Turtle Fossil

[Oxalis]

Than you very much for all your kind comments, Carol!
I have loved all this stuff since preschool.

I think it's great to have a continued interest and passion in the same field for so long. Very cool! It's quite a work of art after it's cleaned up.

They should have had one of these in the Jurassic movie just for fun.

I also agree with you on this one: let's get some trilobites in Jurassic Park!!! XD

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I think it's great to have a continued interest and passion in the same field for so long. Very cool! It's quite a work of art after it's cleaned up.


I also agree with you on this one: let's get some trilobites in Jurassic Park!!! XD

Thank you very much!

And absolutely ! regarding the trilobites In Jurassic Park.
I love dinosaurs but for me trilobites are better.
And some of them got quite big.

 

[Moozillion]

Prepping is cleaning a fossil up to make it look nicer. This can be done in a number of ways, using hammers and chisels, dental picks, acids and polishers for example.
A couple of pages back i showed my little Itagnostus trilobites and you could see they came from a matrix of mudstone containing the larger trilobite Elrathia kingii.
My American friend sent me three of these from Utah. Middle Cambrian, 507 million years old.
Here they are before prepping.
View attachment 230520
View attachment 230521
View attachment 230522
And after prepping using just a jeweller's loupe to see and a board pin View attachment 230525to clean off the mostly soft matrix.
View attachment 230528
The above one (1.8 cm long) has a smaller cephalon (head) lying on top of the main one and has damage to the right hand mid pleura which may be what killed it.
The one below (1.2 cm) has damage to the front of the cephalon, also a possible cause of death.
View attachment 230529
The next one is my favourite, first I had to pop it free of the matrix as it was upside down.
Here it is free and with prep just started :
View attachment 230531
Then finished. ( 2.3 cm long)
View attachment 230532

WOW!!!! FASCINATING work and job well done, sir!!!!!!

 

[Moozillion]

Elrathia kingii

WOWIE-ZOWIE!!!!!!!
Just how BIG did trilobites get????? Vegetarian or scavengers?

 

[Moozillion]

I MUST get my sister in Montana to send me a trilobite- one I can clean up a bit, just for fun!

 

[Oxalis]

Thank you very much!

And absolutely ! regarding the trilobites In Jurassic Park.
I love dinosaurs but for me trilobites are better.
And some of them got quite big.

Wow, I had no idea they had obtained that size. Sweet! I have a relative in the fossil arts; I will ask him if he's on this Fossil Forum. If not, I think he'd really enjoy it!

I MUST get my sister in Montana to send me a trilobite- one I can clean up a bit, just for fun!

That sounds like an excellent idea for grade-school students!! And adults (like me too).

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

WOW!!!! FASCINATING work and job well done, sir!!!!!!

Thank you very much.
It takes a long time but is very relaxing.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

WOWIE-ZOWIE!!!!!!!
Just how BIG did trilobites get????? Vegetarian or scavengers?

You can see the maximum size in a previous post on this page.
Trilobites performed all the different functions fish do now, so hunters, stalkers, bottom dwelling foragers, plankton eaters, detritivores etc. A rich and diverse group that survived 250 million years. Much longer than the dinosaurs or mammals have existed.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I MUST get my sister in Montana to send me a trilobite- one I can clean up a bit, just for fun!

Do so. It's lovely.
(and send some to me! )

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Wow, I had no idea they had obtained that size. Sweet! I have a relative in the fossil arts; I will ask him if he's on this Fossil Forum. If not, I think he'd really enjoy it!

That sounds like an excellent idea for grade-school students!! And adults (like me too).

Wish i had one this big.
Mine are tiddlers in comparison.
Though i do have some reasonable sized ones as will be seen......................

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

TURTLE
The Jurassic Platychelys oberndorferi from Germany. 150 million years old.

 

[CarolM]

I MUST get my sister in Montana to send me a trilobite- one I can clean up a bit, just for fun!

Yip then you can post it on here.

 

[CarolM]

TURTLE
The Jurassic Platychelys oberndorferi from Germany. 150 million years old.

Also a stunning and nice clear one. I am really enjoying this fossil thread.

 

[Moozillion]

Do so. It's lovely.
(and send some to me! )

Most certainly!!!!

 

[CarolM]

Oh, and the underside of an agnostid with walking and swimming legs. Trilobites had a hard exoskeleton on the top , but were soft and vulnerable underneath.

So to protect the soft underbelly they would roll up like a woodlouse/ pill bug :

I picked this up on the beach today and it reminded me of the pic in your post. I just need to keep it for about 150 million years and then bobs your uncle I will have my own fossil.[emoji1] [emoji6]

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I picked this up on the beach today and it reminded me of the pic in your post. I just need to keep it for about 150 million years and then bobs your uncle I will have my own fossil.[emoji1] [emoji6] View attachment 230713View attachment 230714View attachment 230715

Golly, it's lovely.
Is that a chiton?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

More trilobites today, this time from the Upper Cambrian, a little younger than the Elrathia 496 million years old. These are from Georgia, USA and are very very rare, though not as pretty as some. I may be the only chap in Africa with this species.
Here is Aphelaspis brachyphasis.

 

[Oxalis]

I may be the only chap in Africa with this species.

Well that's a pretty cool thought!

Golly, it's lovely.
Is that a chiton?

I just looked up this creature—how weird!!! That just expanded my little universe a little.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Well that's a pretty cool thought!

I just looked up this creature—how weird!!! That just expanded my little universe a little.

Yes, everyone knows the main groups of molluscs; the gastropods (snails) pelecypods (bivalves and clams) and cephalopods ( octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) but no one much knows about the chitons. Really weird and beautiful things.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

TURTLE
Jurassic turtles again, 160 million years old.

These are Annemys and are part of a mass grave of 1.800 specimens!
It seems that the lake they were living in dried up and they all congregated and died in the final pool of water.
The rains came just too late and swep mud into the old lake burying the poor turtles so they were all fossilized en masse.