Natural History - Polished Shell Necklace Bead Group

A specimen of polished amber with insect inclusion. 0.93 grams, 25 mm



Ex private UK collection formed in the 1980s. Property of an East Sussex, UK, teacher.

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.

The round matrix displaying three Knightia alta fossil fish with faint remains of another. 168 grams, 13.6 cm



Ex Lincolnshire, UK, collection.

In southwest Wyoming (and parts of Colorado and Utah) in the Green River Formation are found some of the world's most outstanding specimens of fossil fish. The Green River system was composed of three lakes: Lake Ulinta, Lake Gosiute and Fossil Lake. These Eocene lakes lay in a series of intermountain basins formed by geological events that uplifted the Rocky Mountains during the early Tertiary time. The climate was much different from the desert-like climate of this area today. Both the fauna (crocodiles, alligators, boa constrictors and some subtropical fish families) and the flora (such as large palm trees) indicate a climate much like that found along the Gulf Coast today. Large amounts of ash found in the sediments indicate that volcanoes were particularly active at this time.