The section of the Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History devoted to the creatures of earth's truly ancient past is a place I could spend hours just observing them. They are truly stunning and other-worldly in spite of their obvious terran provenance! The trilobites come largely from Morocco where there is something of an industrial trilobite complex of diggers, polishers and sellers. The polishers use dental drills to careful remove the stone leaving the emerging trilobite with all of its totally weird and wonderful details frozen in time and ready to skurry once again across the sandy bottoms of an ancient sea. The others phantoms of the past on display here come from Alberta, Canada and places like Iowa and Indiana. And they all fascinate the hell out of me.
Crinoid, Gilbertsocrinus tuberosus, Mississippian Period
Crawfordsville, Indiana
Crinoid, Uperocrinus nashvillae, Mississippian Period
Iowa
Sea Urchin, Tylocidaris clavigera, Cretaceous Period
England
TRILOBITES!
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