Ru's Palaeo Galleries
2010
 

Sun 3rd Jan 2010
Sponges through Time
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2009
 
3 mm partially opened Cretaceous flower. Main Khun, Tanai Township, Kachin State, Burma (Myanmar). Cenomanian-Albian, ca 100 Ma.
Thu 14th May 2009
Flowering Plants 		Baltic amber with 9 mm Thuja cypress sprig.
Thu 14th May 2009
Seed Plants 		Aglaophyton major, 4mm sporangium with spores. Note thick sporangial wall. Rhynie Chert, Early Devonian. Rhynie, Scotland.
Thu 14th May 2009
Spore Plants
 
Pyritized orthocone cephalopod, 59 mm long. Utica Shale Group, near Martinburg, New York State, USA.
Sun 22nd Mar 2009
"Nautiloids" 		Duvalia sp, 54 mm, Late Jurassic, France. This has an unusual highly laterally compressed guard. Height is 17 mm whereas width reaches 5 mm.
Sun 22nd Feb 2009
Coleoids 		Clymeniid (Cyrtoclymeniina), Praeflexiclymenia tenuis. Lower Famennian, Devonian, Kowala Fm, S Holy Cross Mountains, Poland.
Sun 22nd Feb 2009
Ammonoids
 
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2008
 
A 12 mm amber “stalactite” with 3 mm hymenopteran. Raritan formation, Sayreville, New Jersey, USA. Several successive flows of a very low viscosity resin can be seen here. The wasp landed on the surface of the pendulous stalactite and was trapped by the following flow. The projecting portions of the wings were then flattened by the next flow. Hit full size to see this better.
Wed 19th Nov 2008
Cretaceous Amber 		Hyspidocrinus scalaris, 90 mm x 70 mm. Lower Lias, Robin Hoods Bay near Whitby, North Yorkshire. Mike Marshall preparation.
Sun 16th Nov 2008
The Yorkshire Jurassic 		Tetradium cellulosum, complete 16 cm tabulate coral (Order Tetradiida) head with associated bryozoans, ostracods, crinoids, brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods and trilobite parts. Poolville Member, Bromide Formation, Dunn Quarry, Oklahoma, USA.
Sun 2nd Nov 2008
Corals through Time
 
Baltic amber, 3.5 mm pseudoscorpion.Lithuania.
Sun 14th Sep 2008
Cenozoic Amber 		Ptychodus sp. crushing tooth of a shark or ray, 24 mm. Chalk, Dover, Kent, England.
Wed 6th Aug 2008
Chalk Seas 		A Tullymonstrum gregarium, 8 cm complete. Francis Creek Shale, Pennsylvanian-Desmoinesian, Upper Carboniferous. Pit 11, Peabody Coal Mine, Braidwood, Illinois. 8 cm excellent in concretion. Complete proboscis and tail preserved. One eye bar visible. Probable a heteropod.
Fri 2nd May 2008
Mazon Creek
 
Furca sp (short spine form), 25 mm. Ca 480 Million years old. Basal Upper Fezouata Formation (lower Arenig, or lower Floian), north of Zagora, southeastern Morocco.
Sun 13th Apr 2008
Early Ordovician Fauna of Morocco 		Class Cephalaspidimorphi (order Petromyzontiformes). Mayomyzon pieckoensis a 45 mm complete lamprey. Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA.
Sat 22nd Mar 2008
Palaeozoic Chordates 		Banded ironstone Formation, Palaeoproterozoic Era, Siderian Period (ca. 2.4 to 2.3 billion years old). Port Handford, Western Australia, 20 x 7 cm polished specimen. The fine-scale alternation of iron-rich and silica-rich bands is clearly visible in this specimen, interpreted to be a record of seasonal fluctuations in photosynthetic activity. Oxygen produced reacted with dissolved iron to precipitate iron oxides. The Siderian Period is named for the abundance of Banded Iron Formations, which peaked just after the Archaean-Proterozoic boundary.
Sun 16th Mar 2008
Bacterial Beginnings
 
Muensteroceras aff truncatum, 27 mm. Visean, Treak Cliff, Castleton, Derbyshire, UK.
Fri 14th Mar 2008
A Carboniferous Reef 		Barracudas are at the top of the coral reef food pyramid. This is Sphyraena bolcensis, a 15 cm juvenile barracuda from the Early Eocene of Monte Bolca, northern Italy.
Sat 8th Mar 2008
Eocene Emergence of Modern Reef Communities 		Barrandia parabolica (40 mm long), Orthoceras sp (90 mm long) and Didymograptus artus, part and counterpart. Llanvirn Series, Hope Shales, Minsterley, Shropshire, UK.
Fri 29th Feb 2008
Wales and the Welsh Borderland
 
Coprinoscolex elligimus. 40 mm. Francis Creek Shale, Desmoinesian, Pennsylvanian. Pit 11, Braidwood, Illinois. View from beneath concretion.
Thu 21st Feb 2008
Palaeozoic Fossil Worms 		Eastward migration of the shelf-slope break in the Silurian Welsh Basin (Smith 2003).
Sun 17th Feb 2008
Fauna of a Silurian Canyon-fill 		Small prawn, Penaeus bolcensis, 24 mm long with seagrass blades. Early Eocene. Monte Bolca, northern Italy.
Fri 15th Feb 2008
Fossil Crustaceans
 
Acantonescus cracens, 142 mm palaeoniscoid fish.
Wed 30th Jan 2008
Bear Gulch 		Waptia (Chuandianella) ovata. 18 mm long.
Tue 29th Jan 2008
Chengjiang and the Cambrian Explosion 		Vertical succession of rock types and fossil content in Roundhay Park. (sketch).
Sat 26th Jan 2008
"Tropical World" and the Geology of Roundhay Park
 
Excellent 100 mm priapulid. Middle Cambrian. Millard County, Utah, USA.
Mon 21st Jan 2008
Cambrian of North America 		A sketch reconstruction including all species represented in this collection.
Sun 20th Jan 2008
The Bromide Formation and the Ordovician Echinoderm Explosion 		Camptostroma roddyi, 25 mm (on slab with two others, one 28 mm, the other 22 mm), Lower Cambrian edrioasteroid, Kinzers Formation, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Discrete arms directed downwards are visible in the lower portion of the image and another arm extending upwards at the top right part of the image.
Sun 20th Jan 2008
Cambrian Echinoderms of North America and Europe
 

Wed 16th Jan 2008
Palaeozoic Xiphosurans and Aglaspidids 		My graphic log of the succession exposed at Crock Hey opencast during 2005(published in Prokop et al. 2006). The section from Coal 2 (which may be the “Wigan Four Foot”) coal upwards is strikingly similar to that of the Francis Creek Shale Member in the Mazon Creek area (Baird & Sroka 1990).
Mon 14th Jan 2008
Carboniferous Plants and Animals from the Pennine Basin
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2007
 
22 mm complete Triarthrus eatoni with very fine preservation of limbs and antennae. Whetstone Gulf Formation, (younger than Utica Shale Group), Ashgill , Upper Ordovician, near Martinsburg, New York State. Markus Martin preparation. Published in Fossilien, 3/08, pg. 158.
Wed 19th Dec 2007
Exceptional Preservation of Fossils in Pyrite 		Balcoracania dailyi (Pocock 1970). 12mm trilobite. Lower Cambrian. Soft body preservation of the trilobite’s gut is clearly in evidence. These occur in one locality only, from the Cape D’Estaing Formation, Emu Bay, South Australia.
Wed 19th Dec 2007
Soft part Preservation in Trilobites and their Sister Groups
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