Is this the right board for this? I've got specimens animal, vegetable, and mineral here...
Lizard in amber
Asaphiscus; Zion, Utah
>>2129606
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/273287099_fig11_Figure-13-An-unusually-large-fake-amber-piece-with-a-gecko-in-Kauri-Gum-The-lizard
Enrolled trilobites
>>2129612
Well that's disappointing. My boss is going to be bummed.
Malachite pseudomorphs after Azurite.
Fluorite and galena
>>2129653
I'd like to believe this guy was smart enough to double check his stuff before he put it in here. I'll check with the paleo prof when he gets back from whatever the hell he's doing this month
The specimen label on the malachite pseudomorph reads "S. Africa". This "Bruner" fellow's lack of thorough documentation is honestly driving me up the wall. First thing I do when I finish the time machine is go back to '34 and tell him to label his stuff better.
Galena w/ calcite from Vinegar Hill Mine
Quartz geode infiltrated by native petroleum, Keokuk Iowa.
Hornblende in Fuchsite.
Wavellite, Montgomery Co. Arkansas
Twinned calcite from Vinegar Hill Mine
Chalcanthite, with a few unusually well-formed and translucent crystals.
Garnets in biotite schist, Alaska.
Priscarara Pealei, Tertiary-Eocene, Green River Wyoming, 1935
Blue barite in dolomite, Pike's Peak.
Native sulfur. Christ this stuff is foul.
Hippocampus Guttulatus.
Mereycoidodon Culbertsoni, Brule Formation. The original collector apparently thought this was cretaceous in age, but it's actually early Ordovician (give him a break, it was 1928, they still believed in geosyncline theory back then).
Mammoth tooth, Colorado.
Different angle
Cool thread OP, A+ thouroughly enjoyed
Sperm whale ivory. No locality listed or date listed, but it seems it cost $1.75 at the time of sale.
>>2129667
the problem with the fakes is they're a little TOO good. Too good to be true. Like that guy, what are the odds the tail would curl around nicely like that so the whole thing would be preserved? And such a nice large specimen, not at all decayed.
Something like that would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if real.
if we knew where he acquired it I suspect /an/ would be able to ID the species in less than a day. My bet would be that it's very much extant and still roaming some part of the world that has an abundance of good tree resin and natives that know how to use it.
>>2129808
The trouble is finding out where he acquired it. I know very little of the man who amassed all this stuff, but I rather suspect he was a highly successful amateur and not a professional. Someone conducting their own studies or working on behalf of an institution would have been more consistent in their record keeping; some of these items are impeccably well-labelled: how deep down it was in which mine/county/state/country, when he collected it, who was with him, etc. Others are completely unlabelled in spite of the fact that they're well-preserved or very gemmy and euhedral specimens of whatever creature/mineral they are. The lizard is one of the latter. It's quite possible this fellow just got taken for a ride back before anyone knew there were rides being taken.
On that note, here's a "Barrow, Alaska Eskimo's fleshing knife". They must have been getting ready to pitch this and get a new one when he came up and asked for it; this thing couldn't cut through an overripe tomato.
>>2129816
overhead view
>>2129818
Business end. Duller than white gravy.
>>2129819
You hold it like this
>>2129820
Ditto.
>>2129821
Finger recess on the bottom. It's pretty comfortable to hold. I can see it being really useful with a sharper blade.
Quartz and schorl, Germany.
Petrified wood, California.
>>2129828
Chalcedony has formed botryoids in the cavity on the right side. Sort of a formerly-organic geode.
Fern. Species/locale unknown, possibly Coal City Illinois.
Death assemblage of chrinoids (?)
>>2129852
Opposite side
Rutilated quartz, Madagascar.
Piece of a bryozoan, possibly archimedes?
I don't know much about the original collector, but I can say with great certainty that he smoked like a chimney and his favorite brand was Craven A's
>>2129867
There's at least a dozen cigarette boxes in this cabinet, all this brand, used to store various specimens.
Female Samia Cecropia. For the life of me I can't find the cocoons mentioned on the bottom of the box. They might be in another drawer, wouldn't be the first time a note in one referred to something in another.
Turning in for the night. I leave you with this: a stick wrapped in tin foil. I haven't the foggiest notion of why he put this in here and can't even begin to guess as to its significance.
>>2129872
sugar cane?
hey, this is the coolest thread I've seen here in a while. Thanks for posting. I'd love to see more if you feel like it.
>>2129905
I've gone home for the day (5+ hours on a swivel chair in the basement takes it out of you), but I've shown only a tiny fraction of the stuff in this collection. Cherry picked things that I could ID w/ certainty or that had good documentation and which seemed like they would interest people. I'll post more in the future. I was thinking of doing a single-drawer walkthrough: just popping open a drawer and going over every single specimen in it.
Some other neat things I know are in there for next time:
Flexible sandstone sections
Herkimer diamonds, including some twins and various inclusions
Muscovite w/ tourmaline inclusions
Phlogopite w/ olivine and amphibole inclusions
Rattlestones/Klappersteins (probably won't ever get posted because unless you're in the room with me to hear them rattle they just look like rocks)
Numerous spriferids
Ammonoids and related creatures
Additional preserved insects
Modern seashells/animal horns/etc
Besides the geo/paleo/biologic junk in there, the original collector also had a number of archaeological/anthropological specimens. So far I've seen a drawer of stone tools and weapons from North American native tribes, a balinese palm leaf manuscript, a baby's rattle from "Nicaraguan Indians" (emblazoned with a swastika and some symbols I'm not familiar with), and some mummy wrappings and soapstone beads from Egypt. Not sure which board all of that goes on though.
Also, if that's sugarcane he should have left it where it was until they had time to turn it into rum!
>>2129912
Yeah, /an/ is slow but there's people here that would be interested in all of that.
I personally love to see vertebrate fossils and native American flints. You've got an amazing treasure cabinet there. A couple of those mineral specimens are just outstanding.
>>2129917
I've actually taken a few pictures of the egyptian shit already, to show to some folks from the anthro dept. who specialize in the ancient near east. If they're acceptable material here I'll post them.
These beads are just some of the cleanest and most legible; there were alot more in the box I found them in (also a Craven A cigarette tin). The green ones are soapstone and the blue ones are fayence.
Yeah the stuff in here is almost maddeningly awesome, especially when you see receipts for the stuff he bought from dealers. He paid the modern equivalent of 25-50 dollars a piece for cabinet specimens that would probably fetch several hundred dollars at the minimum on the current market.
>>2129926
First mummy wrapping
>>2129928
Second mummy wrapping. Unllike the first one, this lacks a layer of bismuth on the back, apparently suggesting that the person this was originally wrapped around was slightly less well-off compared to the one who was wrapped in the above.
>>2129931
Third wrapping. On the left side you can see part of a human figure in the kneeling position. I forgot to mention that in the 2nd wrapping the prof interpretted the yellowish symbols in the middle as a crown and seemed perplexed as to why it wasn't attached to anything.
>>2129926
those are cool. Did he have any larger faience pieces you've seen yet?
>the stuff in here is almost maddeningly awesome
yeah, I'm feeling it too. I'd probably trade my left nipple for some of that stuff. Some of it is absurdly common though. An eclectic mix.
>>2129935
Last wrapping. This one is unfortunately rather deteriorated. The prof noted that it was rather unusual for the people preparing the wrappings to cover up that vibrantly colored material underneath with the duller colors you see in the remaining picture.
Per the prof: both the green and blue pigments are "copper", presumably malachite and azurite, respectively. Thanks to the arid egyptian climate, azurite would have had a difficult time altering to malachite, and the distinct colors are preserved. The red and yellow pigments were prepared from "red ochre" and "yellow ochre", a hematite-bearing clay and a hydrous iron oxide bearing clay. Black pigments could be charcoal, petroleum, or cooked azurite.
>>2129936
I'm afraid those eyes of horus are the biggest pieces I've seen, but there could be more.
>>2129943
as I recall they also used manganite for black paints. Cosmetics too. Eyeliner. I think the Neanderthals used the same substance as a fire starter.
Found another picture: Two-tone tourmaline, verdelite (green) and rubellite (pink). Both are varieties of Elbaite, the Li-endmember of the tourmaline supergroup. Rubellite's color is due to the presence of +3 Manganese. Verdellite's color could come from any number of things and I have no idea how to determine which short of knocking off a chunk and taking it to one of the labs for professional examination.
This is a really pretty specimen, I wish I had a few more angles on it to show.
>>2129946
If I recall correctly there's a sample of manganite in here somewhere as well. I'll have to find it.
>>2129820
That's pretty darn ergonomic
>>2129787
Wait, how does something have that developed of a skull structure, and be from the ordovician? It looks like a terrestrial quadruped.
>>2131334
it's Eocene.
possibly anon mixed up Eocene oreodont in his head and came up with Ordovician.
>>2129825
Type locality specimen? If I'm not mistaken schorl gets its name from German words for black tourmaline from Saxony.
>>2129733
OP confirmed for schistposting
>>2129606
That just seems eerily well preserved
Rhodochrosite, Galena, and Pyrite(?). Oddly the label only mentions the first two, in spite of the fact that the pyrite/chalcopyrite is quite prominent and well formed.
>>2131348
Per wikipedia the Brule Formation is actually oligocene in age. Oreodont and oligocene kind of smushed together in my head when I was writing that.
>>2131448
I took it for genuine when I first picked it up because I don't really know any better, I'm more rocks than things that were once alive. >>2129612
and>>2129808
both made pretty compelling arguments that its a fake, and I tend to believe them.
Segment from an ammonite. Not particularly remarkable
>>2131494
Except there's some pretty good druze going on in the cavities
Rather well-formed cinnabar crystals
>>2131498
More cinnabar, this time in calcite.
"Long Fiber Asbestos". Locality and exact mineral species unknown.
Native gold, California. Smaller than a fingernail clipping, but it's still pretty cool to see that metal we all lust after in its natural state.
>>2131504
I recall a great deal of the other specimens in the cabinet are labelled as having come from Leadville. I'll keep an eye out for nice ones from that locale in the future. He seems to have spent a lot of time at the mines there and at Vinegar Hill, IL.
Cubic fluorite with octahedral intergrowth.
>>2131507
You got anything from Louisiana?
>>2131508
Small galena crystal on the side. Locality is Cambridge, England. From the color of the fluorite and overall assemblage I might dare to guess that
>>2129649
might be from the same place.
>>2131507
Yeah, Leadville is a world-class mineral locale. We have a couple that aren't found anywhere else.
I've put together a decent collection of gold and silver over the years working on mines here. Most of it's in boxes in my garage though. Also got a couple really nice copper and lead ores that I've found in and around miner's cabins from the 1800's. Those guys knew to save a pretty rock.
Shark's tooth. No other info, but its a big boy.
>>2131509
Nothing that I've encountered so far, but there's about 60 drawers in here, you never know.
>>2131513
looks like Carcharocles sp.
maybe C. megalodon but my first guess would be C. angustidens.
I only worked on the collection for a short period today, so here's an old photo of a not-nearly-as-nice specimen from my personal collection to finish things off. A bit of a dacitic dike that cut into the metamorphic rocks of the Old Woman Mountains sometime during the Miocene, part of the same overarching volcanic episode that deposited the Peach Springs Tuff. The black bladed crystals are amphiboles that developed at depth, prior to emplacement. Calcite xenolith up front.
>>2131516
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for my cataloging. Would you like to be mentioned in the catalog as a contributor?
>>2131525
no thanks, my name isn't unknown in geology and paleo. I like my anonymity here.
a very generous offer though.
>>2131489
>compelling arguments that its a fake, and I tend to believe them.
best guess is Oligosoma polychrome in Kauri gum.
the species overlap and the date is right.
this thread is great op
>>2131526
r u a professor
>>2132220
no, r u?
>>2129649
Absolutely gorgeous. You wouldn't happen to know where this was mined, would you?
I fucking love geology
>>2129626
Holy fuck I love malachite. One of my favorite minerals. It's gorgeous and has some of the most interesting forms. Love my copper ores.
>>2129759
Must smell amazing.
I never get to go full geology nerd on /an/.
You made my day.
>>2129787
Lol they still taught geosyncline bullshit when my current professor was is school. It's hilarious.
Where do you work/go to school? I'd love to get exposure to this kind of thing.
>>2129829
Gorgeous.
Only rivaled by opalized fossilized wood
I fucking love this. I have something that somebody told me is a coprolite, could anybody confirm that by looking at it ITT?
>>2131511
Man, I wish I lived somewhere where I could go and find ores and shit.
>>2131526
That is fantastic. I'm just getting into geology after years of not knowing what I wanted to major in. It's so encouraging to see people who are in the field in this shit hole.
Would you mind recommending a school? I'm looking to transfer for the next spring semester with a 3.7 and credit in founding the geology club at my college and work volunteering at museums. I just don't know where to apply for an undergrad.
>>2133622
You have good tastes.
I'll look into Louisiana. Do you know why they chose that school? I've been looking at North Carolina, Tucson, Ann Arbor, and Madison so far. It's so difficult to make a choice. I shouldn't stay in state unless I want to get into planetary and astro geology or whatever. Chicago only really specializes in that. I really want to go to a school that will give me the most hands on experience as possible.
>>2133631
From what I understand location was a big deal and I think they do a lot of hands-on stuff. They focus a good bit on petroleum type stuff though so if you aren't into that you might want to look elsewhere. I'm not 100% sure about that last but though
>>2133616
I'm the geologist upthread.
I went to Colorado School of Mines.
It's apparently the best? in the world maybe?
I dunno. It wasn't cheap and it wasn't easy.
>>2133567
that pic is astounding! I think the Chinese used to carve stuff like that.
>>2133707
That's a good recommendation. I hear they're hardcore science heavy. I can appreciate that. It isn't your standard "college experience" kind of deal.
Thanks anon. I'll see if I can't get in. Kinda don't think I could pull it off
>>2133739
yeah, their engineering and physics programs are insane. I couldn't hack it in either one. But even with a general degree I had job offers a year before I graduated.
It's tough though. My kid didn't get in. The math plus just the sheer volume of work required are pretty formidable.
>>2133709
Natural stalactite. Malachite is just that great.
Wouldn't want it touching your soft tissue though.
>>2133782
I'll give it a shot. Still need to finish up my physics requirements to meet their minimum standards. I mean technically I already could qualify, but another semester of physics and a research based geology class will certainly help.
Thank you so much for the information.
>>2133808
It's pretty cool stuff.
It grows on old coins and random rocks near the silver mines where I live. Can't really tell from the pic but the coins have tiny little fibrous patches of malachite from the copper in the soil rather than just oxidation of the copper in the coin. It shows up on all kinds of old junk.
>>2129606
That's a dragon's egg anon, see how close it was to hatching?
>>2133814
id like to see that under a microscope
>>2133814
That's so neat
>>2133622
My camera batteries are dead, I'll try to replace them before the thread dies.
TFW also in Louisiana, no rocks, just mud clay and silt for days.
>>2134582
where did your coprolite come from?
They're usually impossible to confirm unless they contain partially digested food (bone, plant matter, seeds) or have a distinctive shape, such as some shark coprolites.
Another way to know is by knowing where they came from - a coprolite is possible in rock formations that preserve vertebrate fossils. Though even that's not a guarantee. For example I have in my collection some supposed coprolites from the Jurassic Morrison Formation that look very much like dinosaur turds. In reality they're fossilized crawdad burrows.
>>2134748
I really have no idea where it originated, a friend of mine bought it for me at a mineral show
>>2133567
Lol, it's an ancient didlo
>>2136193
interesting.
I can't confirm or deny that's a coprolite.
it's pretty whether it is or not. And pretty cool that it might be.
