Arizona Chris Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 HI all, Well, we finally got through the last batch of scrapings from the sides of the giant ant hills up east of Show Low in the Cretaceous Twowells Tongue of the Dakota formation. About 2 gallons worth of gravels were gone through, pinch by pinch and the finally tally of micro fossils can now be fully evaluated! In this last posting on this subject, Ill show a few microscope shots at 10x of some of the left over categories of what we pulled out of the tiny gravels brought to the surface by huge red fire ants. Only a few tiny sideritized gastropods were found. They are truly treasures. They are internal casts in the iron mineral siderite, and show a minor fauna in the underlying cretaceous limestones beneath the surface of the hill we were on. Here is a shot of the gastropods. Next, we have sideritized worm burrows. Many segments of these were found, and some of them had pointed ends. And while we spent many hours picking through the gravels with a 5x optivisor in a black gold pan, to alleviate boredom we often pulled out anything else that was interesting, like these awesome clear quartz gravels: Finally, a big surprise - half a dozen extant LAND SNAILS that were ultra tiny showed up in the fines. We did not expect these! Well, thats it for now. Until we get back to that area and find more fossiliferous ant hills where our insect worker fossil friends have pulled out more micro fossils for us, we bid farewell for now on this subject. Thanks for looking, its been fun! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona Chris Paleo Web Site: http://schursastrophotography.com/fossiladventures.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Nice finds for an ant hill. Thanks for sharing. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Very cool stuff! I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailingAlongToo Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 @MarcoSr Don't know much about history Don't know much biology Don't know much about science books......... Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Wow, those are really cool. and by the way, did you get attacked by any ants? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavialboy Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Very cool finds. Congrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Chris Posted July 4, 2017 Author Share Posted July 4, 2017 Thanks everyone! Only once did we get attacked, those suckers poured out to greet us with fiery fangs and quite an attitude! Fortunately, there were dozes of abandoned mounds to explore. We must get back and get more material. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona Chris Paleo Web Site: http://schursastrophotography.com/fossiladventures.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Nice photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase B. Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 Dear Arizona Chris, Congratulations on the wonderful microfossil finds. Regards, Chase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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