Paleontology
I have always been fascinated with paleontology and archaeology as it is the real life history book of our foundation. Below are some of my personal collections that I have acquired. Not all are listed, but as time allows, I will be adding more.
Mosasaurus Jaw Bone& Tooth
Mosasaurus is the type genus of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous.
Mass: 30,000 lbs
Length: 49 – 59 ft.
Lived: 99.6 million years ago - 66 million years ago (Cretaceous - Paleocene)
Kingdom: Animalia
Genus: †Mosasaurus; Conybeare, 1822
Class: Reptilia
Age: about 82 to 66 million years ago
Tyrannosaurus Leg Piece
Tyrannosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex, often called T. rex or colloquially T-Rex, is one of the best represented theropods. Tyrannosaurus lived throughout what is now western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Here is a nice long piece of bone from a T Rex. It was found in the Hell Creek Formation, near Newell, Butte County, South Dakota, about 20 miles north of Sturgis. There were a large number of pieces (more than 120) found in the same exact site, of a T-Rex. Unfortunately too eroded to make a complete skeleton. All the pieces are from the same back leg, so they are mostly femur, fibula and tibia of the T Rex. The specimen measures about 4.7 inches. It is a quite narrow piece of bone, broken off from a main leg bone.
Height: 12 – 20 ft.
Eaten by: Tyrannosaurus
Lived: 83.6 million years ago - 66 million years ago (Cretaceous)
Speed: Tyrannosaurus rex: 17 mph
Lifespan: 30 years
Eats: Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Hadrosauridae, Corythosaurus, Alamosaurus, Struthiomimus, Tyrannosaurus
Large Spinosaurus Tooth
Spinosaurus is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what now is North Africa during the Cenomanian to upper Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous period, about 99 to 93.5 million years ago.
Height: 18 ft.
Lived: 112.03 million years ago - 72.1 million years ago (Albian - Campanian)
Family: †Spinosauridae
Kingdom: Animalia
Genus: Spinosaurus; Stromer, 1915
Eats: Onchopristis, Mawsonia
Dolichopodidae in Baltic Amber
Dolichopodidae, the long-legged flies, are a large, cosmopolitan family of true flies with more than 7,000 described species in about 230 genera. The genus Dolichopus is the most speciose, with some 600 species. The creature either drowns as the sticky goo fills its mouth and spiracles (bug lungs) or starves as it struggles to escape the resin. Most insects or arthropods fossilized in amber are less than seven-eighths of an inch long, since larger creatures can usually pull themselves out of the resin's deadly grasp.
Scientific name: Dolichopodidae
Higher classification: Fly
Rank: Family
Family: Dolichopodidae; Latreille, 1809
Order: Diptera
Diplomystus Fish Fossil
Diplomystus is an extinct genus of freshwater clupeomorph fish distantly related to modern-day extant herrings, alewives, and sardines. Diplomystus' morphology, including its upturned mouth is prototypic of a surface feeding fish. The genus are herrings that likely fed on small surface dwelling fish as Knightia, is evidenced by numerous fossils found with Knightia is the stomach or mouth. The genus Diplomystus is also found to occur in Cretaceous strata in South America, as well as Cretaceous Lebanon. This piece is dated between 40-50 million years ago.
Flexicalymene Moroccan Trilobite
Preserved with rusty-colored limonite crystals, these are actually the molds of the shells of Flexicalymene trilobites. Trilobites are a type of extinct arthropod most closely related to modern Horseshoe crabs. Flexicalymene is a genus of trilobites of the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina. They are found abundantly in North Africa and North America. Flexicalymene specimens can be mistaken for a few other Trilobite types. They are used as an index fossil in the Ordovician. Morocco and North America are particularly known for being rich with Flexicalymene fossils.
Ammonoid Fossil
Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appeared during the Devonian, and the last species either vanished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, or shortly after, during the Danian epoch of the Paleocene.
Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and linking the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geologic time periods is often possible. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms (known as heteromorphs) have been found. The name "ammonite", from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing rams' horns. Often, the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is from κέρας (kéras) meaning "horn".
Orthoceras Cephalopod
Orthoceras is a genus of extinct nautiloid cephalopod restricted to Middle Ordovician-aged marine limestones of the Baltic States and Sweden. This genus is sometimes called Orthoceratites. Orthoceras was an ancient cephalopod that lived about 370 million years ago. The name means straight horn, referring to the characteristic long, straight, conical shell. The preserved shell is all that remains of this ancestor of our modern-day squid. There is some confusion around the name. Scientifically orthoceras is a genus name used only for a particular extinct nautiloid cephalopod from the Baltic states and Sweden. However it is commonly used to refer to any species of extinct nautiloid cephalopod with a straight cone shaped shell.
Class: Cephalopoda
Phylum: Mollusca
Order: †Orthocerida
Genus: †Orthoceras; Bruguière, 1789
Family: †Orthoceratidae
Kingdom: Animalia
