Marine Reptile – Keichousaurus hui

Today’s fossil is a classic example of a Keichousaurus hui from the Triassic of Guizhou, China. Keichousaurus are highly sought after by collectors because their fossils are generally complete and articulated skeletons. Because of their popularity, there are many fakes or heavily restored examples on the market. The specimen below is complete with individual finger bones, but I am unsure if those were merely painted on. I have taken a couple of close ups with my microscope, so feel free to have a look at those and judge if this fossil is 100% genuine.

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Dominican Amber with multiple inclusions

I have been experimenting with a new set up for microphotography and these are the results. The following specimen is a cabochon shaped piece of amber from the La Bucara mines of the Dominican Republic. The amber contains a menagerie of about a dozen insects(many are not visible to the naked eye) including a gnat that appears to be laying eggs. I managed to obtain as many closeups of each insect I could spot, let me know if there can be improvements to the quality of the pictures!

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