Pycnodus platessus Fish Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This fish fossil is called Pycnodus platessus (Blainville). This specimen was found at Monte Bolca, Veneto, Italy. It dates to the Eocene Epoch, Paleogene Period. Catalog number is MCZ6248 or VPF-6248.

https://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/guid/MCZ:VP:VPF-6248

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Lates gracilis Fish Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This fish fossil is called Lates gracilis (Agassiz). This specimen was found at Monte Bolca (Verona), Veneto, Italy. It dates to the Eocene Epoch, Paleogene Period. Catalog number is MCZ5369 or VPF-5369.

https://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/guid/MCZ:VP:VPF-5369

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Ephippus rhombus Fish Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This fish fossil is called Ephippus rhombus (Blainville). This specimen was found at Monte Bolca, Veneto, Italy. It dates to the Eocene Epoch, Paleogene Period. Catalog number is MCZ5379 or VPF-5379.

https://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/guid/MCZ:VP:VPF-5379 

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Medusaster rhenanus Starfish Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This starfish fossil is called Medusaster rhenanus (Stürtz, 1890). This specimen was found in the Hunsrueck formation at Bunderbach, Germany. It dates to the Devonian Period.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Antedon primatus Crinoid Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This crinoid fossil is called Antedon primatus (Goldfuss, 1966). This specimen was found in Solnhofen, Germany. It dates to the Jurassic Period.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

https://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/guid/MCZ:IP:110937

Priscacara Fish Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. This fish fossil is called Priscacara (Cope, 1877). This specimen was found in Wyoming (probably Green River Formation). It dates to the Eocene Epoch.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priscacara

Archimedes reversus Bryozoa Fossil

This fossil was displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The bryozoa fossil called Archimedes reversus. This specimen was found in Illinois. It dates to the Mississippian/Carboniferous Period.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Plate of Rafinesquina alternate Brachiopod Fossils

 

These fossils were displayed on August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The brachiopod fossils are called Rafinesquina alternate (Conrad, 1838). This specimen was found in Ohio. It dates to the Ordovician Period.

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/

Red Belemnite Fossil at Boston Public Library's Abbey Room

 Yesterday I introduced the Boston's Central Public Library building (McKim) and the ammonoid fossils found there. Today I will introduce another type of fossil I have not seen in the red Verona marble before.

On the second floor of the McKim Building is the Abbey Room (originally the Book Delivery Room where books were picked up by patrons). The walls of the room have fifteen panels depicting Sir Galahad's Quest for the Holy Grail painted by Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911). He used Alfred, Lord  Tennyson's story Idylls of the King for the basis of these paintings. The checkerboard pattern of tiles on the floor are white Istrian limestone and red Verona marble (limestone aka Rosso Verona).

While looking at the flooring tiles I spotted the familiar shape of a belemnite (part of extinct squid-like cephalopod). This creature existed in the Upper Jurassic Period (Oxfordian Stage). Tile was probably quarried from the Rosso Ammonitico Formation of Verona Province of Venetia Region of Italy.

Red Ammonoid Fossils at Central Boston Public Library

The biggest surprise for me when I visited Boston last week was the Boston Public Library's McKim Building. It is an artistic and geological wonder. So many ammonite fossils embedded in the marble floor tiles. The complex is known as the Central Library in Copley Square of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The City of Boston chartered their public library system in 1848. Decades later having outgrown previous locations they awarded a contract in 1887 to the firm of McKim, Mead, and White to build what is now known as the McKim Building. The cornerstone was placed in 1888 in which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in his dedication poem, "This palace is the people's own" (origin of it's later name "Palace of the People"). The building completed in 1895 at cost of 2.2 million dollars. Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) was the chief architect for this building.

On the second floor of the McKim Building is the Abbey Room (originally the Book Delivery Room where books were picked up by patrons). The walls of the room have fifteen panels depicting Sir Galahad's Quest for the Holy Grail painted by Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911). He used Alfred, Lord  Tennyson's story Idylls of the King for the basis of these paintings. The checkerboard pattern of tiles on the floor are white Istrian limestone and red Verona marble (limestone aka Rosso Verona). Some of these reddish-pink tiles contain coiled ammonoids similar to what I found in Italy at Rome's St. Ignazio Church and Vatican City's St. Peter's Basilica.

Elwell, Newton W. "Delivery room." Photograph. Boston, Mass.: Geo. H. Polley & Co., 1896. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/6h440w43c (accessed August 21, 2022).

 

 

 

It is amazing that these tiles have been in place for over 100 years. These ammonoids date to the Upper Jurassic Period of the Rosso Ammonitico Formation, Oxfordian Stage, Verona Province, Venetia Region of Italy.

Further reading:

https://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ia/ia-structures.htm

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:ms35tx11f

https://slownomads.phoosh.net/fossil-hunting-in-verona/

 https://www.marmirossi.com/en/news/focus-materials/the-historical-bond-between-marble-and-verona

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/14802172801 

The Ammonite Church?

On a recent visit to Boston, Massachusetts USA, a church visible from the street had ammonite pattern at the top of the building. I took some pictures of the pediment. The church is The Cathedral Church of St. Paul and it turns out the pattern is of a nautilus. 

 

It appears to have been inspired by Boston's own Oliver Wendell Holmes 1858 poem "The Chambered Nautilus".

 

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,—
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! 

 

Above is a picture of an actual chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) found at Schouten Island Tasmania. It was on display in August 2022 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Cambridge Massachusetts USA (MCZ 184602). Another great place to visit when in the Boston area.

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was also famous for the 1830 poem "Old Ironsides" which is about U.S.S. Constitution. A definite visit when in Boston to see the U.S. Navy's oldest active ship.

Another picture of U.S.S. Constitution of it's hull with seaweed floating near by.

 

Kronosaurus Fossil at Harvard Museum

 

On display as of August 2022, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA is the fossil of a short neck pliosaur called Kronosaurus queenslandicus (Longman, 1924) [MCZ 1285]. The creature swam in the early Cretaceous Period seas (135 million years ago). It was found by an Australian rancher R.W.H. Thomas and shown to a member of the 1931-1932 Harvard Australian Expedition William E. Schevill (1906-1994). They were able to dynamite the limestone nodules out and then ship them back to Harvard. After Godfrey Lowell Cabot (1861-1962) provided the financing to prep the fossil, it was put on display in 1959.

Part of the skull, backbone, and paddles had weathered away but were able to be restored. About 30% of the fossil is plaster restoration and original bones are coated in plaster to protect the fossil. It appears the reconstruction has too many vertebrate so the 12.8 meter (42 ft) display should probably only be about 9-10.9 meters (30-36 ft). Also genus and species of this fossil should now be Electus longmani (Noe and Gomez-Perez, 2022).