Greetings! and Happy 2012! I'm back from holiday travel (last 2 months!) and so playing catch up.
But all of you guys shouldn't be kept wanting! Here's some neat sea urchin (Echinoidea) fossil videos!
Those of you on the Twitter feed may have seen this-but it is SUCH an incredible video I need to showcase it again! How do you clean/prepare a fossil Clypeaster? (Clypeaster is a close relative of sand dollars. Go here to see how). Here ya go!
Another one showing different stages of fossil preparation of what looks like Clypeaster as well as several of the tools used...
Here's a nice look at some Taiwanese fossils-the irregular urchin Linthia taiwanensis from the Miocene of Taiwan!
If you can get past the music (and some of the directed marketing) this is actually a nice little video showing different fossil sea urchins..
3 comments:
Fantastic stuff! (as always)
Can you say something about how that Clypeaster was excavated? How did they know in what clump a fossil was?
David,
I don't know specifics of the videos here-but in my experience, they are usually in an area where they know they will find fossils and usually have some "tell" that its there. Perhaps some surface of the animal is showing or there are others nearby. Or they just recognize the fossil+matrix cluster (matrix is what they call the excess stuff around the fossil) and know to pull it or excavate it as best they can.
Removing fossils from their environments is tricky. Its often based on experience, history of the area, and a little luck.
Also, a lot of careful work. Shovels, picks, hammers and/or other tools are often how we discover fossils (sometimes after we've damaged them!)
Post a Comment