Thursday, November 30, 2017

Ptychodus whipple Stingray Fossil Teeth


This image is of Ptychodus whipple fossil ancestral stingray teeth on display at Mace Brown Museum of Natural History (August 2017). They date to the Campanian Age (about 80 million years ago), Late Cretaceous Period. The fossils were found in the Eagle Ford Shale Grayson County Texas USA.

The Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is located at the College of Charleston, 202 Calhoun Street, 2nd Floor, Charleston, South Carolina 29424.

Learn more at their blog: http://blogs.cofc.edu/macebrownmuseum/

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Lettered Olive Shells


While in Charleston, South Carolina USA we stayed at Folly Beach (August 2017). During beach time, I tried to find shark teeth, phosphate fossils and shells.  Luckily, I found some the the state's official shell, the Oliva sayana aka lettered olive snail. Dr. Edmund Ravenel (1797-1871) named it this due to the patterns found shells reminded him of hieroglyphic symbols. The dark shell in the image might be a Pliocene fossil.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Close up Isotelus Trilobite Eye



My cousin sent me these images recently after he saw some magnified images of Isotelus trilobite fossil eyes showing the remains of the many lens that made up the eye. We are use to seeing this compound eye more on the Devonian Phacops trilobite fossils found in the area. He took some images under the microscope and you can see some of the lens pattern left on where the eye was.

This fossil dates to the Ordovician Period and was found in Franklin County Kentucky USA.

Thanks to Kenny for the images.