The lower jaw of Weewarrasaurus pobeni. Image credit: Bell et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.6008
Posted on 01/17/2019 10:37:36 AM PST by ETL
When Mike Poben, an opal buyer and and fossil fanatic, bought a bucket of opal from an Australian mine, he was surprised to find to find what looked like an ancient tooth in the pile.
Later, he also found a fossilized jaw piece — one that was shiny and glistening with opal.
After showing the two opalized specimens to paleontologists in 2014, Poben learned that they were part of a previously unknown dog-size dinosaur species, a new study finds. This dino lived about 100 million years ago in Australia, back when the landscape was lush and dotted with lakes.
The fossils originally came from a mine in Wee Warra, near the town of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. The mine's amazing name gave the paleontologists an opportunity that was too good to pass up, so they named the newfound Cretaceous-age dinosaur Weewarrasaurus pobeni. ..."
"Occasionally, a bone from a land animal, like a dinosaur, would wash out to sea" and fossilize, Bell said. There, they may encounter silica minerals in the water, the solution that makes opal. Sometimes when these bones fossilized into rock, these minerals would accumulate in the fossils' cavities, laying down opal. Other times, if the organic bone was still present, these silica minerals could take its shape, preserving its internal structure as opal, according to Geology In, a news site focused on Earth sciences.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The lower jaw of Weewarrasaurus pobeni. Image credit: Bell et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.6008
It is extremely rare for conditions to be right for formation of fossils; and even more rare for opalised fossils to form. Usually, only the hard parts of living things fossilise – for example seed pods, wood, teeth, bones and shells. This often happens after the plant or animal (or a part of it) is buried in sand or other sediments that slowly turn to stone.
Opal forms in cavities within rocks. If a cavity has formed because a bone, shell or pinecone was buried in the sand or clay that later became the rock, and conditions are right for opal formation, then the opal forms a fossil replica of the original object that was buried. We get opalised fossils of two kinds:
1) Internal details not preserved: Opal starts as a solution of silica in water. If the silica solution fills an empty space left by a shell, bone etc that has rotted away – like jelly poured into a mould – it may harden to form an opalised cast of the original object.
Most opalised shell fossils are 'jelly mould' fossils – the outside shape is beautifully preserved, but the opal inside doesn’t record any of the creature’s internal structure.
2) Internal details preserved: If the buried organic material hasn’t rotted away and a silica solution soaks into it, when the silica hardens it may form an opal replica of the internal structure of the object. This happens sometimes with wood or bone.
http://www.geologypage.com/2017/04/opalised-fossils-form.html
Ammonite
Snail (gastropod)
Belemnite ("Belemnites were superficially squid-like. They possessed ten arms of equal
length studded with small inward-curving hooks used for grasping prey."[2]-Wikipedia)
Fossil Wood
Ammonite
Pine cone
WTH? They didn’t turn to oil?
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%.
Because of its amorphous character, it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are classed as minerals.
It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. Opal is the national gemstone of Australia.[4]
There are two broad classes of opal: precious and common.
Precious opal displays play-of-color (iridescence), common opal does not.[5]
Play-of-color is defined as “a pseudochromatic optical effect resulting in flashes of colored light from certain minerals, as they are turned in white light.”[6]
The internal structure of precious opal causes it to diffract light, resulting in play-of-color.
Depending on the conditions in which it formed, opal may be transparent, translucent or opaque and the background color may be white, black or nearly any color of the visual spectrum.
Black opal is considered to be the rarest, whereas white, gray and green are the most common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal
A real Fred Flintstone pet Dino.
There, they may encounter silica minerals in the water, the solution that makes opal.
...
I just looked up opal on Wiki. It’s amorphous and has a similar hardness to glass, so does that mean it’s a naturally occurring glass?
pretty-lookin’ fossils!
Doggosaurus.
yoo-hoo...
Definition of glass
1: any of various amorphous materials formed from a melt by cooling to rigidity without crystallization: such as
a: a usually transparent or translucent material consisting typically of a mixture of silicates
b: a material (such as obsidian) produced by fast cooling of magma
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glass
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Definition of opal
a usually amorphous mineral that is a hydrated silica softer and less dense than quartz and typically with definite and often marked iridescent play of colors and is used especially as a gem
This thing was kangaroo-like. So it would be more like the Rubble's "Hoppy" than the Flintstone's Dino.
""Weewarrasaurus was a gentle herbivore about the size of a kelpie dog [a type of Australian herding dog]," said study lead researcher Phil Bell, a senior lecturer of paleontology at the University of New England in Australia.
"They got around on two legs and had a long tail used for balance. Because they were small and didn't have horns or particularly sharp claws for defense, they were probably quite timid and would have traveled in small herds or family units for protection."
In that sense, these dinosaurs were likely the kangaroos of Cretaceous Australia, Bell told Live Science. "I think I would have liked one as a pet."
Forget about the Rubble’s pet.
Thanks. Other than the hot melt for glass they seem similar.
Man... Pretty stuff! The opalized Ammonite has got to be priceless. Look at the color in that. Even if it wasn’t a whole organism it would be quite a find just because of the size and color in that piece. Make a nice pendent. lol
I saw a rapper on tv with opalized teeth.
Does the jamoke in the photo have opalized teeth?
Considering that all we have are fossils, and that the teeth appear to be from a herbivore, I’m not certain how the “scientists” can come to the conclusion that the behavior is “timid” and “gentile.” There are modern herbivores that are neither timid nor gentle.
6ix9ine.
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