Fluorescent Uranium Glass Marbles

These unique glass marbles contain a small amount of the isotope uranium-238. When exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, the uranium's electrons in a low energy state move to an excited energy state that emits a greenish light. Uranium 238 is a naturally occuring isotope that has been used as glass coloring (uranium oxide) for almost 2000 years. In ancient Roman ruins dating back to around 80 A.D., a yellow glass mosaic was found that contained uranium oxide. Two marbles in this set are different types. An approximate 1 inch in diameter marble that is cream colored opaque marble with a few minor indentations. This type of marble material might also be referred to as carnival or vaseline glass. The smaller marble is more transparent with a light green tone. It is very bright green under longwave UV light. The pictures taken of the marbles include one under 30W fluorescent lighting and the other under UV LED flashlight (longwave ultraviolet - 395 nm). The marbles should glow under blacklight bulbs as well.

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Next picture is of two other marbles both of clear uranium glass and underlit by UV light.

Unidentified Ammonite

A mineral collector asked me to look at this ammonite fossil he had in his collection.  He could not remember where he had acquired it which is problematic for identification.  I was wondering if anyone has any ideas how I might identify this.  I was guessing it is from Texas and maybe Cretaceous.  It has a pearl like finish on the visible shell.  The other side of the plate is pictured showing a light brown matrix the fossil is embedded in.

The fossil is about 7 inches wide.

UPDATE (2022): My cousin ended up buying this fossil and prepped it some more revealing more fossil details. https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2022/02/what-genus-is-this-ammonite-fossil.html

Atrypina disparilis Brachiopod?

On January 15, 2011, I posted some pictures of a fossil I thought was some sort of Silurian clam.  The shell was asymmetric which led me to believe it was not a brachiopod.  After studying more of the work of two researchers at the New York State Museum, Charles E. Beecher and John M. Clarke I now believe it could be the Atrypina disparilis brachiopod.  Fossil was found in the Waldron Shale of Clark County, Indiana.

They originally called it Coelospira disparilis Hall 1852 but later used the other name.

As for the asymmetry, under Abnormalities they write, "A variation in adult shells, noticed only in rare instances, is a tendency to an asymmetrical development in the plications, as shown on plate 5, figure 18, where, by unequal growth upon the lateral portions of the shell, the median plication on the dorsal valve is deflected to one side, and the corresponding median sinus on the ventral valve displaced, the axial line of the shell being occupied by one of the strong plications bounding the sinus." Yikes, that was one long sentence!

Now after making this identification, I place a 50% certainty on it.  Another explanation is this is a fragment of an Athyris reticularis brachiopod.  Maybe part of one of the fossil flaked off as a thin layer which fooled me into thinking it was a smaller brachiopod.

The next image is Plate 5, figures 17-19 from the Memoirs of the New York State Museum Volume I Number 1 October 1889 entitled The Development of Some Silurian Brachiopoda by Charles E. Beecher and John M. Clarke.

See my original images and text: (Click here to see post).