Wiwaxia Fossil

This fossil is an Wiwaxia sp. (Walcott, 1911) which might be an extinct mollusc. It was found by Charles Walcott (1850-1927) in 1911 in Burgess Shale of British Columbia Canada. It dates to the Middle Cambrian Period (505 million years ago).

The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.

Learn more about this genus on Wikipedia:

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

Opabinia regalis Fossil

 

This fossil is an Opabinia regalis (Walcott, 1912) which is an extinct arthropod. It was found by Charles Walcott (1850-1927) in 1912 in Burgess Shale of British Columbia Canada. It dates to the Middle Cambrian Period (505 million years ago).

The picture was taken in June 2023 on the first floor of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. USA.

Learn more about this genus on Wikipedia:

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

Dactyloidites asteroides Fossil

 

While researching a mystery fossil that looks like flower petal indentations, I came across jellyfish imprints described as medusa. The image above is of a Cambrian aged Dactyloidites asteroides (Fitch, 1850). Image is from Charles D. Walcott (1850-1927) and was re-published as figure 1012 on page 228 A Textbook of Geology Part II Historical Geology by Amadeus W. Grabau (1870-1946).

PDF of book can be found:

https://archive.org/details/textbookofgeolog02grabrich/page/n5/mode/2up