Paleo-Aquarium

[Oddball]

I wanted to ID these 2 before posting them but, I'm having a hard time pinning these 2 down. They're from the Oligocene (30 million years) and are from Jaslo, Poland. Both specimens are under an inch in length. There's an amazing concept associated with these two specimens. They were quarried from an outcrop just above the foothill of a mountain (forgot the name) and they're bathyspheric species. They come from water so deep that light never reaches their part of the ocean floor. Talk about your tectonic plate shifting and land mass upheavals!!

The first is a type of bio-luminescent hatchet fish and the second has small eyes at the forward tip of its' head. It appears to be a gulper species due to sporting such a huge mouth.

 

[Oddball]

Here are a couple of odd specimens (Yeah...like the rest are 'normal'). Some collectors call these fossils (they're half a million years old). Other collectors call these mummies. They're crabs that were found in the bases of limestone sinkholes. The chiton of the carapaces is not a mineral replacement (as is in the traditional definition of a fossil). However, their bodies have become encased in calcium carbonate through forming the same way as cave stalagmites (stalactites grow down from the roof of a cave. Stalagmites grow up from the floor of a cave). Anywho, I saved a few from our mammoth digs.

 

[Oddball]

This one isn't a very common position to find a fossil from it's locality. This is Leptolepides knorri. It's from the Jurassic Malm Zeta formation of Scherenfeld by Eichstatt, Germany. What's unusual is that the specimen is ventro-dorsally compressed (you're viewing the abdomen). The majority of specimens from this quarry's sublithographic limestone layers are laterally compressed. The skull view is looking up from the lower jaws to the roof of the mouth and skull.

 

[Oddball]

Last pics for the night. I'm just trying out the macro capability of this camera. This fossil concretion hold the positive and negative compositions of a 3" VERY hard to find fossil. It's called Bobasatrania mahavavica and it comes from the Triassic deposits of the Karoo sediments of the Anjavimilay Region of the Diego Basin in N.W Madagascar. (Man, I'm glad I kept good notes on some of these fossils). Anyway, now that we're all dizzy, on to the pics:

 

[Oddball]

Here's one that can probably be labeled under "Once in a lifetime". When we first found this piece, we thought it was a fish scale. We usually keep scales as holotypical specimens to aid in IDing blown (partially decomposed) or fragmented specimens. When we looped it (magnifying lens), we were shocked to discover that this specimen is actually an egg with a latent stage embryo inside. It's been, tentatively, ID'd as a Diplomystus (extinct giant species of herring) by comparison of several skull pieces to a juvinile specimen. I've been tempted, over the years, to mount this piece in a ring with an optically clear quartz cabachon doublet cap (to protect and magnify). It would be more rare than most gemstones.
The pic isn't in focus as much as I'd like. But, after 10 attempts, this was the best one. Plus, it's only 10mm in size.

 

[Oddball]

Found a box today with specimens wrapped in newspapers from 1995.

This specimen is a 10" extinct sturgeon called Peipiaosteus sp. He's from a Jurassic formation in Lianong Province, China.

 

[Oddball]

This little 5" needlefish is still unidentified. It's from the Cretaceous Tagana Formation flint layer of Taquiz, Kasar-Es-Souk Region of Morocco. (Skull is at the bottom center of the pic)

 

[Oddball]

Last for tonight is a cool little 6" trumpetfish called Amphisyle sp. He's from the Pliocene of the Marecchia Creek Formation in Rimini, Italy.

 

[Oddball]

Was looking for a bucket of black gravel when I chanced upon a box with a few fossil specimens.Still have yet to locate the gravel.

Here's a rostrum (bill) from a marlin that I found while diving for meg teeth in FL. It's from the Miocene (20 million years).

 

[Oddball]

Next, from the same dive area, is a dental plate from a large Myliobatis ray.