Left, a microscope photo of a microfossil that looks like a light brown wrinkly raisin. the structure is actually of a ball of branching filaments that are wound round the centre of the fossil like a ball of string. The filaments are contained in a thinly layered bag-like sheath. Large openings in the in exterior of the bag connect to openings that lead into the interior of the filaments which appear to be hollow. Right, a grey scale interpretive sketch of the fossil where the bag is coloured dark grey, the small filament branches are coloured mid grey, and the large "trunk" filaments are coloured light grey. Pyrite crystals are black squares. Most of the outer bag has been removed and only the basal side of the bag is shown so that the sketch is like an X-ray. Red arrows show the position of the large openings. The large openings are always in the same locations on the fossil. A pink arrow shows a regular opening which is found along the length of the filaments themselves. These regular openings are found on all filaments and scale in size relative to the host filament. The pyrite crystals are concentrated inside the larger filaments where they have grown showing that these filaments were originally hollow inside. A blue scale bar shows that the fossil is about 45 microns, or 0.045 mm long.

A 1.5 billion year old #Acritarch from Australia with an interpretive sketch. These things have a really interesting structure so check out the alt text to read the details. #FossilFriday #Geology #Paleontology #SciArt

Right: a microscope photo of a brown microfossil that looks like a wrinkled mouldy raisin. There are ridges on the surface that are actually helically coiled filaments made of smaller versions of the microfossil. Another vesicle is attached at the top of the image, and the remains of a large filament are attached at the bottom of the main vesicle. A scale bar indicates that the main raisin fossil is about 80 microns, or 0.08 millimetres long. That's a heckin' chonk of a vesicle.

Accidentally stayed up sketching another 1.4 billion year old Raisin #acritarch from northern Australia. I really like how they look as line art and might put them together as a colouring book 😉. #Geology #Paleontology

Microscope photo of a dark brown circular microfossil that has a surface made of overlapping scales, and an exposed interior made of tiny dumbbell shaped elements that form a labyrinthine structure. There is a large gap through the middle of the fossil where the structure is damaged. Blue scale bars show that the fossil is about 80 microns, or 0.08 mm, wide.

Bonus #FossilFriday! This lovely 1.5 billion year old #Acritarch micro #fossil that has all that lovely greebly detail! See alt text for more info #Geology #Paleontology

microscope photo of a black and grey microfossil that is a rounded ovoid vesicle with a dark outer rim and a fluffy internal texture, part of the vesicle is covered back a layer of black opaque spoon shaped structures. To the top right of the image is a piece of black fluffy filamentous microbial mat which is attached to the edge of the round fossil on one side, and a light grey to clear crystal on the other. The crystal is shaped like a lumpy sausage with several spike-like extensions at each end. A scale bar shows the main fossil is about 70 microns, or 0.07 millimetres on it's longest axis.

Happy #FossilFriday please enjoy this 3.2 billion year old #acritarch from South Africa. Still no idea where these things sit taxonomically but they sure are pretty. The black fluffy stuff is microbial mat, the crystal is maybe xenotime? #Geology #Paleontology

Greyscale electron image of a microscopic fossil that looks like a hollow sphere fl with many holes.

Biblically accurate #acritarch. Or a really weird tiny pokemon.

Grey scale microscope photo of a tiny fossil that looks like a round wrinkly Pastry. The fossil is about 0.07 mm across.

Grey scale microscope photo of a tiny fossil that looks like a round wrinkly Pastry. This image uses x rays to show the internal structure. The fossil is about 0.07 mm across.

Grey scale microscope photo of a tiny fossil that looks like a round wrinkly Pastry. This image uses x rays to show the internal structure. This version has lower contrast than the previous x rays image. The fossil is about 0.07 mm across.

#FossilFriday an SEM image of a 1.4 billion year old #acritarch. The first image shows you the surface topography. The other images are pseudo x-rays showing the internal structures. I figured out how to do these tiny x rays on Weds, it's going to be really useful in future. #geology #paleontology

Microscope photo of a broken circular grey microfossil that was a spherical bag that has creases from where it has collapsed during fossilisation.

#FossilFriday An #Acritarch from the Cambrian Wheeler Shale. This example has an age of about 508 million of your Earth years. This is a stack of about 15 images at 100x mag

Left, a microscope photo of a grey flask shaped microfossil that looks like a flat sheet. Right a grey scale topographic depth map showing the fossil is not a sheet but a hollow flattened vesicle.

The photo stacking method I use gives very high resolution optical imaging. But it tends to flatten the subject because we use out of focus areas as depth cues. This #archean #acritarch for e.g. looks like a sheet, but depth map shows it has up 40 microns of relief. #geology #paleontology

Microscope photo of a circular grey microfossil with a fluffy surface texture. Black fluffy ovoid fossils are attached to the top and side of the circular fossil. A long needle like crystal has grown across the circular fossil. A black scale bare in the bottom left shows the fossil is around 50 microns wide.

It's #FossilFriday so here is a 3.22 billion year #acritarch I extracted from the Moodies Group. I'll be talking about these spheres among other things at Life and Planet next week in London. This is far from the best example or image. #Geology #Paleontology

Photograph of a recording studio showing a computer screen speakers and a keyboard. In the background is a small window into a vocal both with a microphone. A strange man is peeping menacingly through the booth window like a goober.

Back on my nonsense. #Acritarch #AxisOfPerdition #IndustrialMetal #BlackMetal

Microscope photo of a brown and beige fossil. The surface of the fossil is made of sinuous curving beige ridges that intertwine in a complicated pattern like a maze. A red 10 micron scale bar shows the image is about 50 microns across. Straight line across the upper part of the image is an artefact from stitching several photos together

Extreme close up of the wall of a #Proterozoic #Acritarch in optical. Look at all the sculpture and ornament! The wall is made of stacked rows of tiny sub-micron plates that form these complex patterns. The dark outer layer is made of a different type of plate. scale = 10 um #Geology #Paleontology

Here's the processed version of this #acritarch #fossil I found yesterday. This is 27 images stacked in Helicon Pro. The structure is a lot more complicated than it seemed yesterday. @comptonscatter.bsky.social #Geology #Paleontology #Precambrian ⚒️🧪🦠

Greyscale image of the internal wall structure of a microfossil. The image looks like a fuzzy x-ray of a dinosaur skull. A scale bar shows the image is about 500 nanometres across. That's really bloody small.

#FossilFriday Is this the worlds smallest #dinosaur skull, or the vesicle wall ultrastructure of a #Precambrian #acritarch? Answer is in the alt text. #geology #paleontology ⚒️🧪

Microscope photo of a pale yellow fossil that looks like a round wrinkled bag with wrinkled edge like a pie crust. Stick shaped dark brown microfossils are attached to the surface of the yellow fossil. A blue scale bar indicates the yellow fossil is 0.175 millimetres long.

This yellow #fossil ? is from a mid- #Proterozoic sample. I thought it was modern contamination, but Raman shows it's kerogen and silica with the same thermal maturity as the #acritarch in the same sample. Has structural features similar to other acritarchs. Still a mystery. #geology #Paleontology

Learning geochron labs are way more interesting than I was previously led to believe.

#acritarch

Microscope photo of a fragment of organic micro fossil that looks like an ancient piece of papyrus covered with ancient cuneiform style writing.

Why does this billion year old #acritarch fragment look like an ancient cuneiform scroll!? Object about 150 microns wide #geology #paleontology 🧪⚒️

Bonus #ThinsectionThursday. A spooky ghost from the distant past. This is an oblique slice through an #acritarch in a #Precambrian muddy siltstone. Long axis of #fossil is about 200 microns long. #Geology #paleontology 🧪⚒️

Microscope photo of a black triangular microfossil that is pierced by long needle shaped crystals.

Another #precambrian #acritarch that has suffered from #metamorphism This time it has been internally impaled by amphiboles which is a great name for a death metal song about metamorphic #fossil taphonomy #geology #paleontology 🧪⚒️

Microscope photo of a black ovoid microfossil that has been pushed apart by a mass of yellow needle shaped crystals. It's like a really weird and niche horror movie.

This is a #precambrian #acritarch that has undergone low grade metamorphism. Titanite crystals have grown inside causing the vesicle to rupture. #geology #paleontology ⚒️ 🧪

microscope photo of a tiny fossil that looks like a wrinkly old raisin or a really shrivelled old potato. It is made of ovoid plates that form chains which wrap around each other, there are regular circular to oval holds in the chains. The chains are wrapped in a sheet made of lots of tiny rings. The sheet has mostly broken away though. a red scale bar in the bottom right shows the fossil is about 0.06 mm long.

#FossilFriday a mid #Proterozoic #acritarch with the complex ultrastructure, sculpture, and ornamentation indicative of #protist #fossils This is a stack of ~60 images taken at 100x mag #Geology #Paleontology

I did a high res version of this #acritarch. Original was phone cam at 40x. New version is microscope cam at 100x, 28 images stacked and stitched. Denoised, sharpened, and upscaled. The smallest resolvable objects on the full res version are ~ 500 nm. #Geology #Paleontology #Fossils

Microscope photo of a brown micro fossil that is circular with a rim like a pie crust. There is a dark blob in the lower right of the fossil. The upper left of the fossil shows the rim twisting in a spiral where part of the fossil is expanding into a new circular vesicle with a smooth brown outer layer.

Best buds. A mid #Proterozoic #acritarch undergoing budding(?) This is probs a wee eukaryote judging by the ornament and multiple layers. This type undergo torsion as they bud. Fossil is ~ 50 microns wide. #geology #paleontology #fossils

Composite image of a microscopic fossil. Far left shows the fossil which looks like a small brown raisin. Next image shows a close up of the fossil which has tube like ridges that form double helix structures with regular lensoid openings. The next two images show Transmission Electron Microscope images of the internal wall structure of the same type of microfossil showing the wall is made of nanoscopic versions of the of the helically coiled tubes. The raisin-like fossil is around 70 microns long, the tubes in the TEM images are around 50-25 nanometers wide.

#FossilFriday This exceptionally preserved #Proterozoic eukaryote #Acritarch. First two images show an example extracted from shale by acid maceration in optical microcroscopy. The other images show the wall ultrastructure of the same type of fossil in TEM. #Geology #Paleontology

Microscope photo of a light brown ellipsoid microfossil that has a dark brown ovoid structure inside. There is also chunk of fluffy microbial mat on the right side of the image.

Bonus #FossilFriday Heres a #Proterozoic #Acritarch that looks a bit like a fried egg (and some microbial mat). Acritarch is about 50 microns long. Still trying to figure out what the internal vesicle is but they are a consistent feature. #Geology #Paleontology

greyscale microscope image of a circular microfossil with a surface that is wrinkled and speckled, and has radial cracks at the edges. These features indicate that the fossil was probably a 3D vesicle that has been compacted. There is a black arrow that points to one of the larger folds, and a black 50 micron scale bar that shows the fossil is about 300 microns wide.

#FossilFriday a 3.22 Ga #acritarch from the Moodies Group, South Africa. These were first described by Javaux et al in 2010. But they've not been found since. I'm looking for more of them using new unweathered sample material. Details in alt text #Geology #Paleontology

microscope photo of the surface of a microscopic fossil that appears as brown overlapping plates covered in smaller paler scales.

Another extreme close up of a #Precambrian #acritarch vesicle. The external overlapping plates seem to be covered with smaller interlocking scales. The view is 12 microns wide. #geology #Paleontology

If we want to look at those tiny structures on the #precambrian #acritarch in more detail, we have to use Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The last pic is a cross section through the wall of the tiny fossil. See the alt text for details. #Geology #Paleontology #FossilFriday

Black and white electron microscope image. In the bottom left there are structures that look like overlapping fish scales. In the top right there are tiny curled plates with black branching filaments between them. The scale like scale like structures are in a layer that partially covers the layer with the filaments.

An early #FossilFriday. This SEM image shows tiny scales on the outer surface of a #Precambrian #Acritarch in the bottom left. In the top right, you can see the exposed underlying layer of the fossil which is composed nm size plates and filaments. #Geology #Paleontology

For #FossilFriday this tiny #Precambrian #acritarch that looks like a pineapple or gooseberry. Scale bar on the bottom left is 50 microns, the fossil is about 75 microns long. This #fossil is one of many extracted from a rock sample dissolved in acid. #geology #paleontology

Microscope photo of the edge of a spherical microfossil made of grey and black organic matter with a wrinkled texture. There is a red arrow pointing to the very edge of the fossil where tiny triangular spikes are visible coating the surface.

An extreme close up of the edge of a #Precambrian #Acritarch Those little spikes the arrow points to are ~500 nanometers long. These might be the smallest resolvable objects I have been able to optically image. The image is ~20 microns wide. #Geology #Paleontology