Florescent Ammonites

[PFOOLEY]

I was trying to create an awesome photo for my avatar and decided to share this little story. I took a "scorpion" black light on a camping trip to the Rio Puerco where I regularly collect ammonites. After dark, I found the calcite eroding from broken nodules would "glow" under the light... made me wonder if ammonites would "glow"...

[Paleoworld-101]

Very beautiful

What species is this?

[Wrangellian]

So you are using UV to hunt ammos at night?

[Missourian]

So you are using UV to hunt ammos at night?

I was just thinking of that very question. Some day... I mean night, I'll give it a try.

[Terry Dactyll]

Would you believe it....Looks great....

[nala]

Very beautiful !

[Uncle Siphuncle]

wow i'll need to try that on my texas cutters

[mikeymig]

I have a big polished cephalopod from Morocco that is Phosphorescent. I will hit it with a uv light and it will glow for a few seconds afterwards. Do you have any teeth from Oreodons, Poebrotherium, Mesohippus, or other Oligocene mammals? They fluoresce orange and we tried collecting them at night in the Badlands but it didn't work out to well.

Mikey

[erose]

I have a variety of fossils that fluoresce. Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk, Petoskey stones, one or two layers in the Cincinnatian to name a few. Most are calcite, but of course not all calcite glows.

[PFOOLEY]

Hello everyone. I am glad you liked the ammonite. To answer your questions: the species is spathites puercoensis, a very common ammonite to the areas I collect. I did indeed try to collect them at night with little success (one broken peice ). The calcite infill floresces the best, though there is a faint "glow" in the suture patern on the exterior. I have not collected any mammal teeth, but have found some of the ptychodus teeth from the area to "glow" orange. Pretty cool. I did use the black light in the badlands and found a few peices of dino bone where the mineralized marrow would floresce red. I am not sure of the wavelength these little L.E.D. black lights use, but if interested, they work very well for finding scorpions! Quite amazing how many there were, and you would never notice them in the day. Keep your boots off the ground at night, and happy collecting!