Sunday, October 30, 2011

Isle of Wight Charophyte


These pictures represent my first attempt at photographing a charophyte fossil.  The microscope is using a mixture of Celestron lens for a telescope to get different magnifications.  The one used for these pictures is 46x.  This specimen is from the Isle of Wight off the coast of England.  It is probably from the Eocene or Oligocene.

Looking at a paper by Monique Feist-Castel entitled Evolution of the Charophyte Floras in the Upper Eocene and Lower Oligocene of the Isle of Wight (1976), this fossil might be some sort of Harrisichara sp.

 Read the paper on-line:  http://palaeontology.palass-pubs.org/pdf/Vol%2020/Pages%20143-157.pdf


Thanks to Dr. James Conkin of Louisville, Kentucky for letting me take pictures of this specimen.




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