Aladdin's Lamp Comes to Life

 This fossil clam is named Yoldia cooperi (Gabb, 1865), is approximately 4 million years old, and is found occasionally in the Purisima Formation along Monterey Bay. The genus Yoldia is named in honor of D. A. D.'Aquirra e Gadea, Count of Yoldi, a Danish shell collector. I'm not sure who Cooper was. I enjoy discovering this beautiful clam species because of its fine sculpture, its thin shell (which makes it challenging to collect unbroken so it keeps my skill set sharp), and its whimsical similarity to an Aladdin's Lamp! Also interesting and making it completely unique from all other mollusks in the Purisima is this species' long row of many fine hinge teeth and alternating sockets found along the majority of the dorsal margin of the shell, shown in the second photo above. Today, Yoldia cooperi lives in the eastern Pacific from Humboldt County to Baja California Sur and in fine sediments from 5 to 40 meters. Its habitat has likely not changed much in the past 4 million years, as it is found entombed in fine to medium sandstones of the Purisima as well. Shown here with some of the tools needed to extract it safely from the rock, including the consolidant; a liquid hardening compound. This particular specimen at the top was extracted over a period of several days in order to allow the successive applications of consolidant to fully dry before moving the specimen from its tomb. WT730 (Below), WT765 (Above). #Paleontologist, #Santa Cruz, #Monterey, #paleontology, #beach fossils, #Purisima, #Purisima Formation, #fossil, #pacific paleontology, @pacificpaleontology, #fossil hunting, #collecting techniques, #Bivalve, #Research, #Pliocene, 

CAUTION; Science experiment in progress!

This was one of our favorite labs in class. With the advent of the new NGSS Science Standards, models were shifted from static to dynamic, meaning they needed to model a process or function rather than a single slice in time, such as a stationary cell model. This model represents a batholith and I used this model in preparation for our annual trip to Yosemite for a week with 7th graders. A batholith is a large (at least 40 miles across) underground volume of semi-liquid igneous rock that rises, due to temperature differences, into the Crustal layer of the Earth but does not erupt onto the surface. The word batholith comes from the Greek bath or "deep" and lith or "rock". In the model, the hot plate represents the internal heat of the mantle, the red wax represents the igneous batholith, the sand represents the lower Crust and the water represents the upper Crust. The model also represents well the process of pluton formation: many pulses of igneous rock intrusion which combine to form a batholith. The Yosemite batholith; Half Dome, El Capitan, and most of the other rocks in the park, is part of the Sierra Nevada batholith and rose up into the Crust during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, 120-85 million years ago. It was later exposed by erosion. Interestingly, a geologic map of the face of El Capitan wasn't created until 2011-2013 when a multidisciplinary team created the first map. For more information refer to this link: https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/granite.htm #batholith, #Yosemite, #geology, #scienceteaching, #middleschool, #pluton, #tectonics, #California, #experiment, #modeling, #NGSS, @pacificpaleontology

Ancient Wentletraps

 This is the Wentletrap Opalia varicostata, Stearns, in the gastropod family Epitoniidae. The word "Wentletrap" is borrowed from the Dutch "a winding staircase" so these are called staircase or ladder snails and this one shown here is an extinct Pliocene to Pleistocene species (less than 2 million years to about 5.3 million years). This is a gorgeous little snail and was not known from the Purisima Formation until recently!! Today, Wentletraps hang out around sea anemones, from whom they get their nourishment! #fossilprep, #Purisima, #fossilsnails, #gastropods, #beachfossils, #timelapse, #paleontology, #paleontologist, #pacificpaleontology, @pacificpaleontology, 

Once thought to be in the genus Pandora...

Once thought to be in the genus Pandora, after further discoveries and systematic analysis of its internal and external anatomy, this clam is now known to be a new species in the genus Frenamya, Pandoridae, Purisima Formation, northern Monterey Bay, 3-5 million years. Pacific Paleontology,

#pacificpaleontology, #paleomitigation, #paleoprep, #paleo, #mitigationpaleontology, #fossil, #paleontologist, #paleontology, 

Microfossil sampling benthic foraminiferans...

Microfossil sampling benthic foraminiferans from the mudstone accumulated inside this 4-5 million year old Tresus pajaroanus clam. Benthic Foraminiferans are microscopic Protists that live on or in the the bottom sediments and are usually marine. Typically Forams are not well-preserved in sandstone here in the Purisima Formation. However, the fine mud and silt sediments that accumulated inside fossil clams such as this one often have a higher percentage of Forams preserved in them. Eastern Pacific Pliocene foraminifera are not well-studied and hopefully this project will add to our understanding of local environmental conditions and allow us to place the Purisima formation here within the larger biochronological framework.

Mitigation Paleontology Gets a Big Upgrade

Bubbles Bring the Happy on Capitola Beach