Telltale tracks and dimples in the sediment alerted
Telltale tracks and dimples in the sediment alerted
Along a bend in the Apalachicola River, 50 miles west of Tallahassee, Florida’s largest slice of visible bedrock towers more than 100 feet above the surrounding banks. With a rich fossil record of plants, Alum Bluff offers a glimpse of Florida’s forests 13 to 16 million years ago, and paleobotanists
fossil leaves, fruit, pollen and flowers in exposed sediment
A ruler and scale can tell archaeologists the size and weight of a fragment of pottery – but identifying its precise color can depend on individual perception. So, when a handheld color-matching gadget came on the market, scientists hoped it offered a consistent way of determining color, free of hum
assess the hue, color intensity and lightness of sediment
Whether you’re a casual seeker or a passionate paleontologist, living in Florida puts a treasure trove of fossil shark teeth in easy reach. Here’s a few things to know if you want to try your luck. 1: You’re allowed to collect and keep fossil shark teeth. While most vertebrate fossils and fossil s
Because fossils are usually buried in sediment layers
Places like the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles echo famous prehistoric discoveries. But at the bottom of a sinkhole near the small Florida town of Bell in Gilchrist County lies the richest Early Miocene vertebrate fossil locality in the world, known as Thomas
of an unidentified species discovered in the clay sediment
For a few weeks each year, dozens of people stop their everyday activities to put on clothes they don’t mind getting dirty, drive to the middle of nowhere and dig in the dirt and mud for fossils. Neither professional archaeologists nor paleontologists, the volunteers are like angels for the Flori
Volunteers are instructed to clear away small amounts of sediment
Researchers picking through the contents of fossil clams from a Sarasota County quarry found dozens of tiny glass beads, likely the calling cards of an ancient meteorite. Analysis of the beads suggests they are microtektites, particles that form when the explosive impact of an extraterrestrial ob
They pried open fossil clams, washing the sediment
Our 2009 volunteer fossil dig was at the famous Miocene site Thomas Farm in rural Gilchrist County, Florida. It ran from October 24 through November 24. Despite a couple of rained-out days near the end which limited us to 18 working days, we had a great response from the public, with 115 different p
resulted in an estimated four tons of fossil-bearing sediment
A new study co-authored by a Florida Museum researcher provides the first direct chronological test of sequence stratigraphy, a powerful tool for exploring Earth’s natural resources. The model allows geologists to better understand how sedimentary rocks are related to one another in time and
from multiple millennia were mixed within the same sediment
Contrary to previous evidence, a new Florida Museum of Natural History study shows the Isthmus of Panama was most likely formed by the Central American Peninsula colliding slowly with the South American continent through tectonic plate movement over millions of years. The study, co-authored by Fl
Jones (left) and Bruce MacFadden examine fossils and sediment
