During the aftermath of storms in Florida, beachcombers scour the beaches for modern-day seashells and other treasures. But on rare occasions, they find something hard to believe. It is a concretion that in size and shape resembles a crab. But the crab is covered in what looks like sand. What could this be?
The story of "ghost crabs" is unique. Crabs are so rare as fossils that they are a prized find. Crabs and other crustaceans have a hard carapace or external shell. This exoskeleton is thin and fragile and falls apart immediately upon death. These discarded shells break into small pieces when washed up on the beach or are broken apart in the tides and currents. But in the case of the ghost crabs, they are found essentially complete. Locals along the line from Eau Gallie Causeway to Pineda, Florida, call these fossils stoned crabs, beach crabs and coquina crabs.
WHAT IS COQUINA?
Coquina is a sedimentary rock formed almost entirely of ground-up fragments of shells from mollusks and other invertebrates and cemented with grains of sand.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
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This story is from the July 2023 edition of Rock&Gem Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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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.\"
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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!
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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.
