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Board
Corner
Gerry Naugle
The FMC Board would like to urge all members to bring their 2011 summer
findings (or makings in lapidary/jewelry) to the annual towel show on
Thurs, Nov 10th at the West Boulder Senior Center, start at 7 pm.
Bring a towel and set your items
out for display and balloting by the meeting attendees. We have nice ribbons for the winners. The
catagories for both juniors and senior divisions are: Personal Field Trip, Club Sponsored Field
Trip, Minerals, Fossils, Jewlery/Lapidary and Ugly Rock. The best display
towels in Junior and Senior Divisions are derived from the balloting. Hope
to see you there.
The board has two vacancies to
fill. If you are interested in serving and helping the club, please see
Gerry Naugle at the Nov meeting. We now conduct 8/11 board meetings each
year via internet.
We will have sign up sheets at
the Nov meeting for our annual club show coming up on Dec 9th-11th.
Consider volunteering for the show and be invited to a good post-show
reception in Longmont in January with very nice mineral specimen gifts for
the show volunteers.
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Fall Club Programs
November
10: Our annual towel show—bring your best finds and lapidary work from the
past year. See “Board Corner” above
for details.
December
15: Our annual holiday anonymous gift party—bring a gift worth about $5 and
enjoy the “give and take”!
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Jr. Geologists
Activities
At
the Jr. Geologists meeting this fall, we are working on several badges,
including Showmanship, Stone Age Tools and Art, Collecting. For the older kids, there will be an
opportunity to complete the requirements for the Computers, Leadership, and
Communications badges.
November’s
meeting will be on Wednesday, November 16th, at the Boulder Library
Reynolds Branch, 3595 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. For December we will join the Club’s
holiday party and gift exchange.
Beginning
in 2012, there will be five new badges for us to work on – Fluorescent
Minerals, Minerals with Special Properties, Thumbnails and Micromounts,
Reaching Across Generations, and Mapping.
Lots of fun things are coming next year!
The
Jr. Geologists program is open to all Flatirons Mineral Club families. Each month we learn more about geology,
plus earn badges for different earth science activities. For information about the Jr. Geologists
program, please contact Dennis
Gertenbach.
Specimens
Wanted: For the Jr. Geologists, we are
looking for smoky and clear quartz crystals, calcite for hardness kits, and
specimens that are too big for grab bags that the kids would like. As you are cleaning out your collection
this winter, think about donating your unwanted specimens to the kids. Contact Dennis if you have specimens to
donate.
Helpers
Wanted: We are looking for adults
that would like to work with the kids.
Currently, we are looking for club members with lapidary skills and
equipment, computer expertise to help the kids set up a website, and
helpers with expertise in a geology or earth science. We can always use helpers at each of our
monthly meetings. See Dennis if you would like to help
with the Jr. Geologists program.
Cassidy
Crittenden and Gavin Morrison examine different types of rocks to see which
would be suitable to make Stone Age tools
Jr. Geologists
Will View the Snowmass Fossils
On
January 21, 2012, the Jr. Geologists have been invited to join several
other Colorado rock youth for a special day at the Denver Museum of Nature
and Science. In the morning we will
have a special private presentation and tour of the Snowmass fossils with
Ian Miller. In the afternoon we will
tour the Prehistoric Journey and the Coors Mineral Hall exhibits with Steve
Veatch as our guide. More details
coming about this opportunity.
We
want to thank Steve Veatch for setting up this program and inviting the Jr.
Geologists to join him. Steve leads
the youth groups of the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club and the Colorado
Springs Mineralogical Club.
This
trip is one of a number of joint trips geared specifically for kids that
have taken place in the past two years.
More are planned for 2012.
Besides the Jr. Geologists, the other participating Colorado clubs
with special youth programs include the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club,
the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Club, and the Western Interior
Paleontological Society. The goal of
these joint activities is to provide the kids with more opportunities to
get out in the field for first-hand observations. Plus, the kids love to
work together and see each other.
Jr. Geologists
Visit the Picket Wire Canyon Dinosaur Trackways
The
Jr. Geologists families traveled to Picket Wire Canyon south of La Junta on
September 24th to tour the world-famous dinosaur trackways. Along the Purgatoire River is the largest
known set of dinosaur tracks in North America, found in the Morrison
Formation dating back 150 million years ago. At this site sauropods and
theropods, including Apatosaurus and Allosaurus, lived and traveled along
the muddy edge of an ancient lake, leaving their footprints in the
mud. Today, over 1,300 dinosaur
footprints are exposed at the site. Of scientific importance are the
parallel trackways, which indicate that several younger sauropods were
traveling as a group along the shoreline.
This provided scientists with concrete evidence of social behavior
among younger sauropods. The
trackways also have evidence of possible pack hunting by carnivorous
theropods. The kids and their
families enjoyed learning about the dinosaur tracks and the ancient
environment these tracks reveal.
Also
seen on the tour was Native American rock art dating from 375 to 4,500
years old, the remains of a Hispanic settlement, including a church and
cemetery, and the Rourke family ranch that once ran 50,000 cattle.
Crossing
the Purgatoire River to the trackway site
Several
parallel sauropod tracks along the ancient Jurassic lake shore
A
therapod track preserved at the site
Charles
Mock holding a piece of sandstone showing ripple marks from flowing water
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An Elephant Never
Forgets!
A
friendly reminder that the annual dues to the FMC are due on October 1st,
2011. The dues are still only $18
per individual (and) their immediate family. You can pay in two ways: SEND A CHECK
MADE TO “Flatirons Mineral Club” (or)
“ FMC “ P.O. Box 3331 Boulder, CO 80307
(or) pay Gerry
Naugle, Treasurer (or) Kristi
Traynor, Membership Co-Chairs at any FMC monthly meeting. One of them is at or near the sign-in table
upon entering the room for the monthly meetings. Your receipt is your new annual 2011-12
FMC membership card.
You
can pay by CASH at these FMC meetings.
Please do not send cash to the Club P.O. Box 3331 by USPS mail. Remember you can receive electronic (or)
paper club newsletters containing the general meetings information, guided
club field trips information, annual show opportunities, silent auction
opportunities and an annual club summer picnic when you are a current
member of the FMC. The 2011-12 dues
must be received by the club by Jan. 20th, 2012 in order to stay current
with the member benefits.
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FMC December Show,
December 9-11
One
of the highlights of the year is our annual Club Show at the Boulder County
Fairgrounds in Longmont. The show features
kids’ activities, special speakers, displays by both adults and kids, and a
number of dealers selling great specimens and supplies.
How
about putting together a display case for the show? It is a great way to showcase some of the
great specimens you have found and jewelry and lapidary projects you have
made. Both adults and kids are
encouraged to put together a display case, and ribbons are awarded for:
Best Field Trip, Best Mineral Display, Best Lapidary & Jewelry, Best
Fossils, and Best of Show.
The
show also needs lots of club members to help with set up and take down, to
work at the kids table running activities and selling grab bags, to work
security, and to collect admission fees from attendees. If you would like to help at the show,
sign up at any of the upcoming meetings.
And, if you would like to get more involved with the show, come to
the Show Committee meeting on November 8th, place to be announced.
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Fossils
in the News
Dennis
Gertenbach
Dinosaur Feathers
Found in Amber
Like
something out of the movie Jurassic Park, scientists have found dinosaur
remains in amber, which formed from hardened tree sap. Collected from a mine at Grassy Lake in
southern Alberta, paleontologists have found 70-million-year-old amber
preserving 11 feather specimens.
Interestingly, not all of these specimens came from birds, but some
are from non-flying dinosaurs. Some
specimens show simple filament structures, similar to the earliest dinosaur
feathers preserved in fossils found in China. Others are more complicated bird feathers
with hook-like barbules that modern diving birds use to keep their feathers
in place during underwater dives.
Still other feather specimens are similar to those of modern birds
used for flight. This diversity is
not found in feathers found in amber that dates to 94 million years ago,
demonstrating the evolution of bird feathers over this 20-million-year
period.
Canadian
Late-Cretaceous amber specimen showing 16 clumped feathers (AP
Photo/Science)
Giant Ants from
Wyoming
Imagine
giant ants the size of hummingbirds roaming the land. The fossil of such an ant has been found
in Wyoming, the first complete giant ant fossil found in North
America. The specimen is a winged
ant queen fossil dating to 49.5 million years ago. The new species,
Titanomyrma lubei, is related to slightly larger giant ants previously
found in German fossils. The specimen was found in a storage drawer at the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, but had been overlooked by previous
researchers.
A
fossil ant queen found in Wyoming compared to a modern rufous hummingbird
(Bruce Archibald)
Plesiosaurs Gave
Live Birth
The
75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur indicates that the
ancient marine reptile grew a single fetus and did not lay eggs. This
fossil provides the first evidence that these aquatic reptiles gave birth
in the water, instead of laying eggs on land. The fossil was discovered by amateur
paleontologists Marion and Charles Bonner while hiking in northwest Kansas
in 1987. In preparing this fossil for display in the Natural History Museum
in Los Angeles, F. Robin O'Keefe and Luis Chiappe noticed that the fossil
contained many small bones inside the larger animal’s abdomen. The smaller bones were not rounded or
corroded, as would be expected if the smaller animal had been eaten by the
large plesiosaur. Also the smaller
bones appear to be miniature versions of the adult ones, providing evidence
that it was the baby of the larger animal.
Plesiosaurs,
such as this Cryptoclidus, were large reptiles that ruled the Cretaceous
seas. (About.com)
Youngest Dinosaur
Fossil Found
Dating
to just before the meteor impact 65 million years ago that is credited with
the extinction of the dinosaurs, the youngest dinosaur preserved in the
fossil record has been discovered by researchers from Yale University. A fossilized horn of a ceratopsian, most
likely a Triceratops, was found in the Hell Creek formation in Montana last
year. Its location in the rock was
just five inches below the K-T boundary, which marks when the large meteor
that most paleontologists credit with the demise of the dinosaurs hit the
earth. However, some paleontologists
have argued that the dinosaurs had died out before the meteor impact,
because no dinosaur fossils have been found within the 10 feet of the K-T
boundary. Because of this
“three-meter gap,” the argument has been made that the dinosaurs gradually
went extinct sometime before the meteor struck. This specimen indicates that at least
some dinosaurs were doing fine right up until the impact.
Four
small primitive mammals walk over a Triceratops skeleton in this fanciful
rendition of mammals surviving the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. (Mark
Hallett/Yale University)
Primitive Birds
Shared Dinosaurs' Fate
ScienceDaily
(Sep. 19, 2011) — A new study puts an end to the longstanding debate about
how archaic birds went extinct, suggesting they were virtually wiped out by
the same meteorite impact that put an end to dinosaurs 65 million years
ago. Photo below.
For
decades, scientists have debated whether birds from the Cretaceous period
-- which are very different from today's modern bird species -- died out
slowly or were killed suddenly by the Chicxulub asteroid impact. The
uncertainty was due in part to the fact that very few fossil birds from the
end of this era have been discovered.
Now
a team of paleontologists led by Yale researcher Nicholas Longrich has
provided clear evidence that many primitive bird species survived right up
until the time of the meteorite impact. They identified and dated a large
collection of bird fossils representing a range of different species, many
of which were alive within 300,000 years of the impact. "This proves
that these species went extinct very abruptly, in terms of geological time
scales," said Longrich. The study appears the week of Sept. 19 in the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The
team examined a large collection of about two dozen bird fossils discovered
in North America -- representing a wide range of the species that existed
during the Cretaceous -- from the collections of Yale's Peabody Museum of
Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History, the University of
California Museum of Paleontology, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Fossil
birds from the Cretaceous are extremely rare, Longrich said, because bird
bones are so light and fragile that they are easily damaged or swept away
in streams. "The birds that had been discovered hadn't really been
studied in a rigorous way," Longrich said. "We took a much more
detailed look at the relationships between these bones and these birds than
anyone had done before."
Longrich
believes a small fraction of the Cretaceous bird species survived the
impact, giving rise to today's birds. The birds he examined showed much
more diversity than had yet been seen in birds from the late Cretaceous,
ranging in size from that of a starling up to a small goose. Some had long
beaks full of teeth. Yet modern birds are very different from those that
existed during the late Cretaceous, Longrich said. For instance, today's
birds have developed a much wider range of specialized features and
behaviors, from penguins to hummingbirds to flamingoes, while the primitive
birds would have occupied a narrower range of ecological niches.
"The
basic bird design was in place, but all of the specialized features
developed after the mass extinction, when birds sort of re-evolved with all
the diversity they display today," Longrich said. "It's similar
to what happened with mammals after the age of the dinosaurs."
Longrich adds that this study is not the first to suggest that archaic
birds went extinct abruptly. "There's been growing evidence that these
birds were wiped out at the same time as the dinosaurs," Longrich
said. "But this new evidence effectively closes the book on the
debate." Other authors of the
paper include Tim Tokaryk (Royal Saskatchewan Museum) and Daniel Field
(Yale University).
Story
Source: The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by
ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Yale University.
The
bones are from the 17 species of Cretaceous birds which went extinct around
the time of the dinosaurs. The two on the far left are foot bones and the
rest are shoulder bones. (Credit: Courtesy Yale University)
****************
Jewelry
Bench Tips
Brad Smith
PICKLE PROBLEMS
Dropping
a hot item into the pickle after soldering causes a hiss that sends small
droplets of the acid pickle into the air.
This will rust your nearby tools and can't be all that good to
breathe either. My solution is to use a coffee cup of water next to my
solder block to quench the piece before dropping it in the pickle.
Also,
a hot pickle pot gives off fumes that bother me in my home workshop. I get
around that by using my pickle cold.
I mix it a little stronger than with a hot pot so that it works
about as quickly. I keep it in a
large-mouth peanut butter bottle and cap it off whenever I'm done
using it.
MODIFY TOOLS FOR
PRONG SETTING
When
setting stones in a prong mount avoid slipping by grinding a groove in the
face of your prong pusher or one jaw of your flat-nose pliers. Easiest way
to cut the slot on the pusher is with a file, and the easiest way to cut
the slot on your pliers is with a cutoff wheel in the Foredom.
More
Bench Tips by Brad Smith are at Yahoogroups.com/group/BenchTips/
or Facebook.com/BenchTips/
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Denver
Gem & Mineral Show 2011 Winners
Winners in the
Special Competitions
Richard
M. Pearl Trophy: Richard Tripp (berthierite, Romania)
Best of Species
Trophies:
Thumbnail
– Paula Presmyk (fluorite cubes, Dal’negorsk, Russia)
Miniature
– Ron and Judy Knoshaug (ilvaite, Dal’negorsk, Russia)
Cabinet
– Kent Havens (calcite with quartz, Nikolaevskiy Mine, Dal’negorsk, Russia)
Oversize
Cabinet – Larry Havens (milky quartz, Bor Quarry, Dal’negorsk, Russia)
Lapidary/Jewelry
– Jody Sawdo (necklace of pyritized ammonite and fresh water pearls)
Best
Fossil: Jeff Shimon (trilobite)
Prospector’s
Trophy: Tim Hi l lsten (albite on quartz, Teller County, Colorado)
Junior
Prospector’s Trophy – Ethan Steffen (smoky quartz on goethite, Teller
County, Colorado)
C.
E. “Shorty” Withers Trophy: Sue and Al Liebetrau (Russian Minerals)
Winners of
Competitive Exhibits:
Best
Museum Trophy: Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
Individual
Competitive Case Trophies:
Thumbnail
Minerals, Any Type – Nick North (Advanced )
Minerals,
Open Class – Ethan Steffen (Junior – Minerals from Missouri)
Thumbnail
Minerals, One Series/One Species – Barbara Sky (Master – quartz)
Educational,
General Audience Concept – Richard Tripp (Advanced -- pyrite)
Minerals,
One Country – Larry Havens (Master – Russian Minerals)
Miniature
Minerals, Any Type – Ron and Judy Knoshaug (Advanced)
Carvings,
Soft Stone – Denver Gem and Mineral Guild (steatite carvings)
Club
Prospector Trophy: Colorado Mineral Society
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Upcoming
Events
Pete Modreski
Wed.,
Nov. 9, 4 p.m., CU Boulder Geological Sciences Colloquium, The evolution of
photosynthesis and the rise of oxygen, by Woodward Fischer, Cal Tech.
Benson Earth Science Building, Room 180, CU campus, Boulder CO. All are
welcome; refreshments will be served outside Benson Room 380 at 3:30 p.m.
For a complete schedule of the weekly colloquium see
http://www.colorado.edu/GeolSci/colloquium.htm
Wed.,
Nov. 9, 7 p.m. at Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Digital Earth:
Explore the World from Space; special guest Vance Howard, founder of
Artists By Nature, joins geologist Bob Raynolds and space scientist Ka Chun
Yu to show immersive, 360-degree panoramas of the Grand Canyon using Gates
Planetarium's stunning digital projection system. Experience new footage
illustrating the formation of the canyon and what's believed to be some of
the oldest rock art in the United States, discuss challenges facing wild
rivers across the globe, and enjoy a special screening of an award-winning
short film utilizing spherical photography, Crossing Worlds, created by
Greg Downing and Eric Hanson of xRez Studio. Gates Planetarium. $8 member,
$10 nonmember; see http://www.dmns.org/learn/adults/after-hours
Fri.,
Nov. 11, Rock Out For the Ridge! Join the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge for
their annual fundraiser, Rock Out For the Ridge! Starting at 7 p.m. at the Ship Rock Grille at the Red Rocks
Visitor Center, with dinner, live music, a presentation about Mesozoic
Crocodiles, a live auction and a silent auction, and awards presentations.
See www.dinoridge.org for full
information about making reservations.
Please note! Dinosaur Ridge remains open to visitors throughout the
winter. Winter hours, starting Nov.
1, will be: Dinosaur Ridge Trail (free any time; $4 charge for optional bus
ride, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.); Visitors Center & Gift Shop (free, 9 a.m. - 4
p.m., 10-4 Sundays); indoor Trek Through Time exhibit ($1, open 10-3); and
outdoor Triceratops Trail in Golden (free, any time). See www.dinoridge.org or call
303-697-3466.
Sat.-Sun.,
Nov. 12-13, New Mexico Mineral Symposium, sponsored by the New Mexico Tech
Mineralogical Museum, Socorro, New Mexico.
See http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/museum/minsymp/home.cfm and http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/fieldguides/rockhound/home.html.
Wed.,
Nov. 16, 7 p.m. at Denver Museum of Nature and Science, How to Clone a
Mammoth, Is it possible? Acclaimed DNA researcher Beth Shapiro will take
you behind the headlines and explain the difficulties involved in cloning a
mammoth from frozen DNA samples. She'll also share other compelling stories
from her studies, such as how mosquitoes can possibly live in the arctic,
how she figured out the flightless dodo bird is related to the pigeon, and
why Jurassic Park couldn't work. Shapiro is a member of the Museum's
Snowmastodon Project Science Team and a National Geographic Emerging
Explorer. Ricketson Auditorium, $12 member, $15 nonmember; see
http://www.dmns.org/learn/adults/after-hours.
November
19 (Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.)
Littleton Gem and Mineral Club Annual Silent Auction at Columbine
Hills Church, 9700 Old Coal Mine Avenue, Littleton. Set-up will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the
auction beginning at noon. Non-members are asked to not bring more than 12
specimens to sell. The club retains 20% of the selling price. The verbal
auction and a short business meeting will start at 12:30 p.m. There will be minerals, gems, jewelry,
fossils, books, and much more available for bidding at the silent auction.
Food and drinks will be provided by the club members. For more information
please email info@littletongemandmineralclub.com or call (303) 840-1177.
Sat.
& Sun., Nov. 19 - 20, Hands of Spirit's 14th Annual Holiday Mineral and
Jewelry Open House from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. You're sure to find an incredible
selection of the finest crystal and mineral specimens, stone carvings, and
a lovely selection of jewelry.
Refreshments will be served. Call 303-541-9727 for directions and
further information. www.handsofspirit.com
Mon.,
Nov. 28, The Denver Mining Club is an informa group that meets every
Monday, 11:30-1:00 at the Country Buffet, 8100 W. Crestline Ave. (SE corner
at Wadsworth), Littleton. There is
no charge to attend but purchase of a buffet lunch is required at the
restaurant. Visitors are always welcome!
The program for Nov. 28 sounds particularly interesting: Exploration
for Gold in the Precambrian of Egypt: Where Did the Pharaohs’ Treasures
Come From?, by Dr. Larry James. For
a list of their upcoming talks see http://www.denverminingclub.org/ or
email Dick Beach, rabeach.66@alum.mines.edu, to be put on
their monthly email list.
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