

Leitz Ortholux microscope
4X Leitz projection eyepiece plus 1/3x relay lens
Image No.1
Horizontal Field of View 10.25mm
13 images at .005 inch increments
Nikon 1.2x Plan Achromat objective
Diffused Fiber Optic Illumination
Image No.2
Horizontal Field of View 10.25mm
15 images at .005 inch increments
Nikon 1.2x Plan Achromat objective
Diffused Fiber Optic Illumination
Canon 50D
Zerene PMax and Photoshop 7 processing.
Last summer a field trip was taken to a local quarry to do some fossil hunting. The quarry, in Dixon Illinois, exposes a 450 million year old epeiric sea floor that back then covered the American Midwest. The orientation of the North American continent at the time put Illinois close to where the Bahamas are today. All life of the period has now been turned into limestone of the Platteville Group.
Bits and pieces from the processing of larger specimens have ended up under the microscope. Most of the microscopic animal life that was deposited is in pieces or pretty well crushed up but intact shells of some clams survive as in image number two.
In image number one I believe the circular objects are crinoid ossicles. And I believe that I have identified the infant clam resting upon the more massive adult as both Hesperorthis concave Cooper.
Walt