Friday, July 31, 2015

Dinosaur Egg Fossils on Display

These pictures show dinosaur fossil eggs. It is thought more spherical or round eggs belong to herbivores while narrow and long eggs belonged to meat eating dinosaurs.


Inside of fossil egg that has mineralized.


Here is a model on display of what a baby dinosaur might look like.


Fossils were on display at Children's Museum of Indianapolis Dinosphere exhibit as of July 2015. They are on loan from John and Jack Hankla.

The museum was founded in 1925 and consists of an approximate 44,000 square meter facility on a 29 acre area site. Their natural science collection contains more than 10,000 items. Some of the items in the collection are the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, fossil of teenage T.rex, Christensen Mastodon, 3.5-4 billion year old Acasta Gneiss, and the Geisler geological collection. Learn more at this link.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Small Dasciocrinus Crinoid Calyx Fossil


This picture appears to show a Dasciocrinus sp. (Kirk, 1939) crinoid calyx fossil. It was found in the Big Clifty Formation of Crawford County, Indiana, USA. The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period. It is quite small about 1 cm tall.

Thanks to Kenny for the picture.

See more examples of this genus of fossil at: 

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Paladin chesterensis Trilobite Fossils


These pictures appear to show Paladin chesterensis (Weller and Weller, 1936) trilobite fossils. They were found in the Big Clifty Formation of Crawford County, Indiana, USA. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period.

Thanks to Kenny for the pictures.


Source:
http://www.amnh.org/our-research/paleontology/faq/trilobite-website/gallery-of-trilobites/carboniferous-period-trilobites/carboniferous-species-list/paladin-chesterensis

Have Rock Hammer Will Travel...Paladin

Monday, July 27, 2015

How to Be a Computer Generated Mosasaur


In January 2014, I wrote about How To Be A Megalodon Shark which was about a character in a very popular smartphone game Hungry Shark Evolution. In that posting, I was hoping they would create an arthrodire or mosasaur creature for the game. It was great when they created a Dunkleosteus in late 2014. Now they have created a Mosasaurus creature for the game. It takes quite a bit of virtual gold coins to get this animal and I still have some playing to do in order to get it. Here are some screen shots of the creature preview in the game. I look forward to playing it as it is smaller than the other two characters thus can navigate the underwater caverns better in the game.



This game is mixing modern fish and sharks with fossil sharks and marine reptiles: mosaurus (Mesozoic  Era - Cretaceous Period) Megalodon (Cenozoic Era - Neogene Period) and the Dunkleosteus (Paleozoic Era - Devonian Period).

Possible future additions to the creature library for this game could be the Mesozoic ichthyosaur. Since this is a game developed in England the Temnodontosaurus found by Joseph and Mary Anning in 1811-12 in Lyme Regis could be a good choice. Below image of fossil skull of Temnodontosaurus (originally Ichthyosaurus) drawing from wikipedia.org.




Learn more at this wiki:
http://hungry-shark.wikia.com/wiki/Mr._Snappy_(Mosasaurus)

http://hungry-shark.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Daddy_%28Dunkleosteus%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosasaurus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkleosteus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Unidentified Mississippian Period Shark Tooth Fossil


This picture shows an unidentified fossil shark tooth. It was found in the Somerset Shale of the Salem Limestone of Hardin County Kentucky, USA. The fossil dates back to the Mississippian Period.

Thanks to Kenny for the pictures.


Saturday, July 25, 2015

Skin Cast of Triceratops Dinosaur


This picture shows a cast of the skin texture of a Triceratops horridus dinosaur. The fossil was found in the Hell Creek Formation of Harding County, South Dakota USA. This animal existed in the late Cretaceous Period.

Fossil cast was on display at Children's Museum of Indianapolis Dinosphere exhibit as of July 2015. The museum was founded in 1925 and consists of an approximate 44,000 square meter facility on a 29 acre area site. Their natural science collection contains more than 10,000 items. Some of the items in the collection are the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, fossil of teenage T.rex, Christensen Mastodon, 3.5-4 billion year old Acasta Gneiss, and the Geisler geological collection. Learn more at this link.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Edmontosaurus Dinosaur Skin Imprint


This picture shows a cast of a duckbill dinosaur's skin texture. The dinosaur was the Edmontosaurus annectens. Fossil was found in the Lance Formation of Niobrara County, Wyoming, USA. This creature existed in the late Cretaceous Period.

On display at Children's Museum of Indianapolis Dinosphere exhibit as of July 2015. The museum was founded in 1925 and consists of an approximate 44,000 square meter facility on 29 acre area site.