Ancient Oysters

This monstrosity was so large it would barely fit in your
palm. Found right where we were working :(

I was in the paleontological zone today! For whatever reason things just clicked and I couldn't get enough of prospecting/quarrying/sampling. With the field trip group safely back in Florida and no longer needing to be entertained, we visited a new site in the canal zone that had never been carefully examined or described before and set to doing just that. There were two main outcrops to focus on, one on either side of the vast pit that will eventually be a new channel of the expanded canal, basically right beside the Pedro Miguel locks. Aaron and Nicole went to measure and describe the western end, suspected to be a terrestrial, fluvial environment, while Pedro, Sam, and I did an initial observation and surface prospecting over on the opposite end, of which we knew very little. It didn't take long to conclude that we were in a shallow ocean/beach environment. The rock was a quartz-rich, well-rounded sandstone, and fossil oysters and petrified wood were everywhere to be found. Other minor fossils included some clams, fish vertebrae, limpets, and turtle bones. I don't know what it was, but something about the oyster fossils completely mesmerized me. The patterned layers of the shells, their textures, the colors, and the almost translucent appearance the inner surface has just struck me as so incredibly beautiful, despite their rather amorphous, unassuming shape. Long after we had collected enough representative fossils to please anyone, I was up on the outcrop looking for the blue/gray/white/pearl shells sticking out of the brownish sandstone. If a shell of any size looked to be at least 50% complete, I would swoop down on it, seeing if it had any characteristics to make it stand out from the others. There really is an immense range of color and patterns and textures within oyster shells. Some I was drawn to because they were so uniform and solid. Others because each individual sub-millimeter band alternated between dark and light. Others still for their metallic luster and impossibly smooth surface. By the end of the day I had two sample bags just for myself - much more than I'll truly be able to keep - but once I clean them up I'm hoping I'll be able to cut it down to just a handful. Never would have thought that I'd get hooked so bad on a spineless sea critter.

View of the canal from the highest point in the expansion area.