Friday, December 25, 2009

A Paleozoic Christmas Greeting



Merry Christmas to all and may Santa bring you lots of nice fossils!

For the curious this image is a composite of four different fossils.  The main tree body is an unidentified Devonian Period horn coral from the Jeffersonville Limestone of Clark County, Indina.  The tree trunk is a unidentified crinoid stem from Lake Cumberland, Kentucky (Mississippian Period, Fort Payne Formation).  The ornaments are Pentremites blastoids from Crawford County, Indiana (Haney Formation(?) and Mississippian Period).  The star is a crinoid stem cross section from the same area the blastoids were found at.  Artistic license was exercised with the fossil colors and illumination.