Opalized Fossil

Obrada...

Opal starts as a solution of silica in water forming in cavities within rocks. If the silica fills in space left by rotting shells or bones the opal silicia like a mould can produce an opal cast of the original object. If the conditions are right for opal formation then the fossil can become opalized but this is rare.

These are actually a fossil replacement by opal. The decaying fossil leaves a cavity which is filled by gel opal which solidifies over millions of years. Unfortunately, many miners would cut a rare fossil as the opal content was worth instant money. This practice has nearly stopped as most miners are now aware how rare they are.

There have been all types of opalized fossils from Lighting Ridge, the most exceptional being the animal skulls. There have been fossils such as dinosaurs, bones, tortoise, shells marsupials, and yabby. Some of the most interesting are teeth in the form of fossil especially with the colour produced from the opal fossil. Fossils can produce gem colour for different opals such as white, crystal, and black opal.

Several opal cutters will miss the fossil cutting out a solid opal out of the piece because it may get more money than the fossil! It is an embarrassment to cut up a fossil, but when it comes to making money and clearing the bills miners will get the money. Opal fossils are mostly discovered in the forms of Lightning Ridge, Shells, and Coober Pedy that may have generated several crystal opal fossil shells over the years. Several opal miners have pots of shells sitting on their shelves.

The centre of Australia, now a hot and dry desert, was once an inland sea. Today, miners continue to unearth opalized fossils especially shells from these areas.

Opalized fossils include vegetation or wood from the boulder opal fields and opalized clam shells from Coober Pedy. Opalized fossils also include sea shells, teeth, and even Opalized belemnites (squid). Opalized shells with good colour and small amounts of potch are hard to find. Many are worth more if they are left natural and unpolished. Among the rarest are opalized pineapples, found only in the White Cliffs Opal Fields. Of course crocodile teeth and dinosaur bones are extremely popular with collectors. Many opal collectors feature opalized fossils in their private collections.

Opalized Fossil

Belemnite Fossils

Pineapple Opal

Boulder Wood Fossil Specimens

Fossils Found In Lightning Ridge

This town has some unique fossils as some are actually black opal fossils. These are incredibly rare, valuable and so beautiful. Imagine digging for opals and you find a shell, then you examine the shell and you can see black potch in this shell and opal colour. Not many people in the whole world will experience the pleasure of being the first person to hold and hold this rare opalized shell. Black opal shells are so rare some even have their own name.

Coober Pedy in South Australia has found more Opalized shells than Lightning Ridge but these back shells are by far the most valuable.Lighting ridge also has a lot of mystery fossilised teeth. In North America sites contain a lot of carnivorous teeth more than 10 to one compared to herbivores who ate vegetation. But Lightning Ridge has ratio twice as many of these carnivores teeth suggesting that the area was fertile and plenty other dinosaurs to eat! This could be the reason for the massive variety of fossils found in Lightning Ridge besides just shells. These include:

Turtle -Turtle skulls tail vertebrae, cervical vertebra, neck bones,
Potch tubes -These maybe be plant roots or gas pipes Opalized.
Plant and Tree seeds -Many different species of varying size pine cones
Marine fossils -Besides shell and mussels, lots sea or fresh water creatures from Crinoids to Crustaceans and fish teeth to lung fish tooth plates to snails
Plesiosaurs are large marine animal often mistakenly know a s dinosaur and have spectacular opalized teeth
Crocodiles -These creatures have not changed for millions of years and good specimen of teeth and vertebra.
Dinosaurs to birds a massive eco system with many different types dinosaurs

Fossils Found In South Australia

The opal fields in south Australia covers a huge area but only a few pockets have opalized fossils and these are strong in marine life to clams and shells.

Opalized Pineapple -The rarest and beautiful Opalized specimen is the Pineapple as only 300 to 500 have been found to date and rare to find multiple fire colours as most are on colour
Opalized belemnite -These creatures have left us with incredible opalized fossil of long tubes or bullet shaped specimens from extinct order of Mesozoic predators that resembled squid or cuttlefish. These creatures had ten tentacles so when a specimen is found you do find all equal light tentacles. Originally in England they were called thunder stones a s it was believed that they fell from the sky! Chinese called them sword stones. Belemnites are also the state fossil of Delaware. But these are not Opalized

Opalized Wood - Why Didn’t It Turn Into Oil or Gas?

We are all familiar about how oil was formed by decaying forests over hundreds of millions of years. Long before the dinosaurs walked the planet. But why didn’t the wood that turned into an Opal not turn into Oil?

You can imagine how the Earth looked back then with massive forests, bogs and swamps. The climate was so different to that of today. The temperature was far hotter and the earth had strange looking animals. When the forests died and decayed they were covered in hundreds or thousands of feet of soil. In some cases even oceans covered them.

The plants, trees and animals decomposed into organic materials and formed fossil fuels. The fuels were created by organisms that lived in water and were cooked by heat. Incredible pressure and strong bacteria all working under the silt to form oil. In deeper hotter regions natural gas formed

Coal formed 300 to 400 million years ago from decaying trees, plants and ferns. Oceans or rivers covered these areas. Sea water is rich in sulphur so when it dried the coal became impregnated by sulphur. This gave a pollution problem to coal because when it is burnt the sulphur is released.

Some coal had fresh water river or lakes and these do not have sulphur. This created cleaner coal. So one has to ask why wasn’t opalized wood or boulder opal wood fossils turned into fossil fuel?

One theory is that Australia is an old continent. The area that encases the Boulder opal fields of Queensland is where the opalized wood is found. It is formed in a geological formation known as the Winton formation. When you study the opalized vegetation or wood you will note that most of the potch or the backing of the opalized wood is sandy. This suggests that the Cretaceous sedimentary rock formed during a drier period and not in swamps or bogs which are needed for bacteria to grow and form decaying matter into fossil fuels.

The Cretaceous is 65 to 144 million years old and not the hundreds of millions years that is where fossil fuel formed. The potch or ironstone in opalaized vegetation, has high proportion of sand compared to other opals fields such as Koroit or Yowah in Queensland. They are famous for their deep dark chocolate brown colour with no sand. Sand indicates dry environment instead massive swamps

In this Cretaceous period there was a lot of upheavals in earth’s crust with land masses separating all over the world. At that time Australia was part of Gondwana land. During this time the Rockies of North America, the Andes of South America and the Alps of Europe were uplifted and formed. That is why the Winton formation is so important to Queensland opal miners today. This area of thousands square miles and the ironstone is heavily oxidized.

What is interesting is the fact that the rivers and creeks flowed inland, not towards the sea as they do today. The acidic water in these rivers could have effected silica, which formed into opal. Some forms bacteria do grow well in acidic water.

An interesting pattern in wood opal is Cathedral pattern. Most wood fossils found in Queensland have no opal colour or very little. It is rare to find good opal colour and even rarer to find large pieces of clean opal in this interesting form.

Browse Our Best Opalized Fossils

Opalized Fossil

Opal započinje kao otopina silicijevog dioksida u vodi koji stvara u šupljinama unutar stijena. Ako se silicijum ispuni prostorom koji je ostao truleći školjkama ili kostima, opal silicija poput kalupa može proizvesti opalni odljev originalnog predmeta. Ako su uvjeti za formiranje opala, fosili se mogu opalizirati, ali to je rijetko.

To su zapravo zamjena fosila opalom. Fosili koji propadaju ostavljaju šupljinu koja je ispunjena gel opalom koji se očvršćuje tijekom milijuna godina. Nažalost, mnogi će rudari posjeći rijetki fosil jer je sadržaj opal-a vrijedio instant novca. Ova je praksa gotovo prestala jer je većina rudara sada svjesna koliko su rijetki.

Bilo je svih vrsta opaliziranih fosila s Lighting Ridgea, od kojih su najbrojnije bile životinjske lubanje. Bilo je fosila poput dinosaura, kostiju, kornjače, školjkaša i školjki. Neki od najzanimljivijih su zubi u obliku fosila, posebno s bojom proizvedenom opalovog fosila. Fosili mogu proizvesti boju dragulja za različite opale, kao što su bijeli, kristalni i crni opali.

Nekoliko rezača opala propustit će da fosil istrgne čvrsti opali iz komada jer može dobiti više novca od fosila! Sramota je sjeći fosil, ali kad dođe do zarade i čišćenja računa rudari će dobiti novac. Opalni fosili uglavnom se otkrivaju u oblicima munjevog grebena, školjki i Coober Pedyja koji su tijekom godina možda stvorili nekoliko kristalnih opaalskih folija. Nekoliko opalskih rudara ima posude s školjkama na svojim policama.

Središte Australije, sada vruća i suha pustinja, nekada je bilo unutarnje more. Danas rudari nastavljaju s otkrivanjem opaliranih fosila, posebno školjaka s ovih područja.

Opalizirani fosili uključuju vegetaciju ili drvo s opalih polja gromade i opalirane školjke školjaka iz Coober Pedyja. Opalizirani fosili uključuju i morske školjke, zube, pa čak i Opalized belemnites (lignje) . Opalizirane školjke dobre boje i male količine saksije teško je pronaći. Mnogi vrijede više ako ostanu prirodni i nezaštićeni. Među rijetkima su opalizirani ananasi, pronađeni samo u opalom polju White Cliffs. Naravno, zubi krokodila i kosti dinosaura izuzetno su popularni kod kolekcionara. Mnogi kolekcionari opala nalaze nepropalirane fosile u svojim privatnim kolekcijama.

Opalized Fossil

Belemnite Fossils

Pineapple Opal

Boulder Wood Fossil Specimens

Fosili pronađeni u grebenu munje

Ovaj grad ima jedinstvene fosile jer su neki zapravo crni opali fosili. To su nevjerojatno rijetke, vrijedne i tako lijepe. Zamislite da kopate za opale i pronađete ljusku, a zatim pregledate školjku i možete vidjeti crni lonac u ovoj ljusci i opal boji. Malo ljudi u cijelom svijetu iskusit će zadovoljstvo što je prva osoba koja je držala i držala ovu rijetku opaliranu školjku. Crne opalne školjke toliko su rijetke da čak imaju i svoje ime.

Coober Pedy u Južnoj Australiji pronašao je više Opalized školjki od Lightning Ridgea, ali ove su školjke stražnjice najvrjednije. Rasvjetni greben također ima puno tajni fosiliziranih zuba. U Sjevernoj Americi nalazi se puno zuba mesoždera više od 10 do jedan u odnosu na biljojede koji su jeli vegetaciju. Ali Lightning Ridge ima omjer dvostruko više ovih zuba mesoždera, što sugerira da je područje bilo plodno i puno drugih dinosaura za jelo! To bi mogao biti razlog ogromne raznolikosti fosila pronađenih u Lightning Ridgeu, osim samo školjki. To uključuje:

Kornjača - kornjačeve repne kralješke lubanje, vratni kralježak, vratne kosti,
Lonce cijevi - To mogu biti korijeni biljaka ili cijevi za plin.
Sjeme biljaka i stabala - Mnogo različitih vrsta češera različitih veličina
Morski fosili -Oblikuje školjke i dagnje, puno morskih ili slatkovodnih stvorenja od Crinoida do rakova i ribljih zuba do pluća zubnih ploča do puževa
Plesiosauri su velike morske životinje koje pogrešno znaju kao dinosaurusi i imaju spektakularne opalizirane zube
Krokodili -Ta se stvorenja nisu mijenjala milijunima godina i dobar su uzorak zuba i kralježaka.
Dinosauri na ptice ogroman eko sustav s mnogo različitih vrsta dinosaura

Fosili pronađeni u Južnoj Australiji

Opala polja na jugu Australije pokrivaju ogromno područje, ali samo nekoliko džepova ima opali fosile i oni su snažni u morskom životu za školjke i školjke.

Opalized Ananas - Najrjeđi i najljepši Opalized uzorak je Ananas, jer je do danas pronađeno svega 300 do 500, a rijetko je naći više boja vatre jer je većina na boji
Opalizirani belemnit - Ova stvorenja ostavila su nam nevjerojatan opalirani fosil dugih cijevi ili uzoraka u obliku metka iz izumrlog reda mezozojskih grabežljivaca koji su podsjećali na lignje ili sipe. Ta stvorenja imala su deset pipka, pa kad se nađe primjerak, možete naći sva jednaka svjetlosna pipka. Izvorno u Engleskoj zvali su ih gromobrani jer se vjerovalo da padaju s neba! Kinezi su ih nazivali kamenjem mačevima. Belemnites su također državni fosil Delawarea. Ali to nisu Opalized

Opalizirano drvo - zašto se nije pretvorilo u naftu ili plin?

Svi smo poznati kako je nafta nastajala propadanjem šuma stotinama milijuna godina. Davno prije nego što su dinosaurusi hodali planetom. Ali zašto se drva koja su se pretvorila u Opal nije pretvorila u ulje?

Možete zamisliti kako je Zemlja izgledala tada s masivnim šumama, močvarama i močvarama. Klima je bila toliko različita od današnje. Temperatura je bila daleko vruća i zemlja je imala životinje čudnog izgleda. Kad su šume uginule i propadle, bile su prekrivene stotinama ili tisućama stopa tla. U nekim su ih slučajevima čak prekrili oceani.

Biljke, drveće i životinje raspadale su se u organske materijale i formirale fosilna goriva. Goriva su stvorili organizmi koji su živjeli u vodi i kuhali su od vrućine. Nevjerojatan pritisak i jake bakterije koje djeluju pod muljem i stvaraju ulje. U dubljim i toplijim krajevima formirao se prirodni plin

Ugljen se formirao prije 300 do 400 milijuna godina od propadanja drveća, biljaka i paprati. Okeani ili rijeke prekrili su ta područja. Morska voda bogata je sumporom pa je nakon sušenja ugljen impregniran sumporom. To je stvorilo problem zagađenja ugljenom, jer kada se izgori, sumpor se oslobađa.

Neki ugljen je imao slatku vodu rijeke ili jezera, a oni nemaju sumpor. To je stvorilo čistiji ugljen. Stoga se mora zapitati zašto se opalirani drvo ili kameni kameni opali od drva nisu pretvorili u fosilno gorivo?

Jedna teorija glasi da je Australija stari kontinent. Područje koje obuhvaća opala polja Boulder-a u Queenslandu nalazi se tamo gdje se nalazi opalirano drvo. Nastaje u geološkoj formaciji poznatoj kao Wintonova formacija. Kada proučavate opaliranu vegetaciju ili drvo, primijetit ćete da je većina lonca ili podloge opaliranog drva pjeskovita. To sugerira da je kredna sedimentna stijena nastala tijekom sušeg razdoblja, a ne u močvarama ili močvarama koje su potrebne bakterijama da rastu i formiraju raspadajuću materiju u fosilna goriva.

Kreda je stara 65 do 144 milijuna godina, a ne stotine milijuna godina gdje se formira fosilno gorivo. U loncu ili željeznom kamenu u opalaliziranoj vegetaciji postoji visok udio pijeska u usporedbi s ostalim opalovim poljima kao što su Koroit ili Yowah u Queenslandu. Poznati su po dubokoj tamno čokoladno smeđoj boji bez pijeska. Pijesak označava suho okruženje umjesto masivne močvare

U ovom krednom razdoblju bilo je mnogo preokreta u zemljinoj kori s kopnenim masama koje su razdvajale cijeli svijet. U to je vrijeme Australija bila dio zemlje Gondwana. Za to vrijeme podižu se i oblikuju Stijene Sjeverne Amerike, Ande Južne Amerike i Alpi Europe. Zato je formacija Wintona toliko važna za rudare opalskih Queenslanda danas. Ovo područje od tisuću četvornih kilometara i željezo je jako oksidirano.

Ono što je zanimljivo je činjenica da su rijeke i potoci tekli prema unutrašnjosti, a ne prema moru kao danas. Kisela voda u tim rijekama mogla je stvoriti silicij, koji se pretvorio u opal. Neki oblici bakterije rastu dobro u kiseloj vodi.

Zanimljiv uzorak u drvenom opalu je uzorak katedrale. Većina drvnih fosila pronađenih u Queenslandu nema opalu boju ili ga ima vrlo malo. Rijetko je naći dobru opal boju i još rjeđe pronaći velike komade čistog opala u ovom zanimljivom obliku.

Pregledajte naše najbolje nepropalirane fosile