Wall displays in a museum. One gives general information about Black in Natural History Museums and the leadership team highlighting black naturalists. The other talks about the contributions of Cameron Muskelly, a self-taught paleontologist and science communicator. He's a young black man in glasses and a button-up shirt holding a large trilobite fossil in the photo they used.
Surprise @cambriancam.bsky.social spotting at AMNH today. Nice!
This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.
I got a sneak peak at this paper just over a year ago. Astounding material.
So much life in a tiny fragment of what was once the sea floor.
Cretaceous fossils, now found high in the mountains of Asfla.
#Fossils #Cretaceous #Paleontology #Travel
Diagram showing granite crust pulled left to right, creating a down-dropped graben in the middle that then is filled with feldspar-rich sand and dark mud, and then lots of basaltic lava (later metamorphosed to greenstone).
Fiddling around with a diagram (built in PPT) to illustrate mixed sedimentation + mafic volcanism in Neoproterozoic rift basins in Virginia. ⚒️
Pliosaur tooth found by a friend who took me into the mountains of Aslfa.
A marine repite.
Even at the top of a mountain, you can find remains of ancient marine life.
Estimated age: ~100–90 million years (Late Cretaceous).
#Fossils #Pliosaur #Paleontology
Welcome back to #FossilFriday
Here is Stromatolitic growth preserved in Chert. This comes from the Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician boundary within the Knox Group (Copper Ridge Dolomite) from Adairsville, Georgia. This will look amazing once I get this polished.
Today is Autism Acceptance Month! For those who don't know, I have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I was first diagnosed at the age of 8 or 9. Things were hard for me as a child. They are even harder for me as an adult on the spectrum. I have learned a lot about myself and my needs to cope.
Not really. It all depends on who you buy from and how to tell a real fossil from a fake one.
Welcome back to #TrilobiteTuesday
Here is Drotops megalomanicus. This comes from the Middle Devonian (Eifelian) limestones in Jebel Issoumour, Morocco. The white line is a vein of calcite running through the rock and the trilobite. If happened after the trilobite became a fossil.
A friend of mine also found this trilobite fossil. It’s over 400 million years old and still clearly preserved.
Lovely!
#trilobite #fossil #paleontology #geology
Not pyrite. Just mud that filled in the empty spaces.
I don't have my own polishing set. I used my rock club's polish wheel in their workshop. That is where I go to cut material as well. They have a lapidary saw room.
Rob is great. I've been watching is videos for a few years now.
Yep, Hexagonaria
I used my rock club's polish wheel in their workshop.
No, I used my rock club's polish wheel in their workshop.
Today, I polished my very first Petoskey Stone! It took me about an hour and a half to complete. I am very pleased with how it turned out.
Welcome back to #FossilFriday
Here is section of limestone full of brachiopods shells. There are at least 3 different types of brachiopods species featured here. This includes Cincinnetina, Glyptorthis and Rafinesquina. This comes from the Upper Ordovician Liberty Formation from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Welcome back to another #FossilFriday
Here is the marine gastropod (snail) of Turritella vertebroides. I collected this from the Late Cretaceous (Late Maastrichtian) Coon Creek Tongue of the Ripley Formation in Blue Spings, Mississippi. The original shell is still intact after ~71 million years. 🐌
youtu.be/Fsvdd5ks6c0?...
🍑 Sparkle Party! Garnet Grossular var. Hessonite. Locality: Jeffrey Mine, Quebec, Ontario, Canada. #garnet #hessonite #finecrystals #nature
Something different for #TrilobiteTuesday
This is an X-ray of a Chotecops trilobite from the Devonian Hunsruck slate near Bundenbach, Germany. The soft tissues were replaced with pyrite or fool's gold and are denser than the rock. The X-ray shows the denser material including legs and gills.
A friend found this pair of trilobites and I find them fascinating.
Two articulated specimens preserved together, showing very clear thoracic segmentation and a well-defined pygidium.
#Paleontology #Trilobite #Ordovician #Fossil #Geology #Travel
No prep at all actually. It came out of the shale just as you see it. Eventually I will need to clean it up to travel the brown shell underneath.
Large for this particular species.
Welcome back to #TrilobiteTuesday
This is a beautiful large enrolled Flexicalymene trilobite from the Upper Ordovician Arnheim Formation from Mt. Orab, Ohio.
Welcome back to #mineralmonday
These are beautiful red Spessartine crystals. This particular specimen comes from Fujian Province, China. Spessartine is a species of magnesium rich Garnet that can be deep red or orange in color. They pop out very nicely with the association of Feldspar and Quartz.
GREATLY appreciate the proper ID. Time to change the label.
