15 Ancient Fossils That Will Make You Say "Wow"
Although museums may seem boring to some, a bunch of bones and fossils from the age of dinosaurs is a completely different story.
Fossils of over 6,000 different people are thought to have already been found, and they continue to be found every day. So you can imagine how many different fossils there are of various other species, either extinct or earlier evolutionary iterations.
Pictolic has compiled some of the coolest, most interesting fossils man has ever discovered, and put together a neat educational list that you can peruse.
15 PHOTOS
1. Absolutely stunning leg size for this Argentinosaurus (and human to scale).
Argentinosaurus is a genus of huge sauropod dinosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous (66-100 million years ago) in what is now Argentina.
2. This Borealopelta fossil found at the Suncor Energy Oil Sands mine is said to be the best-preserved dinosaur fossil of its size ever found.
Borealopelta, Latin for "northern shield", was a genus of ankylosaurs (herbivorous dinosaurs) from the Lower Cretaceous (100–145 million years ago) that lived in what is now Alberta, Canada.
3. These extinct mollusks are ammonites, which became iridescent during the process of fossilization.
Ammonites were marine mollusks that researchers believe died out during the famous Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (K-Pg), 66 million years ago, when a comet hit the earth, killing three-quarters of life on the planet.
4. This Edmontosaurus mummy, or AMNH 5060, is the first dinosaur specimen discovered with a skeleton encased inside the skin.
When you first look at this, you are probably thinking, "What the hell is this?" This, our dear readers is an exceptionally well-preserved dinosaur fossil, which not only has many bones intact but also has skin.
5. This is a massive 8 million-year-old fossilized tortoise shell, about the size of a car!
Do you know how many dinosaurs were absolutely huge? Well, if you wanted to survive, you had to be big, like this Stupendemys geographic, a giant turtle about the size of your average sedan.
Source 6 The fossilized crinoids that inspired the monsters in the horror movie Alien.
This species is not really extinct, as there are still a number of species of crinoids in our oceans, but there are certainly spooky fossils of these specimens as well.
7. Whale Valley, where hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales lie, all fairly intact.
Enter the Whale Valley or Wadi Al-Hitan, a paleontological site about 150 kilometers southwest of Cairo, Egypt, which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 2005 for hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales - archaeometry, now an extinct suborder of whales.
8. Altamura Man, is believed to be one of the oldest Neanderthal fossils found, at least 128,000 years old.
Man of Altamura is the name of a Pleistocene Neanderthal human fossil that was discovered 27 years ago, in 1993, among the stalagmites of a cave in Altamura, Italy.
9. Not one, but a two-headed reptile from the Cretaceous period of China.
Given that deformities and genetic errors are already very rare, and given that fossils are rare in their own right, these two concepts are something special.
10 Velociraptor And Protoceratops Fossilized In The Middle Of The Battle.
It might sound like the fossil is happening at lightning speed - like taking a selfie - and making everyone wonder how could two prehistoric creatures be petrified in the middle of a fight? Well, it is possible, given a very small but very important detail - the element of surprise on the part of nature.
11. The largest fossilized human feces found on Earth is called Lloyds Bank Coprolite.
A slightly unusual entry on this list - and probably not what many of you were expecting. It's Lloyds Bank coprolite, a fancy term for petrified poop. As the name suggests, it was found under the site where the York branch of Lloyds Bank was to have been laid down in 1972.
12. This cast of fossilized skin of a hadrosaur named Dakota.
Nicknamed after the state where it was found in the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota, this fossil Edmontosaurus annectens is about 67 million years old and dates to the Maastrichtian period of the Cretaceous. Researchers believe that it once belonged to a specimen about 12 meters long and weighing about 35 tons.
13. The world's first complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is 67 million years old.
One of the most recent additions - and the most fitting, it's just one of the most famous dinosaurs in all of human history - was discovered in 2006, but only recently shown to the public, a Tyrannosaurus Rex with all of its bones completely intact. This Tyrannosaurus Rex was found buried in the sediment next to a Triceratops. Scientists believe that the two were fighting at the time of their deaths. The fossil was nicknamed "Dueling Dinosaurs".
14. Fossil of two turtles 47 million years old, “caught in situ.”
Have you ever guessed that one day you will witness the fossilization of two turtles in the middle of their mating season?
15. This is an upright fossil tree embedded in a rock.
Nova Scotia, Canada is home to a very unique geological formation called the Joggins Formation. This is the location of a number of fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period, which dates back to 298-358 million years ago.
Keywords: Ancient Fossils | Museums | Bones | Dinosaurs | Stories | Photo projects | Iterations