| A pedicle view of the brachiopod Linoproductus. The specimen happens to represent my earliest exposure to fossil brachiopods. My father collected it from the lower to middle Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone during his summer field mapping project in White Pine County, Nevada, the last of many courses he completed to successfully attain a Bachelor Of Science Degree in geology from the University of Southern California (he went on to specialize in engineering geology, with a Master of Science degree in engineering geology from the University of Southern California), and then gave it to me upon returning when I was a youngster. This particular Linoproductus came from low in the Ely section, near the contact with the underlying upper Mississippian Diamond Peak Formation, so the brach is certainly early Pennsylvanian in geologic age. It has been silicified, by the way, replaced by silicon dioxide, lending to it a nice silvery sheen. |