©Copyright 2018 GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
11060 Campus Street • Loma Linda, California 92350 • 909-558-4548
Arariprhynus placidoi
Fossil of frogs are not particularly common, but the ones we find tend to be preserved in articulation. This is a specimen of a Cretaceous neobatrachian frog from the Crato Formation of the Araripe Basin, Brazil, on display at the Paleontological Museum in Santana do Cariri. Few cm in size.
Fossil Coral
Close-up view of fossil coral from the Mares Quarry, near Saint-Germain-de-Joux, France (a few km west of the Swiss border). The block is about 1½ m long. Note the parallel arrangement of the numerous coral branches.
County Rd 301
SEDIMENTARY - CLASTIC: Conglomerate in a recent stream channel deposit, Colorado River Rd near McCoy --- Several features can be observed in the picture: Rounding of the boulders was probably caused by tumbling in a stream channel. Variation between sand layer and boulders indicates a variation in stream energy from low to high.
Penguin
The Galapagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) is the only penguin that lives in Ecuador. Although the species is endemic to the islands, the Galapagos penguins are morphologically similar to the Humboldt penguins, which breed in the coasts of Chile and Peru, and to the Magellanic penguins, typical of the southern tip of South America.
Moraine Lake
Talus cones, a glacial lake, and Cambrian quartzites: a perfect combo for a gorgeous landscape. Banff National Park, Canada.
Glossopteris
The genus name Glossopteris comes from the shape of these leaves: it means "tongue-shaped feather." These leaves are a typical fossil of Permian strata from continents of the southern hemisphere and were important for the development of the theory of continental drift. Specimen on display at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.
RedRocksPark FountainCongl
SEDIMENTARY - CLASTIC: Conglomerate of the Fountain Formation, Red Rocks Park, west Denver --- These large boulders were rounded and transported by high-energy water action as the ancestral Rockies were eroded.
Sea lion
There are two species of otariids in the Galapagos Islands, both endemic. Galapagos fur seals (Arctocephalus galapagoensis) are found mainly on the western shores of the Isabela and Fernandina Islands, so they are more difficult to see, but the Galapagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) are very abundant.
Valleys
An example of transverse and longitudinal valleys from the Bolivian Andes, Parque Nacional Carrasco, reflecting structural control on geomorphology.
Glyptodon clavipes
Glyptodonts are another impressive type of mammal lost to extinction and part of the Pleistocene megafauna. Specimen on display at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.