Insect with Compound Eye Fossil

This image shows an insect fossil with compound eyes. The fossil was found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period (66-23 million years ago). Thanks to Kenny for this microscope image. Field of view (FOV) on image is approximately 2 mm.

The second image is a similar fossil but FOV is 1mm.

Unidentified Flower Fossil

This image shows a unidentified flower fossil found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Kenny for the microscope image. Field of view on image is 1 mm.

Endothyra Foraminifera Fossils Revisited

In 2010, I posted some images of this type of microfossils found in Spergen Hill, Indiana, USA. This place is a type locality where this particular species was found and named in the literature first. Since my cousin Kenny recently acquired a new Amscope microscope I asked him to image some of these fossils for this posting.

These images are of foraminifera fossils from the Salem Limestone of Washington County, Indiana, USA. These creatures are called Globoendothyra "Endothyra" baileyi and existed 360-325 million years ago (Mississippian Period).

A very good write up on this particular fossil can be found on the Fossil Forum site written by user dshamilla. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/54262-revisiting-spergen-hill-indiana-and-some-of-its-mississippian-micro-fossils/

Thanks to Kenny for the images.

Drone Ant Fossil - Paleogene Period

This image shows what appears to be a drone ant fossil (see the wing). The fossil was found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period (66-23 million years ago). Thanks to Kenny for this microscope image.

Ant Fossil From Florissant Formation

This image shows what appears to be an ant fossil. The fossil was found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period (66-23 million years ago). Thanks to Kenny for this microscope image. Field of view on image is approximately 2 mm.

Unidentified Plant Seed Fossil - Eocene

This image shows a plant seed fossil found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Kenny for the microscope image. Field of view on image is 4 mm.

Aran Island Microscopic Sea Creature Remains

 Continuing with yesterday's posting about microscopic sea creature remains found near Killagoola, Aran Islands, Ireland. The first image is of an unidentified echinoid spine and the 2nd image is an unidentified yet colorful gastropod. Thanks to Kenny for the images. Neither specimen appears to be a fossil yet.

Foraminiferas from Ireland

I do not think these remains of microscopic creatures are fossils yet. Here are three images of some foraminifera found near the Plassey ship wreck, Killagoola, Aran Islands off coast of Galway, Ireland. They have a fields of view (FOV) ranging from 1-2 mm. Thanks to Kenny for these images.
Years ago, I traveled to the Aran Islands while visiting Ireland and it was a rough boat ride. Too bad at the time I was not aware of all the neat microscopic remains to found on the beaches.

Below is a map showing approximately where everything was found.

X-Ray of Trilobite Fossil

This trilobite is a Calymene sp. found in the Waldron Shale. The fossil was found in Bartholomew County, Indiana USA and dates to the Silurian Period. It was found years ago but it is small thus easy to x-ray. The x-ray did not reveal any thing new except the crack in the matrix that extends through the fossil. So maybe this was a molt. The genus was named by Brongniart in 1822.

If there had been internal remnants of a trilobite it might have looked something like below. It is a drawing done back in 1920 by Dr. Elvira Wood of the Calymene senaria Conrad.

Mayfly? Insect Fossil

This image shows an insect fossil (Mayfly?) found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period (66-23 million years ago). Thanks to Kenny for this stitched microscope image. Field of view on image is 2 cm.

Leafhopper Insect Fossil

This image shows an insect fossil (Leafhopper?) found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period (66-23 million years ago). Thanks to Kenny for this stitched microscope image. Field of view on image is 4.5 mm.

UPDATE: 2019-02-16  This image was first thought to be a Cicada but now it might be a Leafhopper (family Cicadellidae).

Improved Fly Fossil Image

This image shows an insect fossil (some sort of fly?) found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Kenny for the microscope image. Field of view on image is 5 mm.

He has been working on stitching images together of the same fossil thus allow higher detailed images.  Older image below:

See previous images of fossil fly here:
https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2019/01/fly-fossil.html

Redbud Fossil Leaf

This image shows a Cercis parvifolia (Redbud) fossil leaf found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch (56-33.9 million years ago) of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Kenny for the microscope image. Field of view on image is 17 mm.

2000th Posting + The Hidden Lophophore Fossil

I have made it to my 2000th posting and I thought I would write about something special. In the past, I have marked other milestone postings with reviews of favorite fossils or most visited pages. You can find links to those at the end of this post, if you are curious.

This post is about maybe a unique discovery that has not been documented yet. Recently, I was testing x-ray sensors and while one can x-ray keys, pens, paper clips or calibration targets while testing, I got a bit more creative. I started to x-ray small fossils in my test image batch. Almost all of the time they were solid with a consistent layer but every so often I would see some other hidden details.

While taking an x-ray of a Devonian brachiopod Productella spinulicosta (Hall, 1867, aka Spinulicosta spinulicosta), I discovered it had a tube like structure embedded in its fossil form. It appears to be some sort of lophophore (feeding tube). My research has not found other images of lophophores from this genus of brachiopod so maybe this is the first time it has been visually documented. In x-ray images the green arrow points to the lophophore, light blue arrows point to spines.

As for this blog, I thought I would eventually run out of material to post but I continue to visit museums and on rare occasions field collect. Also my cousin Kenny has a nicer microscope/camera system that is yielding amazing images of microfossils he has been collecting. So I seem to have a good source of material to write about in the near future. Thanks for reading.

Previous milestone postings:

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2009/12/500-fossil-posts.html

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-in-review-1000th-posting.html

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2018/07/10-years-of-blogging.html