Lago Pehoe, Patagonia, Chile | By Danielpivnick

This sample is remarkable. Original caption:

fms.fossils This is a shot of the abdomen of a near-perfect ichthyosaur I found at Lyme Regis last year. This one is so well preserved that much of the skin pigment and stomach contents are still preserved across the animal. This exceptional level of preservation is rare in the fossil record, and Lyme Regis is one of the few places where it can be found. Exceptional fossil locations where soft tissues can be found are known as Lagerstätten (singular Lagerstätte), or technically Konservat-Lagerstätten. This is from the German meaning ‘storage place’ and there are not many of them known in the world. While Lyme Regis is often forgotten as a fossil site of exceptional preservation, I would argue that it is one of the best, right up there with the more famous Chinese Lagerstätte deposits. With the advent of modern preparation techniques and expert preparators, the fossils from Lyme Regis are showing how well preserved they can be and the soft tissues have the potential to tell us a great deal about how the animals of the Early Jurassic seas lived. 

Star sapphire - the star shape is created by light reflecting off linear needles or minerals inside the larger crystal when it is polished into this shape

Just finished cutting this gorgeous Boulder Opal today! The blues and purples are insane! 😍

Can you believe this petrified wood?! These jammers are 1 1/4″.

Check out these rose quartz plugs!

#TlalocTuesday

Serpentine Rain God Mask

Mixtec. Mexico. 13th to 14th century

Many peoples in ancient Mexico made masks of different types and in a variety of materials. Some depict idealized human faces, others animals or supernatural beings. How the masks functioned is not always clear. Only a few have been discovered in archaeological contexts and life-uses are hard to make out. Face-size examples with holes for eyes and mouth were presumably worn in processions or on ceremonial occasions. Masks with no such openings may have been laid upon the dead; or they might have been tied to statuary or deity bundles, as the holes on the sides of the forehead of this mask suggest. Still others are small enough to be worn as pendants or as part of headdresses. This mask, carved from a light green serpentine, depicts the rain god Tlaloc with the characteristic ringed eyes, prominent teeth, and a mouth with an upper lip-moustache that curls on each side. He also wears a nose bar in the nasal septum.

The Met

Celestine/Celestite 💙

Jade Finial in the form of Dragon Head

Yuan Dynasty (13th - 14th Centuries)