• Cerdito Prospect Rift Crystals (CP10)

    Notes specific to this specimen: Both smokey quartz and amethyst crowded on the front face. Beautiful fracture infills showing on both sides. Also has a nice amethyst-lined hollow on the back with amethyst veins all over. This piece has a flat bottom so it stands up and displays very nicely. Take a look at the cut bottom and you’ll see the very graphic splitting of the matrix and the subsequent infilling. Fantastic piece!

     

    SIZE: 5″ x 4″ x 6″

     

    Quartz – Amethyst, Smokey, Citrine, Clear
    AGE: Mesoproterozoic Era – 1.1 billion years
    UNIT: Rove Formation
    SITE: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
    DATE: 2022

     

    Documentation: This authentic mineral specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

  • Cerdito Prospect Rift Crystals (CP7)

    Notes specific to this specimen: Face has a coating of really nice smokey quartz crystals with some isolated clear and amethyst mixed in. Beautiful healed fracture infills showing on both sides. Also has a nice amethyst-lined hollow on the back with associated smokey quartz. This piece has a cut-flat bottom so it stands up and displays very nicely. Take a look at the cut bottom and you’ll see the very graphic splitting of the matrix and the subsequent infilling. This is a fantastic piece!

     

    SIZE: 3″ x 3″ x 4″

     

    Quartz – Amethyst, Smokey, Citrine, Clear
    AGE: Mesoproterozoic Era – 1.1 billion years
    UNIT: Rove Formation
    SITE: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
    DATE: 2022

     

    Documentation: This authentic mineral specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

  • Agatized Coral (AC2)

    Notes specific to this specimen: This is an exceptional and exquisite carnelian agate pair with rare fortified agatized cavities and preserved microscopic internal structures. This cut and polished pair is mounted on a pleasing piece of Suwanee Limestone – which is the matrix material these specimens originated from. No other preparator mounts these specimens on their native matrix. Honestly, most people don’t even know how they formed, much less know the association with Suwanee Limestone! You can see how translucent the hollows are – the carnelian agate just glows! Zoom in and look at the lighter colored sections below the hollow and you’ll see that it’s actually lace agate. We’ve never seen this before This is a one-of-a-kind beautiful pair!

     

    SIZE: 9″x 4″x 5″

     

    NAME: Several species
    AGE: Oligocene Epoch- 34 million years
    UNIT: Suwanee Limestone
    SITE: Lowndes County, Georgia
    DATE: 2021

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin. In addition, an attractive and informative display card accompanies the specimen.

  • Fossil Sand Dollar and Clam (KH6)

    These well-preserved clams and sand dollars lived in a shallow sea that covered the San Joaquin Valley for millions of years. During storms the animals became buried in sediments which preserved the shells. Under heat and pressure, the shells altered into calcite, yet preserved their fine detail. Later, due to movement of the nearby San Andreas fault, the whole area was uplifted, becoming the Kettleman Hills. The Hills became famous for its oil in the 1920s. But the oil has since played out and the land is returning to its former native environment. We’ve polished the primary shells to show their beauty and detail. Iron and petroleum color the shells. We have spent years mapping the Hills and are the only people who know where to find these unique fossils.

     

    Notes specific to this specimen: Exquisite large brown polished sand dollar with two great polished clams and some unpolished clams beside them. This is a matrix piece that has a flat bottom so it stands up nicely.

     

    SIZE: 4″x 3″x 3″

     

    NAME: Psuedocardium & Dendraster
    AGE: Pliocene 4 million years
    UNIT: Etchegoin Formation
    SITE: Kettleman Hills, California

     

    Documents: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin. In addition, an attractive and informative display card accompanies the specimen.

  • Volcanic Bomb (EB12)

    Notes specific to this specimen: Large, rare, combination fusiform bomb. This is the result of three individual magma projectiles running into each other in flight. In this case the merge of these three individuals was early in the ejection event but after the individual projectiles had started acquiring their own individual character. The combination of these three bombs resulted in one very large cigar-shaped bomb which acquired it’s own form which dominated the final shape before falling back to Earth.

    SIZE: 15″ x 6″ x 5″

     

    NAME: Various forms
    AGE: Pliocene Epoch- 5 million years
    UNIT: Banbury Formation
    SITE: Elko County, Nevada

    DATE: 2020

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

     

  • Volcanic Bomb (EB14)

    Notes specific to this specimen: Rare double bomb. These unique specimens form when two magma projectiles run into each other in flight before they completely harden. In this case the merge was early in the ejection event, before the two projectiles had started to acquire their own individual character. Instead the combination of the two was almost obliterated by the overall form taking shape before they fell back to Earth.

     

    SIZE: 9″ x 6″ x 4″

     

    NAME: Various forms
    AGE: Pliocene Epoch- 5 million years
    UNIT: Banbury Formation
    SITE: Elko County, Nevada

    DATE: 2020

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

     

  • Dinosaur Bones (D1)

    Notes specific to this specimen: This is a very well preserved neural arch and process of a cervical vertebrae, probably about midway down the neck of a hadrosaur (bipedal) dinosaur. The centrum is not present. The fine detail on the bone surface is exquisite and remarkably well preserved. This exceptional piece has no reconstruction.

     

    SIZE: 5″ x 5″ x 3″

     

    NAME: Edmontosaurus
    AGE: Cretaceous Period – 68 million years
    UNIT: Lance Creek Formation
    SITE: Lance Creek, Wyoming

    DATE: 1992

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

  • Crystalized Clam (OK4)

    Crystalized fossil clams like this are exceptionally rare. These clams lived in a shallow sea that covered most of Florida 2 million years ago. A sudden storm event buried the clams, trapping cavities inside. When the shells began to dissolve, it provided the material necessary to grow calcite crystals in the open spaces. These unusual fossils are known from only one site, an old quarry near Lake Okeechobee. The quarry played out and flooded in 2007. We excavated this in 2023. An attractive and informative display card accompanies the specimen.

     

    Notes specific to this specimen: There are two clams here in this piece of matrix – one inside the other – creating a double hollow with great dogtooth calcite crystals replacing the inner clamshell and some crystals in the outer one as well. A unique and rare find.

    SIZE: 6″x 4″x 5″

     

    NAME: Mercenaria permagna
    AGE: Pleistocene 2 million years
    UNIT: Nashua Formation
    SITE: Okeechobee County, Florida

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin. In addition, an attractive and informative display card accompanies the specimen.

  • Giant Fossil Shark Tooth with Coral

    Notes specific to this specimen: An incredible find! Beautiful huge megalodon shark tooth with soft coral attachment. This 5 1/2″ specimen was discovered in 2000 on the bottom of the ocean off North Carolina and has been kept as found. It was discovered by the greatest shark tooth hunter ever – the late, great, Vito Bertucci – aka “Megalodon Man”. Vito was from the East Coast and well known as the most active collector of giant shark teeth ever and the creator of the largest shark jaw ever assembled. He passed away in 2004 while diving for teeth in the Ogeechee River, Georgia. There is some stabilization in the root but nothing has been done to the tooth itself other than cleaning it. Care has been taken to conserve the piece intact. Even the purple color of the soft coral is preserved. We traded for this from a private collector.

     

    Tooth Size: 5 1/2″

     

    NAME: Otodus megalodon
    AGE: Miocene Epoch, 15 million years
    SITE: Atlantic Ocean, North Carolina
    DATE: 2000

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin.

  • Crystal Clam Wall (OKW7)

    Notes specific to this specimen: One of a kind unbelievable specimen! This was dug out in 2023 as several pieces that have been reconstructed into a continuous matrix piece with breathtaking beauty. This is the largest crystal clam matrix specimen in the world. There are over 50 crystalized fossil clams, two crystalized conchs, along with scallops, olive shells, welks, corals and hundreds of other fossil shells in this magnificent museum piece.

     

    HOW THEY FORMED
    The area around Lake Okeechobee, Florida was a shallow sea about 2 million years ago. These clams lived in the sandy mud near the shoreline at the time. Sudden storm events – such as hurricanes and tropical storms – periodically buried the area under deep sediments, trapping the clams and other shellfish that lived there. As their bodies decayed, the process left behind cavities in the shells. With the heat and pressure that accompanied the pile-up of sediments, the original shell material (aragonite) became unstable and began to dissolve away. As it happened this provided the elements necessary to grow pure calcite crystals in the open spaces within some of the shells. It has a sturdy backing of plywood with an aluminum frame allowing this piece to be hung either vertically or horizontally. It’s currently on display at 1889 Studios, in the Uptown Rapid (formerly Rushmore Mall) complex in Rapid City, SD. Contact us for shipping options.

     

    SIZE: 3′ x 6′ x 10″

     

    NAME: Mercenaria permagna
    AGE: Plio-Pleistocene – 2 million years
    UNIT: Nashua Formation
    SITE: Okeechobee County, Florida
    DATE: 2023

     

    Documentation: This authentic fossil specimen comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and Origin. In addition, an informative display card accompanies the specimen

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