Very rare Ordovician bryozoan, Escharopora maculata

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Bruce Williams
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Very rare Ordovician bryozoan, Escharopora maculata

Post by Bruce Williams »

Hi folks,

I love this fossil slab. It shows us a 3D snapshot (85mm X 40mm) of a small section of the Kentucky sea bed during the Upper Ordovician (about 450 million years ago). There is just so much to see in this beautifully prepped piece. The main specimen is the sickle-shaped bryozoan, Escharopora maculata which would have been attached to the sea bed by the pointed end.

E. maculata is a large colony of several thousand individual animals and it is surrounded by numerous trepostome bryozoans, brachiopods, a couple of sea urchin spines and various other Ordovician debris.

This fossil was found in the Fairview Formation, near Maysville, Kentucky and prepped by Jerry Rush from Cincinnati, Ohio.

The image was created from 2 manually stitched photos taken with my Minolta A2 (no stacking).

Bruce

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Last edited by Bruce Williams on Sat Mar 24, 2007 5:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Bruce,

This is a lovely specimen, perfectly photographed IMO. The lighting really shows off the surface texture, and your use of tiling (multiple images with no separation) preserves fine detail while not even pushing the envelope of the forum rules. In this case I will happily scroll to see the extra detail! :D

One technical note... As a "numbers guy", I can't help noticing that this image is captured at around 16.5 pixels/mm on the subject. That puts it clearly in the range of "more detail than can be seen with the (standard) unaided eye", which is only 12 pixels/mm. So despite that you shot this photo on a small sensor with a lens magnification of around 1:5, by my reading it is a legitimate "photomacrograph" in the sense of the fellow who defined the term: "a slightly enlarged picture or delineation of a macroscopical object produced by means of a lens and sensitized photographic plate" (ref). (We all have our hot buttons. Mine is defining "photomacrograph" in terms of lens magnification, instead of detail revealed to the viewer. :wink: )

--Rik

Mike B in OKlahoma
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Post by Mike B in OKlahoma »

Beautiful detail here, and a slick job of putting together the two shots!

Despite the big bryozoan, I find my eye drawn to the shells in the lower right, probably simply because they are familiar.
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin

beetleman
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Post by beetleman »

As for me..I looked at the detail in the bryozoan from top to bottom, then I looked at every little nook and cranny on the picture looking for hidden treasures. Wonderful picture Bruce and a wonderful fossil.
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

Bruce Williams
Posts: 1120
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:41 pm
Location: Northamptonshire, England
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Post by Bruce Williams »

Rik - Thanks for your very supportive comments - greatly appreciated. Interesting analysis too - I have followed your 'macro' as 'more detail than unaided eyes' posting in the Macro and Micro Technique forum with considerable interest. :D

Mike - Thanks for your encouraging words. ...just where would we be without good ol' Photoshop (or similar software) eh? :wink:

Doug - Thanks ol' buddy, I thought you'd like this one - it is a :smt055 beautiful slab isn't it :D

Bruce

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