Echinocorys Echinoderm Fossil

This image is of a sea urchin fossil called Echinocorys.  The shell once consisted of calcite but has since been replaced by crystalline silica. This animal lived in the Cretaceous Period. The fossil was found at Sidmouth, Devon, England.

This specimen was on display August 2016 in Natural History Museum of London, England.

Opal Gastropod Fossils

Pictured are some nice fossils found in New South Wales, Australia (Lightning Ridge?). These snails date to the Cretaceous Period.

Fossils were on display August 2016 in Natural History Museum of London, England.

The Anning Ichthyosaur Skull Fossil

The Natural History Museum in London England has a special hall for the marine reptiles found along the country's south western coast. One the country's most famous paleontologists is credited with finding a number of these intact skeletons, Mary Anning. Her story starts off with her brother Joseph finding a relatively intact head of an ichthyosaur (Temnodontosaurus platyodon) in 1810 or 1811. The above picture is of this skull. The rest of the body was found by Mary a few months later in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. The creature existed in the Lower Jurassic Period. It is specimen R1158 purchased from Bullock's Museum Piccadilly in 1819.

The fossil was documented in 1814 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society entitled "Some Account of the Fossil Remains of an Animal More Nearly Allied to Fishes Than Any of the Other Classes of Animals" by Everard Home. Read June 23, 1814. The fossil was illustrated in publication as well. See image below.

Learn more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning

http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/104/571.full.pdf+html

Benthosuchus Fossil Amphibian Skull

Picture is of a Benthosuchus sushkini amphibian skull fossil. It dates to the Triassic Period. Fossil found in Scharzhenga River of Vachnevo Russia. Extinct creature is a distant relative to today's salamanders and frogs. It lived in rivers and lakes of what is now eastern Europe.

Fossil on display August 2016 in Natural History Museum of London, England.

Glossopteris Fossil Leaves

Image is of Glossopteris browniana fossil leaves. Plant existed in the Permian Period. They were found in Silewada India. Displayed at Natural History Museum London England as of August 2016. Specimen number V64045.

Origins of Life Video

I watched a promo video from the U.K.'s Natural History Museum in London for David Attenborough's First Life. They have some great Cambrian creature animations in this. After searching around YouTube a bit I found that they belonged to a 2010 Atlantic Productions documentary called First Life. Found on YouTube here: