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Evidence of ancient meteorites found in Florida fossil clams


Auspex

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In 2006, University of South Florida student Mike Meyer found the beads during a summer project in the field, working with Florida Museum of Natural History invertebrate paleontology collections Director Roger Portell.

 

Very Interesting!
 

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Very cool!

 

The first microtektites in Florida and possibly the first found inside fossil shells.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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This article was brought up previously here. Some friends have been discussing this paper recently and one pointed out that the glass beads have the exact same chemical characteristics as reflective glass beads sold for use in paint for road center and side lines. 

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I have just emailed the paper's author, including photos of minute glassy spheres I had previously encountered in sorting Hawthorn Formation micro matrix. I am curious if he will see similarity to the material he was working with.

 

6 hours ago, Al Dente said:

reflective glass beads

Do you know if the manufactured beads are of a uniform size? 

 

Edit: I found the previous Forum discussion on "mystery beads."

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Here are pictures of manufactured glass beads:http://www.landscapusinc.com/TT-B-1325D-Type3-Glass-Beads.html

 

Most natural glasses/ tektites that I have seen are dark or green. I would guess that clear ones would be more likely man made.

63A867BA-D20C-43A3-BAE6-DB9F2864287A.jpeg

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2 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

pictures of manufactured glass beads

Excellent, your post and image answers the question about uniformity of size. It's easy to see that the man-made varies just like the spheres I recovered. However, some do not (at least in the image above) have that fused together appearance of two relatively equal sized spheres; nor do I see a sphere with even tinier hemispheres attached to its surface. Both of those conditions are extant in the Hawthorn material I found.

 

PTDC0084ac.thumb.jpg.5e520d377561b98b80a8c2211313d8e8.jpg

 

PTDC0089ac.thumb.jpg.77bd451aafa36dcfd18233fcdb879f1a.jpg

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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Hi All,

 

I'm the lead author of the 'Possibly Micro-tektites' paper mentioned above (let me know if you want a copy for educational purposes). We were all very concerned w/ contamination and this was brought up with the editors and reviewers during the publication process. The big sticking point is that we found these within articulated bivalves, and no one has been able to explain how they could have gotten in there (other than a general 'contamination'). However, till we find more of these materials at other sites, contamination is still a possibility. If anyone is collecting in a quarry and sees some sediment filled articulated bivalves, I'm always looking for more materials! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

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