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Fossil Focus Exhibits

Ammonite Models

New! Life reconstructions of Placenticeras meeki and Baculites grandis two very different ammonites that lived in the Late Cretaceous. Placenticeras, the coiled ammonite is 24" in diameter and Baculites, the straight ammonite, is 88" long.

Introduction to Fossils

Fossils take many forms. Two cases explore fossils themselves:

Learning from Fossils: What do fossils tell us? View case index
How are Fossils Made? Learn the difference between petrification, carbonization and impressions. View case index

Ammonites

Ammonites are a group of mollusks that went extinct 65 million years ago. Most ammonoids had their shells coiled into a flat disk, though the earliest forms were cone shaped, and the baculites of the Cretaceous had a small coil at the end of a cone shaped shell.

Ammonite bodies resembled the modern day squid. Some ammonites grew to six feet (2 meters) in diameter. View case index

Stromatolite

Stromatolites are among the oldest fossils known, dating as far back as 3.5 billion years. They have been found in shallow marine environments as representatives of the interaction of the earliest forms of life, cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, and their sedimentary environment.

Plants

Plants have been on the planet for 400 million years. Learn about the evolution of wood and see fossilized extinct trees and ferns.

Insects

Primitive, wingless, insects are first seen in the fossil record approximately 380 million years ago. Insect fossils displayed here date back to the Jurassic Period. They include insects in amber as well as impression fossils. View case index

Cephalopods

Ancient cephalopods, including belemnites and ammonoids are displayed as well as specimens of their modern-day relative, the nautilus. Beautiful ammonoid fossils include specimens with chambers filled with quartz crystals and with iridescent outer shells. View case index

Echinoderms

Ancient echinoderms, including sea lilies, sea stars, sand dollars and sea biscuits are displayed here. The collection contains some very detailed specimens of sea lilies. View case index

Trilobites

Trilobites are arthropods which lived from 570-240 million years ago. Many different types of trilobites are shown here from the U.S., Africa, and Canada. View case index