying to identify that as a plant seed.  Sad part is that I deal with living cladocerans all the time, but I just had plant seeds on my mind I guess.  I'll never make that mistake again.

[Peat Burns]

Dr. Peat calling @Doctor Mud... This thread was your idea! Where's the New Zealand goodies?

[Nimravis]

Great Post, love the Perch scale.

 

[Plax]

here's an example form New Jersey

pleistocene algae.pdf

[Doctor Mud]

On 26/10/2017 at 7:25 AM, Peat Burns said:

Dr. Peat calling @Doctor Mud... This thread was your idea! Where's the New Zealand goodies?

I'll be along with some much better examples than my first post - not hard  interesting back story not much to look at!

 

For now we don't have a camera hooked up to the scope, but not bad for my iPhone held up to the eye piece.

 

 

This is a purse caddis fly larval case with the chitinous exoskeleton still preserved inside. Paroxyethira. I don't know if the emergence process of caddis flies leaves the larval parts behind or if this is a death assemblage.

 

These guys apparently loved deforestation by humans in New Zealand as they are very abundant in shallow lakes after burning that occurred since about 1300 AD by the first humans to arrive (Maori). They live on aquatic plants and eat the algae that grows on the plants. Delicious!

 

There are hundreds of these cases in post clearance sediments. And they are very rare beforehand.

 

This is 4 mm long.

[old bones]

These are great! I love the beaver gnawed spruce...and the details on the yellow perch (yum) scale.