This interest follows on discoveries of spectacularly preserved ancient birds and bird-like dinos in Liaoning Province, China. The sediments there preserved bones and soft features like impressions, internal organs, and feathers.
Paleontologists studying non-dinosaurian flying reptiles (the Pterosaurs) soon jumped on the bandwagon. They began noting what appeared to be a fuzzy covering like gosling down on what was previously considered to be leathery, bat-like wings. Suddenly, books picturing Mesozoic dinosaurs and reptiles became filled with shaggy, fuzz-covered pterodactyl.
But hold on! A recent study indicates that what folks took to be a coating of down may have been fibers from the wing membrane’s internal structure. Such fibers appear to have peeled away like thin filaments after death and before the preservation process. It appears, we may well be back to wings like leather. It would seem that, like Fuzzy Wuzzy the bear in the popular nursery rhyme, Terry the pterodactyl wasn’t really fuzzy. Was he?
ALL DIAMONDS ARE NOT CREATED EQUALLY
This story is from the January 2021 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
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This story is from the January 2021 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
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MORGAN HILL POPPY JASPER
In California, there are very few places to collect semi-precious stones. Many locations from the past have been either exhausted of the material or the land has been developed.
THE ACORN
The briolette gemstone has the same design attributes of a regular gemstone, however, the pavilion is elongated and the crown is usually domed. This is perfect for an elegant pendant, earrings or a pendulum.
HOW TO PUT A PROTECTIVE CAP ON A CAB
To protect a specimen cab, often a cap is needed. In my case, I had a slab with the because of the color of the background and the pattern. This background had a more silicified consistency than most sandstones. It had no graininess like most sandstone, so I'm inclined to compare it to a jasper. The pattern was typical of a dendrite.
The Resilient Revival of Anne Brontë & Her Stones
For the first time, the Anne Brontë rock collection underwent complete description and identification, and along with Professor Hazel Hutchison of Leeds University and Dr. Enrique Lozano Diz at ELODIZ (a company specializing in spectroscopy analysis), an analysis of that collaboration, Anne Brontë and Geology: A Study of her Collection of Stones, was published in April 2022 in Volume 47, Issue 2 of the peer-reviewed journal, Brontë Studies & Gazette.\"
Amazing Women with Rock-Solid Careers
Explorers, Geologists, Educators & Jewelry Makers...
The Case of the Bleeding Glacier
It's a gory sight called Blood Falls. Ever since British geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor first noted it in 1911, it has been a mystery.
Asteroid Samples Are Said to Hold Invaluable Secrets
If Only Scientists Can Pop the Lid!
Paleontologists Embrace a New Method for Seeing Fossils within Rock
Fossil bone can be delicate. Attempts to remove it from a hard rock matrix by picking and scratching or etching with acids can be time-consuming and/or may end up obliterating that which you hope to study.
Need a Map of the Ocean Floor?
Call in the Seals!
A Step Closer to Hydrogen, the "Climate-Friendly Fuel"
As I reported last June, the world is racing to find sustainably renewable, nonpolluting sources of energy to replace our carbon-based reserves of coal, oil and gas.