Nummulite Fossils from Crete

Nummulites (Lamarck, 1881) foraminifera fossils found at Matala, Crete, Greece.

Specimen was on display at the la Specola Museo Di Zoologia Ceropastica e Mineralogia (Florence, Italy) (August 2024).

Nummulites granulosa Foraminifera Fossil

 

Here is a picture of a foraminifera Nummulites granulosa fossil at Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia Florence Italy (Università degli Studi di Firenze) in August 2024.  The creature lived during the Paleogene Period. It was found at Roncà, Veneto Italy.

Nodosaria Foraminifera Fossil

 

Here is a picture of a recently found fossil that appears to be a Nodosaria (Lamarck, 1816) foraminifera. The fossil widest length is approximately 3 mm. It was in the Del Rio Formation at Shoal Creek, Texas USA. This creature existed during the Cretaceous Period. 

Thanks to Kenny for the image.

Anomalina Foraminifera Fossil

 

Here is a picture of a recently found fossil that appears to be an Anomalina (d'Orbigny, 1826) foraminifera. The fossil widest length is approximately 280 microns. It was in the Del Rio Formation at Travis County, Texas USA. This creature existed during the Cretaceous Period. 

Thanks to Kenny for the image.

Globigerina Foraminifera Fossil - Texas

 

Here is a picture of a recently found fossil that appears to be a Globigerina (d'Orbigny, 1826) foraminifera. The fossil widest length is approximately 280 microns. It was at Del Rio Shoal Creek, Texas USA. This creature existed during the Cretaceous Period. 

Thanks to Kenny for the image.

Globoendothyra baileyi Fossil

 

This picture shows some Globoendothyra baileyi (Hall, 1858) foraminifera fossils. They were found in the Salem Limestone of Hardin County, Kentucky USA. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period. Thanks to Kenny for the image.

Nummulites praelaeigatus Fossil

Here is a picture of several specimens of Nummulites praelaeigatus foraminifera fossil found in Mattsee, Salzburg Austria. The fossil dates to the Eocene Epoch. Fossil was on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) on August 2024.

 

Inauris tubulata Foraminifera Fossil

 

Images taken from microscope of the monotypic agglutinate foraminiferan fossil. This fossil has been identified as an Inauris tubulata (Conkin, Conkin & Thurman, 1979). It was found in the Jeffersonville Limestone that dates to Devonian Period. The locality was the Gilmore Quarry, Utica Indiana USA. This was a picture I took over 10 years ago from one of Dr. Conkins microscope slides. It was never used in publication I far as I can recall.

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.

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.

Fossils at Obelisk in Central Park

If you visit New York City's famed Central Park, consider stopping by the Egyptian obelisk located behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The white limestone base the granite obelisk rests on contains a lot of visible fossils. The obelisk (known as Cleopatra's Needle) were created to celebrate the 30 year reign of pharaoh Thutmosis III (1479-1425 B.C).

Their original location was at the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, Egypt. They were constructed from pink granite at the quarries in Aswan. Roman Emperor Augustus had them moved to the temple Caesarium around 12 B.C.

The Khedive Ismail Pasha of Egypt exchanged this obelisk for economic aid from the City of New York, United States in 1881. Earlier, it's twin obelisk was transferred to London, England in 1878.


The Romans added an Egyptian limestone base and steps plus 4 bronze crabs to stabilize the obelisk on its new base. Only two of the crabs partially survived when the obelisk was being made ready for transfer to the United States. Once it arrived, Brooklyn Navy Yard workers forged four new 418 kg metal crabs in about 10 days. Molten lead was used to secure the crabs to the obelisk thus re-enforcing the broken corners. The claws are inscribed in English telling of who replaced them.

The remains of the two original Roman bronze crabs are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Temple of Dendur exhibit. It looks like they were mostly plundered for their metal or as souvenirs by long ago visitors. The claw has a Greek inscription on the outside stating Roman prefect Barbarus and architect Pontius erected the obelisk in the 18th year of an emperor (Augustus?). The original metal crabs were donated by Lt. Commander Henry H. Gorringe who transferred the obelisk to New York in 1880-1881.

When I first encountered the base I was not sure what type of fossils it was covered with at first I thought they might be pelecypods or brachiopods. Now I am convinced they are foraminiferan Nummulites fossils.

The fossils are somewhat worn, but the picture on the right with two orange arrows showing two Nummulites with their tops or bottoms cross sectioned.

The base and steps appear to be composed of an Eocene limestone from Egypt. This type of limestone was used to construct ancient Egyptian structures so they contain these fossils as well. Learn more at Wikipedia.

Most of the fossils I saw appeared to be Nummulites stacked on top of one another but picture on the left looks like a gastropod or ammonite whorl.

The picture on the right has an orange arrow pointing to what appears to be a fossil with some sort of spines. It might be a spiny brachiopod or some sort of echinoid.

So if you get a chance to visit New York City's Central Park, allot some time and visit the oldest man-made object in the park.

Learn more about this obelisk and its connection to New York City at Google Books site for The New York Obelisk or How Cleopatra's Needle Came to New York and What Happened When It Got Here by Martina D'Alton from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1993).

Egyptian-Greek Lion Statue Containing Fossils at The Met

Recently, I visited New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art located at 1000 Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. It is an amazing museum. According to Wikipedia it is the 3rd most visited art museum and 5th most visited museum of any kind in the world (as of 2016).  They have extensive artworks from cultures all around the world including ancient Egypt and Greece.

While art and paleontology do not often mix I was able to find a few fossils in an item at the ancient Egypt exhibit.

The fossils were found while visiting the 15 BC Egyptian-Roman Temple of Dendur room, to the right of the temple when facing it are a number of artifacts (see above image of room). One is a reclining lion statue with a number of visible foraminiferan Nummulites fossils on it. The statue is from the Roman period (second to third century A.D.) from Bubastis Egypt. It is made from what appears to be an Eocene limestone from Egypt. A Greek inscription is in the front of the statue that translates to "Thnepheros daughter of Pitikas dedicated for good". Greek custom at the time was to use lion sculptures as funeral monuments. The museum bought the statue from the Egyptian government in 1912.

As for nummulite shell fossils, ancient Egyptians used them as coins and their name is derived from the Latin nummulus meaning "little coin".  This type of limestone was used to construct the pyramids so they contain these fossils as well. Learn more at Wikipedia.

AMNH The Tiniest Fossils Video

Episode 6 has been released for April 2015 and it is entitled The Tiniest Fossils. These fossils have such intricate geometric patterns packaged in such a small shell. Essential for early fuel exploration and now researched as possible indicators for climate change. This video highlights some of the research work being done at the museum on these types of fossils. I especially liked the part showing the creation of 3D computer models and the creating them with a 3D printer. Image above is of a microscopic type fossil found Indiana of the Carboniferous period foraminifera Endothyra baileyi.




The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) located in New York city has created a monthly series of videos highlighting some of the 33 million specimens and artifacts held in their collection. Paleontological specimens make up 17.3% of the collection. Invertebrate fossils are a large part of the collection with approximately 4.5 million specimens. In 2014, they received the Mapes collection from Ohio University composed of more than 500,000 marine fossils. So the museum has a lot of material to pull from for creating videos.

Last picture is of a modern foraminifera found in the waters around the island of Guam. It is the Peneroplis plantus.

Eozoon canadense Pseudofossil

Originally this fossil was identified in 1864 or 1865 by John William Dawson as a Precambrian foraminifera. As it turns out it was metamorphosed bands of calcite and serpentine thus a pseudofossil. Specimen can be seen at the Museo di Paleontologia at Sapienza University of Rome Italy.

Image was taken in June 2014.

Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eozoon_canadense

Nummulites millecaput Fossil from Gargano Italy

Here is a picture of a large foraminifera fossil housed in a display case at the Geologia building located on the campus of Sapienza University of Rome. The case can be found on the second floor of the building. The fossil is called Nummulites millecaput. It lived in Middle Eocene Period. The specimen was found in the Gargano, Italy. Image taken in June 2014.

Sources:

http://www.bridgepugliausa.it/articolo.asp?id_sez=1&id_cat=26&id_art=3576&lingua=en

http://tetide.geo.uniroma1.it/dst/grafica_nuova/pubblicazioni_DST/geologica_romana/Volumi/VOL%2029/GR_29_131_138_Pignatti%20et%20al.pdf

Fossil Fireplace

Every so often I visit a local retired geology professor to chat about fossils. He has a unique fireplace in his study that was mortared together with various fossils. Here are few pictures of some of the fossil embedded in the fireplace. All the images were taken with a Motorola Moto X smartphone.

I think the first image might be a model of a charophyte or some sort of Astylospongia fossil. Next is some sort of model of a foraminifera.

The next two images are of colonial coral fossils.

Last is some sort of pelecypod fossil.

Spanish Nummulite Fossils

These fossils are Nummulites sp. which are a type of foraminifera. They were found in Spain and existed in the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene Period. Some of these fossils are the size of an American silver dollar.

Nummulite Foraminifera Fossil

This foraminifera fossil is known as a Nummulites laevigatus?. It was found near Soissons, Aisne, France. The fossil dates to the Eocene Epoch (about 47 million years ago). This fossil originally just a smooth disk about the size of an American dime. Using a belt sander, the surface was taken off revealing more spiral chambers.

Thanks to Dave for this fossil.

UPDATE on 2020/02/15 added species name.

Guam Micro Samples

UPDATE (11/19/2017): The long semi-transparent specimens in the images might be a sponge spicule. I was reading the a book entitled  On Growth and Form (1st edition, 1917) by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson chapter IX On Concretions, Spicules, and Spicular Skeletons page 413 shows images of Alcyonarian spicules: Siphonogorgia and Anthogorgia. These images look some what similar to the specimens shown in the images on this page. Thanks to Fossils and Other Living Things for this posting and this posting.

This specimens were found at Pago Beach on the island of Guam. Images are magnified 40 times under a microscope which should equate to a 4 mm field of view. The first picture has a gastropod in it. The other specimens might be some sort of foraminifera.

Thanks to Pam for obtaining the specimen and Herb for the processed material.