Ammonites opalus nomen oblitum Fossil Video

 

Today while researching a fossil I found, I came across a video from the The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). It was created June 12, 2020 for the Specimen Spotlight Friday presentation. The video was entitled "What's in a Name? David Dale Owens' Ammonites opalus nomen oblitum" by Paul S. Meyer of the The Field Museum. Since I recently returned from a visit to that museum and earlier in the year I was at New Harmony, Indiana USA where David Dale Owen lived I thought this would be a good topic to blog about.

Above is an enhanced image of the original illustration from Table VIII Figure 6 of the Ammonites opalus described in Illustrations to the Geological Report of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota by David Dale Owen Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co. 1852. It is described as from the Cretaceous Formation of Nebraska Great Bend of the Missouri River, associated with Inoceramus Cripsii. Below is pattern on the shell.

Paul talks about the type specimen at The Field Museum (FMNH UC 6377) which is now called Rhaeboceras halli. John Evans a forward guide for the Owens survey expedition collected this specimen in 1849 which Owen described in 1852. The link to this video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7yCm4ue_I

The Equatorial Minnesota blog was helpful in researching this posting.
https://equatorialminnesota.blogspot.com/2017/04/david-dale-owen-first-mn-geological-survey.html

A scan of David Dale Owen's survey report can be found at: https://archive.org/details/reportageologic00owengoog

Bumastus harrisi Trilobite

 

Above is an image of a prone trilobite fossil called Bumastus harrisi. A trilobite fossil dates to the Silurian Period. It was found Chicago, Illinois, USA and appears to be made of dolomite. 

The fossil was on display in the Evolving Planet section of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago Illinois, USA as of August 2020. Accession number is P11447. Learn more at the Virtual Silurian Reef Project web site.

More about this type of trilobite can be seen here:

https://silurian-reef.fieldmuseum.org/narrative/430

Prepped Snout Nosed Weevil Fossil

 

The image above has recently been prepped, the picture below is what it looked like before. I originally posted this on August 12, 2020. Field of view (FOV) is about 5 mm.

The images show a snout beetle or weevil insect fossil of the Order Coleoptera, Family Curculionidae found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to my cousin Kenny for the image who prepped it. His cousin Doug found this fossil.