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Stone Arts of Alaska has available marine invertebrate
fossils of Silurian, Devonian, and Permian age,
all from southeast Alaska.
Xystriphyllum ("honeycomb coral") - Middle Devonian
Taimyrophyllum ("kiwi coral") - Lower Devonian
Favosites ("stingray coral") - Lower Devonian
Zaphrensis ("horn coral") -
Permian
Gastropods snails - Middle Devonian,
Silurian
Stromatolites - Devonian, Silurian
Pelecypods - Silurian
Amphipora - Silurian
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Xystriphyllum
Middle Devonian
Xystriphyllum (also called
Hexagonaria in the paleontological literature) was widespread during the
middle Devonian geologic period, approximately 380 million years ago.
Today, as fossils, it is also found in Australia, Western Canada,
Nevada, the Ural mountains of Russia, the Czech Republic, and China.
It has been extinct for approximately 355 million years. This coral
was a shallow water animal that lived in colonies. Each cell of the
fossil material is the skeletal remains of a separate animal.
They were stationary predatory animals, filter feeders with tentacles, like
todays sea anomies.
Xystriphyllum specimen--collection Stone Arts
of Alaska, not for sale.
Individual museum quality specimens, $50 to $200
Stone Arts of Alaska can supply quantity amounts
of this attractive specimen material. Raw stone can be acquired
(look under "Honeycomb coral" in our Lapidary Page) but polished pieces make
better specimen material. Inexpensive, this material makes excellent
stock for museum gift shops.
We employ two different methods of polishing.
Machine polished specimens are diamond polished on one side, its most
attractive side. The remainder is raw stone. Specimens polished by acid are first rounded by
tumbling. There are no sharp edges and the polish is all around.
Both methods produce excellent specimens.
Stick-on identification labels provided.
Xystriphyllum
specimens for sale by the box
typical boxes are pictured below
specimens--machine-polished
10 specimens at $10 each
20 specimens at $5 each
(50 specimens at $2 each not pictured)
specimens--tumbled and acid-polished
20 specimens at $5 each
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Other Marine Invertebrates
Stone Arts of Alaska can supply individual
specimens, polished or unpolished, of the following items.
Prices range from $20 to $200. (The specimens pictured below
are in collection of Stone Arts of Alaska and are not for sale.)
Taimyrophyllum coral - Lower Devonian
Favosites Lower Devonian (for prices of
unpolished stone, look under "Stingray coral" in "Lapidary stone")
Zaphrensis horn coral - Permian
Gastropods snails - Middle Devonian,
Silurian
Stromatolites - Devonian
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Fossils in Aphrodite Marble -
Silurian
Polished slabs or boulders of Aphrodite marble
are excellent for museum display. Smaller display pieces may
also be purchased. See Finished Products - Indoor -
Decorator Stones.
Some Paleontology: This
marble, technically speaking, a fossiliferous limestone, contains
mostly pelecypods but also brachiopods, gastropods, stromatolites,
amphipora, cephalopods,
and more. The visually dominant pelecypods are
of the species Pycnodesma. They can be gigantic, as big as
eleven inches in length. Interestingly, this species has never been
found outside southeast Alaska.
The fossils in the Golden
variety of Aphrodite are amphipora (circles) and stromatolites
(swirls). Nearly extinct today, stomatolites are the world's oldest known fossil. Some found
in Australia date back more than three billion years. Stromatolites also
occur in Royal Aphrodite. All the living forms now seen as fossils in this stone
lived in a shallow sea during Silurian times, roughly 420 million
years ago. Some catastrophic event, perhaps an underwater
landslide, brought about their sudden burial and death. They
fossilized as the limey mud that encapsulated them hardened into
stone. While the tectonic movement of the earth=s
plates makes the exact location of this ancient sea impossible to
determine, some paleontologists believe it was close to the equator. Riding atop the earth=s
semi-liquid mantle, the chunk of continental crust carrying these
fossilized tropical animals
Adocked@
with the North American plate along the Alaskan shore sometime
during the Cretaceous or Jurassic Periods, 65 to 190 million years
ago.
Pelecypods
Pelecypod and Brachiopod
Stromatolites and Amphipora (Royal Aphrodite)
Amphipora (Golden Aphrodite)
Gastropods (Snails)
Cephalopod
Amphipora (?)
Feel welcome to view our Alaskan fossil collection in Bellingham,
Washington.
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