A month ago, I published Part I of this series. I started that essay by explaining some of the background for my dad’s fossils. I really recommend that you go back and read at least the first page and maybe the whole thing. You’ll understand a lot more about why I have these fossils and where they came from. The direct link is:
Mary Ellen Jasper – Stromatolite
One of the most impressive fossils in my dad’s collection is this huge chunk of Mary Ellen jasper - a fossilized stromatolite. It’s one of the oldest fossils found on Earth – dated almost 2 billion years ago. That’s twice as old as my Utah “Rugosa” horn coral and West Desert trilobites - the oldest fossils from Utah - and almost half way to the very beginning of Earth as a planet. These incredibly ancient fossils grew in the earliest seas. Living stromatolites can still be found in various places. One of the most famous is Shark Bay, Australia. See: https://www.sharkbayvisit.com.au/stromatolites/stromatolites.
It’s a tourist site and tends to exaggerate. They claim that living stromatolites are only found in two places but they don’t document their claim. Wikipedia lists at least four and they missed the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Heck! They have a pet stromatolite from the Great Salt Lake in the dinosaur tracks museum in St. George, Utah -- just down the hill from me.
I’m sure my dad didn’t collect this one himself … it’s not from around here and my dad was never up there. “There” is the Mesabi Range in northern Minnesota. This beautiful rock was, and still is, common and in good supply, especially for such a great fossil. This snippet from a history book of stromatolites makes the point very well.
"In the early days of iron mining in Minnesota, the location of stromatolite material would indicate that an iron rich vein was close. The Mary Ellen Stromatolite material could be as much as 15 feet thick and would have to be removed before mining could commence. To the miners this material was considered a nuisance and a waste product." From the book: "Stromatolites Ancient, Beautiful and Earth-Altering" - Bruce Stinchcomb & Bob Leis 2015.
The two main components of the rock are red agate and hematite – an iron ore - and you can see that it polishes very well. If you’re interested in a chunk of Mary Ellen Jasper, there are half a dozen companies that mine it today for the rockhound and tourist crowd. A quick search will find them. But if you just want a piece of hematite, send me a message! I’ve got some of that!
Fossil Horn ? -- With a Twist
Here’s a fossil that I “think” (no real idea, honestly) my dad found. I also “think” that it’s a chunk of horn. It doesn’t look like anything dinosaur-y, but then, what do I know?
It does look like a great fossil. There were plenty of other animals that were not dinosaurs that lived long enough ago to produce great fossils. Pseudomorph replacements of organic items can happen in a much shorter time than the approximately 100 million year age of most dinosaurs.
But I promised you a twist!
Here it is!
Another Horny Fossil (Below)
I present to you the only fossil in my dad’s collection that I am certain I found personally when I was a kid living at home with my dad. It was there in the desert north of Arches National Park. We were looking for dino bone at the time but we didn’t find any. I found this instead.
This was the only one we could find – there didn’t appear to be any others like this around anywhere.
I’ve shown this to a lot of people since I have a personal connection with it. People generally say, “Yep! It’s a good one!” But they never tell me what it’s a good one of.
The internal cell structure looks like bone cells in a deer horn and the outside does too. What do you think?
That trip was notable for another reason. We were jeeping across untraveled desert and we saw a great snowy owl in a dead tree about a quarter mile away. Way out there in the desert! It was so notable that my dad actually tried jeeping over to get a better look. When my dad was rockhunting, it took a LOT to deflect him in any way.
This was WAAAY before cell phones … or even decent cameras … so of course I don’t have any pictures. But as a little kid, it seemed to me that magnificent bird had a wing span of twenty feet. What was he doing way out there?
So many things have changed since I was a kid on the desert with my dad.
Turritella
The Fossil That Lies About Its Name
This rock was given to me by a friend. (Thanks Allan!) To my knowledge, there is none in my dad’s collection of rocks. It’s actually a chunk of agatized snail shells. It’s really a beautiful fossil and quite popular. I don’t have any slabbed or polished or I’d show you a nicer picture, but a quick search will yield dozens.
This is a fairly common fossil from the Green River formation that occurs widely in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. The Green River formation is a fossil layer rich in fish, plants, and just about anything that once lived in or around the water around 45 million years ago – including snails.
I find two things interesting about Turritella agate. The first is that geologists love to point out that it’s not made of Turritella snail shells. The actual name of the fossil snails is Elimia tenera, family Pleuroceridae. You unlearned rockhounds got it wrong. … So there! (I can barely contain my shame!) But be strong. It’s universally known as Turritella agate. There are hundreds of tons of it out there and that’s what everyone calls it.
The second thing is that it’s a great example of how third world countries – and China – have conquered big chunks of the rockhound world right along with computer chips.
Because there’s a good supply of Turritella – enough for traders at the Tucson commercial rock show to send tons to factories somewhere else – you can find plenty of beads, cabs, rings, necklaces, pendants and so forth available from drop shippers at Ebay and Etsy. Did you know that rocks and precious metals are in the top ten exports from China accounting for $71 Billion in 2021?
I don’t know if there is anything wrong with that or not. I can’t decide. What do you think?
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