I guess I should feel flattered that an Internet fossil dealer put an image I created on one of the fossils they sell. On October 30, 2009, I posted about Scolecondonts in which I tried to draw an image of what one of these extinct creatures might look like. My first drawing was something out of science fiction. A reader let me know that the image I wanted was more like a modern day clam or sand worm so I created the image above for that earlier posting.
Recently, I was checking out fossils on the indiana9fossils.com (note site name is changing in January 2018 to Prehistoric Fossils) in the Invertbrate Fossil Worm section and saw my image on the packaging for a scolecodont fossil they are trying to sell for $35.
It is too bad in that the image I created in my opinion made the jaws too big in relation to the body. See this recent post on sand worms. I am tempted to create a new image but on based on a bobbit worm as a scolecodont.
My feelings are mixed about the use of this image: glad that it was good enough to be used on a commercial product but I should have been asked about using this image beforehand. From what it appears to me, the person creating labels for the fossils for sale is using an Internet image search engine to find picture/drawings and then copying them onto the labels. Sadly, the other worm fossil they were showing as of 12/21/2017 was a cornulites but the image used on the label is of a conularia (which I think has little relation to worms).
