Gem Bone

[1dave]

Most of the "Gem Bone" shown here is from Gembone Connoisseurs - The Beauty of Gembone.


Don Wickham


Jake Crossley, ‎Gembone Connoisseurs - The Beauty of Gembone

Sorry, Facebook images don't like to be posted elsewhere.

Dinosaurs began and ended in the Mesozoic Era (251 to 65.5 million years ago). That was the dinosaur age, and they covered all continents.
The Mesozoic is broken up into three periods. The Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.







250 MA - End of Permian, Beginning of Triassic, breakup of Gondwanaland: came with a bang!

A 30 mile diameter asteroid slammed into Wilks Land Antartica, formed a 300 mile (500 km) diameter crater, and broke up the Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward,initiated the Siberian Traps in Russia (The Siberian Traps form a large region of volcanic rock, known as a Large Igneous Province (LIP), in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event which formed the traps, one of the largest known volcanic events of the last 500 million years of Earth's geological history, continued for a million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, about 251 to 250 million years ago.
Vast volumes of basaltic lava paved over a large expanse of primeval Siberia in a flood basalt event. Today the area covered is about 2 million km2—roughly equal to western Europe in land area—and estimates of the original coverage are as high as 7 million km2. The original volume of lava is estimated to range from 1 million to 4 million km3.)

These events combined caused The Permian-Triassic extinction, as it is known, which wiped out most life on land and in the oceans, and allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant land life form.

In the Triassic primitive dinosaurs came into being along with marine reptiles. Some of the first species of dinosaurs were the Plateosaurus, Eoraptor, Herrerasaurus, Pisanosaurus, Saturnalia, and Staurikosaurus.



206Ma Triassic time ends \Jurassic time begins: Breakup of Pangea

205 Ma Triassic-Jurassic Mass Extinction Event: About half of the species on Earth were wiped out. 20% of marine families and 55% of marine genera, and 70% to 75% of all species went extinct, including non-dinosaurian archosaurs (other than crocodiles). Some therapids, and most of the large amphibians and mammal-like creatures were eliminated. Around 80% of all land quadrupeds also went extinct. With most of their competition having been wiped out, the reign of the dinosaurs officially began. Non-dinosaurian archosaurs continued to dominate aquatic environments, while non-archosaurian diapsids continued to dominate marine environments.
This event happened in less than 10,000 years, just before the supercontinent Pangea began to break apart. There are several theories as to why this extinction happened, but nothing has been concretely found to determine the exact cause. The leading theories are gradual climate change, sea-level fluctuations, pulse of ocean acidity, massive volcanic eruptions (specifically from the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, or CAMP), or asteroid impact though a telltale crater has yet to be found.
The compounding of an asteroid impact triggering the massive floods of CAMP lava and initiating the breakup of Pangea may explain the Triassic-Jurassic extinction.

In the Jurassic Period dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus, and carnivores such as Allosaurus flourished. The first reptiles with primitive abilities to fly, such as Archaeopteryx appeared. The dinosaurs of this time period began to evolve much larger while many ocean dwelling reptiles were becoming extinct. In this Period the evolution of long necked Sauropods was at its peak.



144Ma Jurassic time ended \ Cretaceous time began: Breakup of Brazil and Africa
Large amounts orf lava flowed in the Pacific Ocean bed as Brazil separated from Namibia Africa.
The Paraná-Etendeka traps (or Paraná and Etendeka Plateau; or Paraná and Etendeka Province) comprise a large igneous province which includes both the main Paraná traps (in Paraná Basin, a South American Geological basin) as well as the smaller severed portions of the flood basalts at the Etendeka traps (in northwest Namibia and southwest Angola). The original basalt flows occurred 128 to 138 million years ago. The province had a post-flow surface area of 1.5 x 106 km² and an original volume projected to be in excess of 2.3 x 106 km³.[1][2] This is where the tall "Cathedral Agate Geodes" were formed.



During the Cretaceous Period the Ceratopsidae family begin to form which includes many plated dinosaurs with defense body features such as spikes like Triceratops. At the end of this Period and Era there was a large dinosaur extinction which wiped out most dinosaurs living on the earth. THEY still argue about this, but I believe a huge asteroid broke up and at least three pieces hit the earth nearly simultaneously.

65.17 ± 0.64 Ma * Boltysh, Ukraine 24 km, N 48° 45', E 32° 10'
< 65 Ma * Eagle Butte, Alberta, Canada 10 km, N 49° 42', W 110° 30'
< 65 Ma * Vista Alegre, Brazil 9.5 km, S 25° 57', W 52° 41'

65 Ma * Shiva crater offshore of India 500 km Not officially recognized. 3 1/3 X larger than Chicxulub!
64.98 ± 0.05 Ma * Chicxulub, Yucatan, Mexico 150 km, N 21° 20', W 89° 30' 2nd largest recognized impact crater on earth!

Their bones must have been immediately buried to be preserved, but many have.
The earliest found were mistaken for dragon bones. ( My, what big teeth you have ! )



D-bone can be found anywhere strata of those time periods still remain, but some of the best material is found in the Morrison Formation from the Jurassic Period, deposited some 150 million years ago. The Morrison is usually seen as dark brown layers as in the photo below.










by Don Wickham‎

[1dave]

My question is "What happened in the Rocky Mountain region 150 million years ago to bury so many dinosaurs" ?

As you look at the map of the San Juan Basin, it is obviously the result of a drying lake bed, with the center the last to dry.

The outer ring is ""Smectite," of which there are many types including:

Alternative title: smectitic clay

Bentonite, clay formed by the alteration of minute glass particles derived from volcanic ash. It was named for Fort Benton, Mont., near which it was discovered.

The formation of bentonite involves the alteration of volcanic glass to clay minerals; this requires hydration (taking up or combination with water) and a loss of alkalies, bases, and possibly silica, with the preservation of the textures of the original volcanic glass. Bentonite consists chiefly of crystalline clay minerals belonging to the smectite group, which are hydrous aluminum silicates containing iron and magnesium as well as either sodium or calcium. Two types of bentonite are recognized, and the uses of each depend on specific physical properties.

Sodium bentonites absorb large quantities of water, swelling to many times their original volume, and give rise to permanent suspensions of gellike masses. These have been used to seal dams; in bonding foundry sands, asbestos, and mineral wool; as drilling muds; in portland cements and concrete, ceramics, emulsions, insecticides, soaps, pharmaceuticals, and paints; in the manufacture of paper; for clarifying water, juices, and liquors; and as a water softener to remove calcium from hard water.

Calcium bentonites are nonswelling and break down to a finely granular aggregate that is widely used as an absorbent clay sometimes called fuller’s earth.

Next is "Clinoptilolite," a mildly metamorphic mineral.

Clinoptilolite, hydrated alkali aluminosilicate that is one of the most abundant minerals in the zeolite family. Its structure consists of an outer framework of silica and alumina tetrahedra, within which water molecules and exchangeable cations (e.g., calcium, potassium, sodium) migrate freely. Although clinoptilolite’s chemical formula varies with composition, a typical representation is given by (Na2,K2,Ca)3Al6Si30O72·24H2O.

Clinoptilolite’s structure closely resembles that of heulandite, another zeolite mineral, but contains a higher proportion of silica and alkalies. Clinoptilolite is somewhat soft and forms platy, nearly transparent crystals of monoclinic symmetry. It is typically colourless in thin sections, but colours (e.g., brown, pink, red) may occur owing to the presence of impurities such as iron oxide. The dehydrated mineral has the properties of a molecular sieve that selectively extracts nitrogen from a stream of air, leaving the effluent enriched in oxygen. As an ion exchanger, clinoptilolite has been used to remove cesium and strontium from radioactive wastes produced in reprocessing nuclear fuels and to remove ammonia from sewage streams. The mineral is also used as a filler and bulking agent in the manufacture of paper.

Clinoptilolite can be found in many zeolitic sedimentary rocks, in the compacted deposits of volcanic ash commonly called tuffs, as a by-product of the weathering of basalt, and in some shale deposits. Its sites of occurrence include Idaho, New Mexico, and Texas, U.S.; Zhejiang province, China; and P’ohang, S.Kor.

Then "Analcime," a precipitate as the water continued to evaporate and thicken.

Alternative title: analcite

Analcime, also called analcite,
analcime [Credit: Linnell]
common feldspathoid mineral, a hydrated sodium aluminosilicate (NaAlSi2O6·H2O) that occurs in seams and cavities in basalt, diabase, granite, or gneiss and in extensive beds thought to have formed by precipitation from alkaline lakes. Analcime is found in Trentino, Italy; New Zealand; and Wyoming and Utah in the United States. Although a feldspathoid, analcime is closely related to the zeolite minerals with which it is sometimes classed. Its name is derived from the Greek analkis, “weak,” which refers to the weak electrical charge generated by heating or rubbing it. For detailed physical properties, see feldspathoid (table).

Finally at the center is Albite.

Alternative title: soda spar

Albite, common feldspar mineral, a sodium aluminosilicate (NaAlSi3O8) that occurs most widely in pegmatites and felsic igneous rocks such as granites. It may also be found in low-grade metamorphic rocks and as authigenic albite in certain sedimentary varieties. Albite usually forms brittle, glassy crystals that may be colourless, white, yellow, pink, green, or black. It is used in the manufacture of glass and ceramics, but its primary geologic importance is as a rock-forming mineral.

Albite constitutes the sodium end-member of the plagioclase feldspar solid solution series and alkali feldspar series (see plagioclase; alkali feldspar). It has a triclinic framework structure with silicon and aluminum in tetrahedral (fourfold) coordination, which forms relatively large void spaces (i.e., crystallographic sites) occupied chiefly by sodium cations. At low temperatures the silicon and aluminum atoms are distributed in a highly ordered fashion, but at high temperatures (about 1,100° C [2,000° F]), the atoms have a much more random distribution. For detailed treatment of the physical properties of albite, see feldspar (table).

So we have apparently a large inland lake slowly drying over time as those animals entered, died, sank to the bottom and were buried in silt, preserving their bones and converting the cells into the fantastic colors and patterns reveled by master lapidarists.

[1dave]

Dec 22, 2015 7:53:54 GMT -7 @panamark said:

Interesting post Don. Thanks. But I am confused about what parts are true and what parts made up. I know the dragon skeleton is totally made-up, but are other things in the posting also made-up??

The dragon is the only part that was made up. All else is true.


EDIT: I added the pool Player.

Go to the site to check out some fabulous bone!

Dave

LikeCommentShare

Mark Buford‎Gembone Connoisseurs - The Beauty of Gembone
May 3 ·

27 people like this.
Comments
View 2 more comments
Steve Holmes
Steve Holmes One amazing piece!!!!
May 3 at 9:15pm · Like · 1
Mark Buford
Mark Buford Thank you all for your kind words, Donnie, Jake, and Steve!!!
May 3 at 10:36pm · Like · 1
Loreena Virginia
Loreena Virginia Love this !!!
May 3 at 10:42pm · Like · 1
Peggy Houchin
Peggy Houchin Amazing!! Oh how I could use that in some inlay wink emoticon
May 4 at 9:02am · Like · 1
Don Wickham
Don Wickham Outrageous piece of gembone my friend
May 4 at 12:08pm · Like · 2
Mark Buford
Mark Buford Much appreciated Loreena, Peggy, and Don! I was digging through one of the old boxes yesterday before I started this site up and thought it would be very fitting for this new site;)))
May 4 at 12:11pm · Like · 2

[1dave]

End of Permian, Beginning of Triassic:

Antarctic crater linked to ancient die-off
Scientists say impact might have caused extinction 250 million years ago

An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica. Scientists think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago.

The crater, buried beneath a half-mile (1 kilometer) of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.

The crater's location, in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia, suggests it might have instigated the breakup of the so-called Gondwana supercontinent, which pushed Australia northward, the researchers said.

"This Wilkes Land impact is much bigger than the impact that killed the dinosaurs, and probably would have caused catastrophic damage at the time," said Ralph von Frese, a professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University.

The crater is about 300 miles (500 kilometers) wide. It was found by looking at differences in density that show up in gravity measurements taken with NASA's GRACE satellites. Researchers spotted a mass concentration, which they call a mascon — dense stuff that welled up from the mantle, likely in an impact.

"If I saw this same mascon signal on the moon, I'd expect to see a crater around it," Frese said. (The moon, with no atmosphere, retains a record of ancient impacts in the visible craters there.)

Image: Mass concentration
Ohio State University
This color-coded map shows gravity fluctuations beneath East Antarctica, as measured by the GRACE satellite. Denser regions are redder; the location of the Wilkes Land crater is circled in yellow.
So Frese and colleagues overlaid data from airborne radar images that showed a 300-mile-wide subsurface, circular ridge. The mascon fit neatly inside the circle.

"And when we looked at the ice-probing airborne radar, there it was," he said Thursday.

The Permian-Triassic extinction, as it is known, wiped out most life on land and in the oceans. Researchers have long suspected a space rock might have been involved. Some scientists have blamed volcanic activity or other culprits.

The die-off set up conditions that eventually allowed dinosaurs to rule the planet.

The newfound crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula, which marks the impact that may have ultimately killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Chicxulub space rock is thought to have been 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide, while the Wilkes Land meteor could have been up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide, the researchers said.

Postdoctoral researcher Laramie Potts assisted in the discovery.

The work was financed by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The discovery, announced Thursday, was initially presented in a poster paper at the recent American Geophysical Union Joint Assembly meeting in Baltimore.

The researchers say further work is needed to confirm the finding. One way to do that would be to go there and collect rock from the crater to see if its structure matches what would be expected from such a colossal impact.

© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

[1dave]

Dinosaur Jim

James Alvin Jensen,

James Alvin Jensen, aka ‘Dinosaur Jim’, was an extraordinary man. The range of his talents and abilities exceeded that of most mortals. This section of the webpage illustrates that well. I’ve organized information to substantiate this claim, and divided it into 5 groups. The documents listed on this page tell about about him as a human being. The remainder of the website is focussed on paleontology.
I have to inteject a personal note however. Dad became famous, larger than life, becoming “Dinosaur Jim”, a sort of mythical creation of the media. That’s fine. He liked it. But when I go into myself and search out my inner child, he doesn’t know ‘Dinosaur Jim”. Dinosaur Jim is unfamiliar. My personal dad was a welder and machinist. That’s how I remember him, a man who manipulated metal, the toughest of all media. Standing at a lathe, mike in hand checking the job from which rose a narrow trail of smoke, on which dripped an emulsified oil one drop at a time, or Vulcan in his welding hood, wielding the fires of creation that I was sure would penetrate through the back of my head to burn out my eyes. That’s MY dad.

Supersaurus (meaning "super lizard") is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur first discovered by Vivian Jones of Delta, Colorado, in late Jurassic period rocks of the middle Morrison Formation of Colorado in 1972, and later in Portugal under the name S. lourinhanensis.[1] The fossil remains came from the Brushy Basin Member of the formation, dating to about 153 million years ago.[2]