Hormotoma Ordovician Snail

Snail fossils found in the Maquoketa formation of Eldorado, Iowa. This small snails crept the sea floor in the late Ordovician period.  The animals are of the genus Hormotoma.  Fossils are about 2 cm high. Two species found in the Maquoketa are H. trentonensis and H. major mentioned in Stratigraphy of Middle Ordovician Rocks in the Zinc-Lead District of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa by Allen F. Agnew, Allen V. Heyl, C.H. Behre, and E.J. Lyons, Geological Survey Professional Paper 274-K, 1956.

Since these are molds and no shell surface details are present, species identification would be difficult.

These fossils were bought from eBay seller timfossil2001 who has some nice deals on Minnesota and Iowa fossils: http://www.ebay.com/sch/timfossil2001/m.html?item=370559137286&viewitem=&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Fossils, Rocks, & Akiko Video

Fossils, Rocks & Akiko from The Field Museum on Vimeo.

The Field Museum of Chicago, Illinois has released a video (about 2 minutes in length) of a behind the scenes in the preparatory lab. This video highlights Chief Preparator in the Fossil Vertebrate section Akiko Shinya. She shows some of the work process of preparing a Psittacosaur from Mongolia.

After seeing the video, I should be wearing hearing protection along with my eye and airway gear during fossil prep. Maybe padded gloves might help as the engraver makes my hand tingle or numb after continuous prolonged use.

This dinosaur existed in the Cretaceous Period (130-100 million years ago).  Learn more at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacosaurus

Platyrachella Devonian Brachiopod

Look at the wingspan on this fossil brachiopod, it is not fully intact yet measures about 7 cm. Yeah baby!

This brachiopod is a Platyrachella sp. found in the Cedar Valley formation of Benton County, Iowa. It lived in the Middle Devonian period. This is one large Devonian brachiopod that I have not found an equivalent genus to in the fossils of the local Jeffersonville or Silver Creek limestones.

The brachiopod was photographed wet and was cleaned with a Dremel tool - stainless steel rotary brush and Dremel engraver 1-2.5 settings.

This fossil was bought from eBay seller timfossil2001 who has some nice deals on Minnesota and Iowa fossils: http://www.ebay.com/sch/timfossil2001/m.html?item=370559137286&viewitem=&_trksid=p4340.l2562