Hoploscaphites nicoletti Options

[Gene Kooper]

I've been enjoying the last week or so packing everything up after 16 years in one house...Sigh.

However, it's not all bad. I finally unearthed several boxes of ammonite fossils I hadn't seen for 15 years. Many, many years ago, I visited a friend in Bismark, ND who had discovered a great ammonite locale in north-central South Dakota. The most common ammonite that we found on that field trip was Hoploscaphites nicoletti.

Here are a few photos from the first box I opened up.

Front and back of several Hoploscaphites nicoletti specimens. The back side of the largest fossil was not completely mineralized on the inside so you can see the structure of the chambers and suture patterns. In one of the other boxes I have a large specimen on matrix where the inside is also hollow. It has some amazing structural features including the siphuncle tube that allowed the ammonite to pump air and water to and from the chambers to control buoyancy. I just need to figure out which box it's in.

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Front and back of three Hoploscaphites nicoletti pieces that show the ribs and color fairly well.
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If I ever retire, I hope to finally have the time to prep some of the larger clusters.

[Gene Kooper]

Nature repeating itself. Polar Stratigraphic Clouds aka "nacreous" clouds aka "ammolite" clouds (for swizz).

These photos come from www.spaceweather.com

Also known as "nacreous" clouds, PSCs form in the lower stratosphere when temperatures drop to a staggeringly-cold -85ºC. High-altitude sunlight shining through tiny ice particles ~10µm wide produce bright iridescent colors by diffraction and interference.

Here is a link that includes information about the images captured by U.K. photographer, Andrew Greenwood.