Largest American Horn Coral

The Siphonophrentis elongata (Rafenesque & Clifford, 1820) horn coral fossil is one of the largest found in the United States. This picture shows a small fragment of the original specimen. It was well over 30 cm in length when it was alive during the Middle Devonian Period. This segment is about 5 cm long and almost 8 cm in diameter.

What is nice is the center on one end is full of crystals (maybe quartz or calcite) and smooth mineral layer at the other end. The septa divisions are still visible along the outer circumference of the horn coral fossil.

It was found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA.

Notice the beekite patterns on the outer surface of the fossil in this next picture.

Le Brea Tar Pit Fossils

This video produced by Voice of America highlights the Le Brea Tar Pits of Los Angeles, California. The pits have produced over 5.5 million fossils over the last 100 years. The fossils found there date to the Pleistocene.

Learn more about the Page Museum at the Le Brea Tar Pits at their web site: http://www.tarpits.org/

Moroccan Trilobite Preparation Videos

Here are two YouTube videos showing trilobite preparation back in 2005. It is neat to see this work as there are so many Moroccan fossils on the market. We see the finished product here in America but these videos show how some of the material is prepared. The first video shows a Koneprusia brutoni Devonian trilobite from Oufaten, Alnif, Morocco being prepared through sand abrasion cleaning. That is one spiny trilobite!

The second shows a young man preparing a Devonian Phacops rana trilobite with a hammer and nail.



Videos from YouTube user ajmiller82 and their web site is http://www.ancientearthtradingco.com/