Fossil

Hi Julia,Thanks for any help that your friend can give.I think it is a facinating subject.I just wish there were opportunities for this kind of work when I was at school in the 1970's but for my generation there was nothing like the work you do :rolleyes:

It just amazes me that we can hold a piece of fossil that was once a giant or small creature that was wandering this planet Millions of years ago and then we become the first human to touch that piece all these Millions of years later

 

I don't think Kandys are belemnites Caj.Julia is right. Belemnites were animals that lived in the sea. They are now extinct. Their name is derived from belemnon (Greek) meaning a dart. A fossil belemite is usually the guard, the back part of the shell, and this does look like a dart or bullet they were ancient relatives of squids and octopus the family of cephalopods.
Just a few of my collection of fossils gathered from an open cast mine not far from Wigan.


all the vegitative ones are from the mine
Neuropteris heteropylla
Lepidodendron (about 320 million years old)
The ammonite hyldoceras(in the center)180 million years old
The small trilobite Elrathia kingi just to the right of the ammonite is about 470 years old.
As you say Kandy amazing.

A small collection of semi precious stones and animals made from them,the larger elephant is carved out of soapstone with a smaller elephant inside it, the small elephant is ukanite,the pig is Labradorite

A few stone samples some opal in there I collected

 

Wow Walnut these are brilliant,love them all especially the ones with the leaves and your display of polished stones

Which reminds me of something I have forgotton.We bought some stepping stones last year for me to walk on and when we were sorting them out we spotted a flag stone with the pattern of some ferns on it and I got Mr Kandy to buy it even though we had no use for it.I said to him it would look good mounted on the wall but it is quiet heavy.It is too late to do it tonight but tomorrow I will take a photo of it and put it up on here

If anyone else has anything like this please dust off the cobwebs because it would be nice to see them

 

Thanks for opening this thread, Kandy, it is a very interesting subject and you have some wonderful pieces. Looking forward to seeing your fern stone tomorrow.

Walnut, you have a museum collection! It must be your pride and joy.

I'll take some pics of my few things tomorrow, too dark now.

 

Walnut - what an amazing collection of fossils! I'm really excited to see your Lepidodendron. I shall have to see if I can get some nice photos of my fossils (I don't like to put too many of them out as my husband has to live here too!).

I have a belemnite fragment which is in such good condition (even 120 million years on) that I can see light through it. Mum had it made into a necklace for me nearly 10 years ago - it always gets lots of compliments (especially at palaeontology conferences).

Sadly, us geologists tend to go to Sites of Special Scientific Interest, where fossil collection is prohibited. But I do have some great field photos - I'll have to get them scanned in (you'll love the extremely phallic arrangement of fossil trees from Lulworth Cove!).

WOO, I'm sure Walnut can elaborate, but yes, fossils can be found in chalk. Chalk is a marine rock, so you'll be able to find all sorts of shells (but probably no dinosaurs!). A good book to buy (if you're really keen) is:

SMITH, A.B. and BATTEN, D.J. (Ed.s). 2002. Fossils of the Chalk (2nd Edition), Palaeontological Field Guide to Fossils, No. 2, Palaeontological Association, London.

And here's a website with some excellent photos:

http://www.chalk.discoveringfossils.co.uk/Default.htm

 

Well, walnut my friend, what can I say? You not only collect exotic plants but fossils and stones as well.

I won't go into the technical names because that look more of a nightmare than Latin plant names .... but I love you snail in the middle of the first pic and the lovely polished black marble looking egg.

I have lots of marble eggs and many semi-precious stones also I have been collecting for many years. May I ask what the two flat things are on the top shelf in the third picture down, please? I have two, one blue and one green. Under those you have a pyramid ... is that Malachite? I have an egg and a frog and other pieces made of it given to me by various friends.

I must also mention the elephant ... is it soapstone? I have bought such here in the shape of beautiful birds for friends back in the UK, beautifully carved usually with a second bird within the first one.

A truly lovely collection.

 

Didn't realise we had quite so many old fossils on GC, :D
But they are an interesting subject, and although I've never collected such things I have always been fascinated by them.
Likewise, walnuts rock collection, all very nice stuff to own and collect.
Its enough to get you started, I'd really like a piece of petrified wood.

 

I think I have a piece of petrified wood, pete. I'll photograph it tomorrow and then those in the know can decide. It's probably modern (of 30 years in my case) made to look old. :D

I also have old carved bits of ivy and other woods. What strannge things we have when we think of it. :rolleyes:

 

Be careful Pete you don't end up in the collection :D
To answer a few of your questions my lady,
The little red pot is "red jasper exquisitely turned
The snail in the middle is an ammonite.
The black shiny thing is an orthocerus teardrop about395-440million years old.
The 2 flat things are called "geodes" they occur in certain types of volcanic rocks they are essentially rock cavities or "vugs" with internal crystal formations,unfortunately the colours are usually dyed in using vegetable dyes their normal colour is usually the clear crystal colour like the centre of the one on the right.
The soapstone elephant is an indian fertility symbol the elephant that is carved inside is carved through the lattice structure(how do they do that)


This is an amethyst cathedral it stands about 16"tall and weighs about half a ton.



This is one of my favourites its a slab of fossilised rock from the Atlas mountains it's about 40"x24" and is polished and used as a coffee table,it must be one of the oldest coffee tables in the world at around 350million years.



A close up of some of the inhabitants of the table.

orthocerus and ammonites.


Ammonites.

another orthocerus.
See what you have started Kandy no stopping me now.

 

Yes please Walnut and anyone else.This is going to be a good thread I can feel it in my bones :D

 

It is both humbling and a thrilling experience! I agree with you, Kandy, about this going to be a very good thread. There must be lots more of us with such treasures somewhere in the house, so come on folks, start looking!

Wonderful close-ups, Walnut!

Here are my few, I found them all in our back garden! As Sis said, I took them to a dinosaur place in Chale, IoW, a couple of years ago to be ID'd.

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I made a note of what I was told but now am not sure which was which, so I'll need help in getting the correct names (and corrected spellings!) on the different ones.

Ammonite - no younger than 65 million years, more likely 100 million years

Echonoicl (Brochiopod) (sea urchin)

Silacagel (sponge jelly)

 

This is an amethyst I bought many years ago in Austria -





This doesn't belong here at all, but I keep it with the fossils. I call it my stone coin as it looks like it has a face on it. I found it on the beach in Turkey a few years ago.

 

Sorry my lady missed one out you are right the green pyramid is malachite.
Great stuff Kedi nice fossils