Natural History - Meteorite Dust from NWA Meteorites in Display Vial

An agatized Dicotaledon fruit specimen. 13.7 grams, 40 mm



From the Western Sahara Desert, Morocco. Acquired 1950s-1960s. From an old Bristol, UK, palaeontological collection.

The rectangular matrix containing a Knightia alta fish. 147 grams, 12.8 cm



From Wyoming (Green River Formation), USA. Acquired during 1980s. From the Pradi Collection, Boston, U.S.A.

Seasonally some 58 million years ago, in the Green River region of Wyoming, torrential rains fell in the mountains. They flowed down the mountain sides, forming wide shallow lakes in the valley below. During the dry season, these lakes would dry up due to evaporation (as happens in certain parts of Africa today). Millions of fish died in this short period of time. This climatic cycle happened over a 20-thousand-year period. Layer upon layer of mud entombed all these fish. At a much later date, volcanic activity uplifted this area to expose the fossils.

A right-side 'fossil' tusk of the extinct Mammuthus Primigenius; ivory yellow-brown in colour and finely preserved with the typically marked curvature of this species; with custom-made display stand. 2.29 kg total, 54 cm wide including stand



From the Siberian Tundra. From the private collection of Mr J S, Northamptonshire, UK. Property of a Cambridgeshire gentleman.

Mammoths were animals of the Ice Age; they co-existed with and were hunted by early man; Siberia is famed for discoveries of frozen mammoth carcasses (see 'Dima' and 'Lyuba' for examples) and for the hut circles where mammoth bones and tusks were used as building materials; tusks have been traded for at least 2,000 years and in modern times, Siberian natives still hunt for them and use the fossil ivory as raw material.